Alaska State Library –
Historical Collections
ASL-F907.S38-1869
[cover]
Our North
Pacific States.
______________________________
SPEECHES
OF
WILLIAM h. sEWARD,
IN
aLASKA, VANCOUVER'S, AND OREGON,
AUGUST, 1869.
_____._____
wASHINGTON, D.C.:
PHILP & SOLOMONS.
1869
(page break)
(letter pasted into front of
pamphlet)
Hon James Wickersham.
Washington D.C.
My dear Sir. Your letter
of April 11th has
been received.
You will find in Vol 3.
of
my "Life and Letters of
William
H. Seward"- page 415, to
page
434 - the story of my fathers
trip to Alaska in the
summer
of 1869. His speech to the
citizens of Sitka delivered
at the Lutheran Church August
12th
? also mentioned on page
431 & 432.
On page 392 of the
[page break]
same volume you will
find
his testimony before the
Investigating Committee of
the
House of Representatives.
upon the Alaska Purchase.
You will also find
the Sitka speech reported in
full on page 559 of the 5th
of
"Sewards Works"
published by
Houghton, Mufflin [Mifflin]
& Co of
Boston. - also his speech at
Victoria in August 1869
on
the North Pacific Coast page
569, and his speech in
Mexico.
I think there is no
pamphlet edition of the
Sitka speech. Neither reporters
nor news papers existed then
[page break]
in Alaska. I was with him on
the "Active" and
helped him prepare
the notes of his speech which
I
brought to San Francisco and
gave
to the newspapers there.
Very Truly yours
Frederick Seward
Montrose
on the Hudson
April 14th 1910,
Of course you will find
both works in the
Congressional
Library.
[page break]
[title page]
ALASKA.
SPEECH
OF
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
AT
SITKA, AUGUST 12, 1869
wASHINGTON, D.C.:
PHILP & SOLOMONS.
1869
[page break]
[page 3]
Citizens of Alaska,
fellow-citizens of the United States:
You have pressed me to meet
you in public assembly
once before I leave Alaska.
It would be sheer affecta-
tion to pretend to doubt your
sincerity in making this
request, and capriciously
ungrateful to refuse it, after
having received so many and
varied hospitalities from
all sorts and conditions of
men. It is not an easy task,
however, to speak in a manner
worthy of your consid-
eration, while I am living
constantly on ship-board, as
you all know, and am occupied
intently in searching out
whatever is sublime, or
beautiful, or peculiar, or use-
ful. On the other hand, it is
altogether natural on your
part to say, "You have looked
upon Alaska, what do
you think of it ?"
Unhappily I have seen too little of
Alaska to answer the question
satisfactorily. The en-
tire coast line of the United
States, exclusive of Alaska,
is 10,000 miles, while the
coast line of Alaska alone,
including the islands, is
26,000 miles. The portion of
the Territory which lies east
of the peninsula, includ-
ing islands, is 120 miles
wide ; the western portion,
including Aleutian islands,
expands to a breadth of
2,200 miles. The entire land
area, including islands,
is 577,390 statute square
miles. We should think a for-
eigner very presumptuous who
should presume to give
the world an opinion of the
whole of the United States
of America, after he had
merely looked in from his
steamer at Plymouth and
Boston harbor, or had ran up
the Hudson river to the
Highlands, or had ascended the
[page break]
4
Delaware to Trenton, or the
James river to Richmond,
or the Mississippi no farther
than Memphis. My ob-
servation thus far has hardly
been more comprehen-
sive. I entered the Territory
of Alaska at the Port-
land canal, made my way
through the narrow passages
of the Prince of Wales
archipelago; thence through
Peril and Chatham straits and
Lynn channel, and up
the Chilcat river to the base
of Fairweather, from
which latter place I have
returned through Clarence
straits, to sojourn a few
days in your beautiful bay,
under the shadows of the Baranoff
hills and Mount
Edgecombe. Limited, however,
as my opportunities
have been, I will, without
further apology, give you
the impressions I have
received.
Of course I speak first of
the skies of Alaska. It
seems to be assumed in the
case of Alaska that a coun-
try which extends through 58
degrees of longitude,
and embraces portions as well
of the arctic as of the
temperate zone, unlike all
other regions so situated,
has not several climates, but
only one. The weather
of this one broad climate of
Alaska is severely criti-
cised in outside circles for
being too wet and too cold.
