The Russian Purchase

FROM 1867

Every Sunday we are looking back at editorials from our predecessor newspaper, The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle, in 1867.

The March purchase of Alaska by the United States, signed by Secretary of State William Seward, was still top of mind in Victoria, as indicated by a report headlined “All about the Russian Purchase.”

Many of the American journals are making merry over the recent acquisition of Russia America. The illustrated papers are full of the broadest caricatures, while good-humoured jokes abound about Mr. Seward’s passion for icebergs and walruses … .

The Chicago Tribune gives the following under the head of “Notices of Amusement,” from the (prospective) Sitka Daily Muskrat: “The Hanlon Brothers opened their unique entertainment last evening to an audience composed of the elite of our population. Their performances on the Arctic Circle, and balancing on the extremity of the North Pole, were very graceful and beautiful.

“Showers of tallow candles were thrown upon the stage, and the daring athletes retired amid thunders of applause. We are requested to announce that their agent has made arrangements to illuminate the Ice Palace with the Aurora Borealis tomorrow evening.”

All sorts of names are suggested for the new purchase — Sitka, Alaska, Knitchpak — while the Detroit Advertiser proposes to dub it “Walrussia.”

The London Times is by no means pleased with the cession. It argues that the Russians were harmless neighbours to their Pacific Colonies, because they lacked enterprise and the spirit of adventure.

The Americans, possessing these qualities in an eminent degree, and fond of dominion and aggressive by nature, may succeed in developing something even in so inhospitable a country as this, and will soon be looking longingly toward British Columbia, in order to make their Pacific possessions continuous.

The French are said to be gratified with the result, just because the English don’t like it. Many, however, look upon it as another piece of Napoleon’s ill-luck , another evidence of his bungling foreign policy; “for it indicates even closer relations than before, with a prospective bearing upon the Eastern and other European questions, between Russia and the United States, both the natural allies of France, and both alienated by his mistaken policy.”

The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle, June 20, 1867