The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-02
The Alaska Appropriation.

of Alaska, has been very interesting. Several
important questions have been discussed, and
q variety of statements and new suggestions
In reference to the new territory have bjen
elioited. One OF the prominent questions at
issue is Che right of the House to refuse an
appropriation to carry out treaty stipula-
tion. This point has never been definitely
settled. On the cne hand the Constitution
declares that treaties negotiated by the Exc
outive and ratified by the Senate shall
be deemed the fundamental law Of
the land, and on the other that
all bills appropriating money must originate in
the House of Representatives. To reconcile
this apparent contradiction one member has
proposed that a rule be established requiring
that no purchase of foreign territory shall
hereafter be made unless an act of Congress,
previously passed, authorizes the necessary
appropriation. But it is evident that such
public declaration of the intentions of the
country would in many cases thwart the efforts
of American diplomats to make new acquisi-
tions, by awakening the jealous hostility Of
rival powers. AS no new rule passed by one
Congress can be permanently binding, it Is
probably best to leave the question open as at
present, so that it may be determined
by the peculiar circumstances attend
ing each negotiation. There Is GER
tainly an implied obligation on the
part of the House to make such appropriations
as are required by treaty stipulations. The
President and Senate are duly authorized
agents of the American people to conduct all
transactions with foreign nations, and the
House should not refuse, except for vital rea-
sons, to appropriate any reasonable sum re-
quisite to insure full compliance with treaties
solemnly enacted. At the same time, the
power OF the House to control the public purse
should not be entirely surrendered to any
power. If MIR. Seward and the Senate had
agreed to give to Russia hundred millions in
coin for Alaska, instead Of seven millions, the
House should, and undoubtedly would, in
Justice to a tax burdened people, have refused
to advance 30 large sum.
AS to the real value of Alaska, the state
msnts and cODjectures are of the most CONTRA
diotory character. On the one hand, it is
deoried as absolutely worthless. Mr.. Wash
burne endeavors to confne the advantages this
nation would derive to "the right to gov
erning fifty or sixty thousand miserable
ssvages," at an annual expense of several
millions of dollars; and one of his best points
in opposition to the appropriation was OBJ
tanned from a report of Russian official,
which stated, in reply to inquiries of the
American Minister at st. Petersburg, in re-
gard to the land system of Alaska, that "the
and was perfectly barren, and unfit either for
agricultural or grazing purposes, and there
fore there was no reason for endeav-
oring to extend the limits of pro-
perty in land; that the permanent fogs
and dampness of Alaska, and the want of solar
heat and light, would make it impossible even
TO provide hay for cattle.'' This is certainly
far from a fiatteripg description; but few GEN.
turies ago the bleak coast of New England was
held in no higher esteem, and its early inhab-
itants relied for support far more upon the
productiveness of the adjacent fisheries than
upon the agricultural wealth of their
stubborn soil. Few persons would have
dreamed twenty years ago that California,
which attracted emigration chiefly, if not
exclusively by her mineral wealth, would
become one Of the richest agricultural States
of the Union, and so little is positively known
of the actual capacities of Alaska, that trial
and experience alone can determine what
sources of wealth may be developed within
her boundaries. AS an offset to Mr.. Wash
burne's deprecatory remarks, Mr.. Mungen
stated that he was authorized to propose on
the part Of company of gentlemen to pay
into the treasury within twenty days the sum
of ten millions of dollars in gold for a fee
simple title to Alaska, leaving the eminent
domain in the possession of the United States
Government, and it is by no means impro
bable that in the end it will prove to be worth
a much greater sum than Russia is to receive
for il.
Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, in advocating the
appropriation, dwelt mainly upon the value
of the fisheries, and the Importance of secur
ing proper depots for the hardy sons of Nan
tuoket in the northern waters of the Pacific
Hs also oontended that on "every ole of tn,
hundred Aleutian islands, as we'll as on tn,
main peninsula of Alaska there was to b
found the best and toughest ship timber il
the vorld'' as well as the Sweetest pasture,
and a climate so modified by salubriou
breeze and boiling springs as to make thi
new region Zone of the most comfortabl
places to live in" As a climax to his eulog
Of the value of the Alaska fishing grounds, h
related Ash story, which is thus reported |