Never the less it must be a
fastidious person who com-
plains of climates in which,
while the eagle delights to
soar, the humming-bird does
not disdain to flutter. I
shall speak only of the
particular climate here which I
know.
My visit here happens to fall
within the month
of August. Not only have the
skies been sufficiently
bright and serene to give me
a perfect view, under the
60th parallel, of the total
eclipse of the sun, and of the
evening star at the time of
the sun’s obscuration, but
I have also enjoyed more
clear than there have been
cloudy days, and in the early
mornings and in the late
[page break]
5
evenings peculiar to the
season I have lost myself in
admiration of skies adorned
with sapphire and gold as
richly as those which are
reflected by the Mediterra-
nean. Of all the moonlights
in the world commend
me to those which light up
the archipelago of the
North Pacific ocean. Fogs
have sometimes detained
me longer on the Hudson and
on Long Island sound
than now on the waters of the
North Pacific. In say-
ing this, I do not mean to
say that rain and fog are
unfrequent here. The Russian
pilot, George, whom
you all know, expressed my
conviction on this matter
exactly when he said to me, “Oh,
yes, Mr. Seward,
we do have changeable weather
here sometimes, as they
do in the other States.”
I might amend the expres-
sion by adding, the weather
here is only a little more
changeable. It must be
confessed at least that it is an
honest climate, for it makes
no pretensions to con-
stancy. If, however, you have
fewer bright sunrises
and glowing sunsets than
southern latitudes enjoy, you
are favored on the other hand
with more frequent and
more magnificent displays of
the aurora and the rain-
bow. The thermometer tells
the whole case when it
reports that the summer is
colder and the winter is
warmer in Alaska than in New
York and Washington.
It results from the nature of
such a climate that the
earth prefers to support the
fir, the spruce, the pine,
the hemlock, and other
evergreens, rather than decid-
uous trees, and to furnish
grasses and esculent roots,
rather than the cereals of
drier and hotter climates. I
have mingled freely with the
multifarious population—
the Tongass, the Stickeens.
the Cakes, the Hydahs, the
Sitkas, the Kootznoos, and
the Chilcats, as well as with
the traders, the soldiers,
the seamen, and the settlers
of various nationalities,
English, Swedish, Russian, and
[page break]
6
American—and I have seen all
around me only persons
enjoying robust and exuberant
health. Manhood of
every race and condition
everywhere exhibits activity
and energy, while infancy
seems exempt from disease
and age relieved from pain.
It is next in order to speak
of the rivers and seas of
Alaska. The rivers are broad,
shallow, and rapid.
while the seas are deep but
tranquil. Mr. Sumner, in
his elaborate and magnificent
oration, although he
spake only from historical
accounts, has not exagge-
rated—no man can
exaggerate—the marine treasures
of the Territory. Beside the
whale, which everywhere
and at all times is seen
enjoying his robust exercise,
and the sea-otter, the
fur-seal, the hair-seal, and the
walrus, found in the waters
which embosom the
western islands, those waters
as well as the seas of
the eastern archipelago are
found teeming with the
salmon, cod, and other fishes
adapted to the support
of human and animal life.
Indeed, what I have seen
here has almost made me a
convert to the theory of
some naturalists, that the
waters of the globe are filled
with stores for the
sustenance of animal life surpassing
the available productions of
the land.
It must be remembered that the
coast range of moun-
tains, which begins in
Mexico, is continued into the
Territory, and invades the
seas of Alaska. Hence it
is that in the islands and on
the mainland, so far as I
have explored it, we find
ourselves everywhere in the
immediate presence of black
hills, or foot-hills, as they
are variously called, and
that these foot-hills are over-
topped by ridges of
snow-capped mountains. These
snow-capped mountains are
manifestly of volcanic
origin, and they have been
subjected, through an indef-
inite period, to atmospheric
abrasion and disintegration.
