Andrew Johnson Finalizes the Alaska Purchase

The only document of Johnson relating to the Alaska purchase we can find having reached the market

Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States in 1859, believing the United States would off-set the designs of Russia’s greatest rival in the Pacific, Great Britain. The looming U.S. Civil War delayed the sale, but after the war, Secretary of State William H. Seward quickly took up a renewed Russian offer, and agreed to a proposal from Russian Minister in Washington, Edouard de Stoeckl, to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. The treaty was signed on March 30, 1867. Reactions to the purchase in the United States were mostly positive, but decidedly mixed, with some opponents calling it “Seward’s Folly”, and many others praising the move for weakening both the UK and Russia as rivals to American commercial expansion in the Pacific region.

The U.S. Senate approved the treaty of purchase on April 9, and President Andrew Johnson signed it on May 28. Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867. This purchase ended Russia’s presence in North America and ensured U.S. access to the Pacific northern rim. It added nearly 600 million square miles to the territory of the United States. But, oddly, the Alaska Territory was not immediately paid for, leaving the final status somewhat in limbo.

Though the House ordered the money released to Russia in July of 1868, various impediments (perhaps including residual opposition) held up the funds, and led to Russian complaints that the money was not distributed promptly. It was not until September 16, 1868, that Russia received the last of its funds and the purchase of Alaska was completed.

On the 23rd of September, a week after the final distribution of funds, Andrew Johnson wrote to congratulate the Tsar Alexander II on finalizing the deal.

Document signed, Washington, September 23, 1868, ordering the Secretary of State to affix the seal of the United States to “the envelope of my letter to the Emperor of Russia (congratulation)”.

For three decades after its purchase the United States paid little attention to Alaska, which was governed under military, naval, or Treasury rule; or, at times, no visible rule at all. Seeking a way to impose U.S. mining laws, the United States constituted a civil government in 1884. Skeptics had who dubbed the purchase of Alaska “Seward’s Folly” were proven wrong, and the former Secretary of State was vindicated, when a major gold deposit was discovered in the Yukon in 1896, and Alaska became the gateway to the Klondike gold fields. The strategic importance of Alaska was finally recognized in World War II. Alaska became a state on January 3, 1959.