The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-15
The Alaska APPROPRIATION.


The House Of Representatives yesterday, by
vote of ia to AZ, passed the Alaska appro
pristion bill, and the Senate will, OF course,
tavor the payment of the sum required by the
treaty it ratified. The House, however, was
determined that Mr.. Seward should distinctly
understand that it does not approve Of the in
discriminate purchase of all contiguous pos
sessions that are in the market, and proviso
was added to the bill, declaring for the informa-
tioD of all whom it may concern, that no foreign
territory shall be bought, hereafter, before the
necessary appropriation is made. 1t is doubt
ful whether this proviso is legally binding, but
it may nevertheless serve a useful purpose by
its formal notification that the popular branch
of Congress has no disposition to surrender its
right to control the purse strings of the nation.
Either thro ugh accident or design the Alaska
affair had assumed such position that it
would have been highly discredtable to longer
withhold from Russia the purchase-money.
The nation was committed not only by the
ratification of the treaty but by the actual
transfer of the new territory, and there was
no honorable alternative but to make the best
Alaska, and of its capacities for usefulness,
that it would be hazardous to predict its des-
tiny. A great impetus will no doubt be given
to the development of its resources by the
change of its ownership, and if it offers any
real inducements to miners, farmers, fisher
men, or fur companies, the adventurous oiti-
zens of the United States will not be slow to
discover and improve them. If permanent
settlements Of any considerable size are esta-
blished, it is natural to anticipate that strong
desire to acquire the intervening territory
of British Columbia will spring up, and there
will be increased danger of colliIions with
Great Britain on the northwestern frontier, if
this feeling is not gratifed. The British states
men have but little disposition to surrender
peacefully their possessions on the Pacific.
Repeated evidence is given in the discussions
of Parliament of the importance they attach
to this portion of their North American domi-
Mons. They are keenly alive to the mighty
influence the completion of the Pacific Rail-
ways may exercise upon the commerce
of the world, and they would be 10th to
surrender their control of the route over
which they hope to establish eventually
competing line. Great Britain also owns an
immense amount of territory north of
Minnesota and Dacotah, which is said to be
we'll adapted to agricultural purposes, and she
proposes to attract to this region, at no distant
period, large proportion of the redundant
population that immgrates from the United
Kingdom. The report presented to the House
Of Representatives by the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, in recommending the appro-
priation, stated that the acquisition of Alaska
would ''tend largely, directly, strongly and
Immediately to the consolidation of the North
ern Pacific coast line as an American posses
sion," and that it would enclose "British
Columbia within American Jurisdiction
south, west and north" This statement
must be quite as disagreeable to the
statesmen of Great Britain as it is
pleasing to those Americans who delight in
territorial acquisitions, and it will not be at
all surprising if John Bull should take occa-
Northwest. Declarations have recently been
made in Parliament to the effect that in no
event would British Columbia ever be peace
fully surrendered to the United States, but it
is not altogether impossible that a pressing
and earnest demand for the adjustment of the
Alabama claims may eventually lead to a
transfer of the disputed territory to this ooun-
try as convenient and graceful mode of
atoning for British injustice.
THE Richmond (Virginia) Examiner, a radi-