[page break]
7
Hence they have assumed all
conceivable shapes and
forms. In some places they
are serrated into sharp,
angular peaks, and in other
places they appear archi-
tecturally arranged, so as to
present cloud-capped cas-
tles, towers, domes, and
minarets. The mountain sides
are furrowed with deep and
straight ravines, down
which the thawing fields of
ice and snow are precip-
itated, generally in the
month of May, with such a
vehemence as to have produced
in every valley im-
mense level plains of
intervale land. These plains, as
well as the sides of the
mountains, almost to the sum-
mits, are covered with
forests so dense and dark as to
be impenetrable, except to
wild beasts and savage
huntsmen. On the lowest
intervale land the cotton-
wood grows. It seems to be the species of poplar
which is known in the
Atlantic States as the Balm of
Gilead, and which is dwarfed
on the Rocky Mountain.
Here it takes on such large
dimensions, that the Indian
shapes out of a single trunk
even his great war canoe
which safely bears over the
deepest waters a phalanx
of sixty warriors. These
imposing trees always appear
to rise out of a jungle of
elder, alder, crab-apple, and
other fruit-bearing shrubs
and bushes. The short and
slender birch, which,
sparsely scattered, marks the
verge of vegetation in
Labrador, has not yet been
reached by the explorers of
Alaska. The birch tree
sometimes appears here upon
the river side, upon the
level next above the home of
the cottonwood, and is
generally found a comely and
stately tree. The forests
of Alaska, however, consist
mainly neither of shrubs,
nor of the birch, nor of the
cottonwood, but, as I have
already intimated, of the
pine, the cedar, the cypress,
the spruce, the fir, the
larch, and the hemlock. These
forests begin almost at the
waters edge, and they rise
[page break]
8
with regular gradation to a
height of two thousand feet.
The trees, nowhere dwarfed or
diminutive, attain the
highest dimensions in sunny
exposures in the deeper
canons or gorges of the
mountains. The cedar, some-
times called the yellow
cedar, and sometimes the fra-
grant cedar, was long ago imported
into China as an
ornamental wood; and it now furnishes
the majestic
beams and pillars with which
the richer and more am-
bitious native chief delights
to construct his rude but
spacious hall or palatial
residence, and upon which he
carves in rude symbolical
imagery the heraldry of his
tribe and achievements of his
nation. No beam, or pil-
lar, or spar, or mast, or
plank is ever required in either
the land or the naval
architecture of any civilized State
greater in length and width
than the trees which can
be hewn down on the coasts of
the islands and rivers
here, and conveyed directly
thence by navigation. A
few gardens, fields, and
meadows, have been attempted
by natives in some of the settlements,
and by soldiers
at the military posts, with
most encouraging results.
Nor must we forget that the
native grasses, ripening
late in a humid climate,
preserve their nutritive prop-
erties, though exposed, while
the climate is so mild
that cattle and horses
require but slight provision of
shelter during the winter.
Such is the island and coast
portion of Eastern
Alaska. Kla-kautch, the Chilcat,
who is known and
feared by the Indians
throughout the whole Territory,
and who is a very intelligent
chief, informs me, that
beyond the mountain range,
which intervenes between
tlie Chilcat and the Youkon
rivers, you descend into a
plain unbroken by hills or
mountains, very fertile, in
a genial climate, and as far
as he could learn, of
boundless extent. We have
similar information from
[page break]
9
those who have traversed the
interior from the shore
of the Portland canal to the
upper branches of the
Youkon. We have reason,
therefore, to believe that
beyond the coast range of mountains
in Alaska we
shall find an extension of
the rich and habitable valley
lands of Oregon, Washington
Territory, and British
Columbia.
After what I have already
said, I may excuse myself
from expatiating on the animal
productions of the for-
est. The elk and the deer are
so plenty as to be under-
valued for food or skins, by
natives as well as strangers.
The bear of many
families—black, grizzly, and cinna-
mon ; the mountain sheep,
inestimable for his fleece;
the wolf, the fox, the
beaver, the otter, the mink, the
raccoon, the marten, the
ermine; the squirrel—gray,
black, brown, and flying, are
among the land fur-bear-
ing animals. The furs thus
found here have been the
chief element, for more than
a hundred years, of the
profitable commerce of the
Hudson's Bay Company,
whose mere possessory
privileges seem, even at this
late day, too costly to find
a ready purchaser. This
fur-trade, together with the
sea fur-trade within the
Territory, were the sole
basis alike of Russian com-
merce and empire on this
continent. This commerce
was so large and important as
to induce the Govern-
ments of Russia and China to
build and maintain a
town for carrying on its
exchanges in Tartary on the
border of the two empires. It
is well understood that
the supply of furs in Alaska
has not diminished, while
the demand for them in China
and elsewhere has im-
mensely increased.
I fear that we must confess
to a failure of ice as an
element of territorial
wealth, at least as far as this
immediate region is
concerned. I find that the Rus-
[page break]
10
sian American Company, whose
monopoly was abol-
ished by the treaty of
acquisition, depended for ice
exclusively upon the small
lake or natural pond which
furnishes the power for your
saw-mill in this town,
and that this dependence has
now failed by reason of
the increasing mildness of
the winter. The California
Ice Company are now trying
the small lakes of Kodiac,
and certainly I wish them
success. I think it is not
yet ascertained whether
glacier ice is pure and practi-
cal for commerce. If it is,
the world may be supplied
from the glaciers, which,
suspended from the region of
the clouds, stand forth in
the majesty of ever-wasting
and ever-renewed translucent
mountains upon the
banks of the Stickeen and Chilcat
rivers and the shores
of Cross sound.
Alaska has been as yet but
imperfectly explored.
But enough is known to assure
us that it possesses
treasures of what are called
the baser ores equal to
those of any other region of
the continent. We have
Copper island and Copper
river, so named as the places
where the natives, before the
period of the Russian
discovery, had procured the
pure metal from which
they fabricated instruments
of war and legendery
shields. In regard to iron,
the question seems to be
not where it can be found,
but whether there is any
place where it does not exist.
Mr. Davidson, of the
Coast Survey, invited me to
go up to him at the sta-
tion he had taken up the
Chilcat river to make his
observations of the eclipse,
by writing me that he had
discovered an iron mountain
there. When I came
there I found that, very
properly, he had been study-
ing the heavens so busily,
that he had but cursorily
examined the earth under his
feet; that it was not a
single iron mountain he had
discovered, but a range of
[page break]
11
hills, the very dust of which
adheres to the magnet,
while the range itself, two
thousand feet high, extends
along the east bank of the
river thirty miles. Lime-
stone and marble crop out on
the banks of the same
river and in many other
places. Coal-beds, accessible
to navigation, are found at Kootznoo.
It is said, how-
ever, that the concentrated
resin which the mineral
contains renders it too
inflammable to be safely used
by steamers. In any case, it
would seem calculated to
supply the fuel requisite for
the manufacture of iron.
What seems to be excellent cannel
coal is also found
in the Prince of Wales
archipelago. There are also
mines at Cook’s inlet. Placer
and quartz gold mining
is pursued under many social
disadvantages upon the
Stickeen and elsewhere, with
a degree of success which,
while it does not warrant us
in assigning a superiority
in that respect to the
Territory, does nevertheless war-
rant us in regarding gold
mining as an established and
reliable
resource.
It would argue inexcusable
insensibility if I should
fail to speak of the scenery
which, in the course of my
voyage, has seemed to pass
like a varied and magnifi-
cent panorama before me. The
exhibition did not,
indeed, open within the
Territory. It broke upon me
first when I had passed Cape
Flattery and entered the
Straits of Fuca, which
separate British Columbia from
Washington Territory. It
widened as I passed along
the shore of Puget Sound,
expanded in the waters
which divide Vancouver from
the continent, and finally
spread itself out into a
magnificent archipelago, stretch-
ing through the entire Gulf
of Alaska, and closing un-
der the shade of Mounts Fairweather
and. St. Elias.
Nature has furnished to this
majestic picture the only
suitable border which could
be conceived, by lifting the
[page break]
12
coast range mountains to an
exalted height, and cloth-,
ins them with eternal snows
and crystalline glaciers.
It remains only to speak of
man and of society in
Alaska. Until the present
moment the country has
been exclusively inhabited
and occupied by some thirty
or more Indian tribes. I
incline to doubt the popular
classification of these
tribes, upon the assumption that
they have descended from
diverse races. Climate and
other circumstances have
indeed produced some differ-
ences of manners and customs
between the Aleuts,
the Koloschians, and the
interior continental tribes.
But all of them are
manifestly of Mongol origin. Al-
though they have preserved no
common traditions, all
alike indulge in tastes, wear
a physiognomy, and are
imbued with sentiments
peculiarly noticed in Japan
and China. Savage
communities, no less than civilized
nations, require space for
subsistence, whether they
depend for it upon the land
or upon the sea—in savage
communities especially; and
increase of population dis-
proportioned to the supplies
of the country occupied
necessitates subdivision and
remote colonization. Op-
pression and cruelty occur
even more frequently among
barbarians than among
civilized men. Nor are ambi-
tion and faction less
inherent in the one condition than
in the other. From these
causes it has happened that
the 25,000 Indians in Alaska
are found permanently
divided into so many
insignificant nations. These na-
tions are jealous, ambitious,
and violent; could in no
case exist long in the same
region without mutually af-
fording what, in every case,
to each party, seems just
cause of war. War between
savages becomes the private
cause of the several families
which are afflicted with the
loss of their members. Such a
war can never be composed
until each family which has suffered
receives an indem-
[page break]
13
nitv in blankets, adjusted
according to an imaginary
tariff, or, in the failure of
such compensation, secures
the death of one or more
enemies as an atonement for
the injury it has sustained.
The enemy captured,
whether by superior force or stategy,
either receives
no quarter, or submits for
himself and his progeny to
perpetual slavery. It has
thus happened that the In-
dian tribes of Alaska have
never either confederated
or formed permanent alliances,
and that even at this
late day, in the presence of
superior power exercised
by the United States
Government, they live in regard
to each other in a state of
enforced and doubtful truce.
It is manifest that, under
these circumstances, they
must steadily decline in
numbers, and unhappily this
decline is accelerated by
their borrowing ruinous vices
from the white man. Such as
the natives of Alaska
are, they are, nevertheless,
in a practical sense, the
only laborers at present in
the Territory. The white
man comes amongst them from
London, from St. Pe-
tersburg, from Boston, from
New York, from San
Francisco, and from Victoria,
not to fish (if we except
alone the whale fishery) or
to hunt, but simply to buy
what fish and what peltries,
ice, wood, lumber, and
coal, the Indians have
secured under the superintend-
ence of temporary agents or
factors. When we con-
sider how greatly most of the
tribes are reduced in
numbers, and how precarious
their vocations are, we
shall cease to regard them as
indolent or incapable,
and, on the contrary, we
shall more deeply regret than
ever before, that a people so
gifted by nature, so vig-
orous and energetic, and
withal so docile and gentle
in their intercourse with the
white man, can neither be
preserved as a distinct
social community, nor incorpo-
rated into our society. The
Indian tribes will do here
[page break]
14
as they seem to have done in "Washington
Territory
and British Columbia : they
will merely serve the turn
until civilized white men
come.
You, the citizens of Sitka,
are the pioneers, the
advanced guard, of the future
population of Alaska;
and you naturally ask when,
from whence, and how
soon, reinforcements shall come,
and what are the signs
and guaranties of their
coming? This question, with
all its minute and searching
interrogations, has been
asked by the pioneers of
every State and Territory of
which the American Union is
now composed; and the
history of those States and
Territories furnishes the
complete, conclusive, and
satisfactory answer. Emi-
grants go to every infant
State and Territory in obe-
dience to the great natural
law that obliges needy men
to seek subsistence, and invites
adventurous men to
seek fortune where it is most
easily obtained, and this
is always in the new and
uncultivated regions. They
go from every State and
Territory, and from every
foreign nation in America,
Europe, and Asia; because
no established and populous
State or nation can guar-
anty subsistence and fortune
to all who demand them
among its inhabitants.
The guaranties and signs of
their coming to Alaska
are found in the resources of
the Territory, which I
have attempted to describe, and
in the condition of
society in other parts of the
world. Some men seek
other climes for health and
some for pleasure. Alaska
invites the former class by a
climate singularly salu-
brious, and the latter class
by scenery which surpasses
in sublimity that of either
the Alps, the Apennines,
the Alleghanies, or the Rocky
Mountains. Emigrants
from our own States, from
Europe, and from Asia, will
not be slow in finding out
that fortunes are to be
[page break]
15
gained by pursuing here the
occupations which have
so successfully sustained
races of untutored men. Civ-
ilization and refinement are
making more rapid ad-
vances in our day than at any
former period. The
rising States and nations on
this continent, the Euro-
pean nations, and even those
of Eastern Asia, have
exhausted, or are exhausting,
their own forests and
mines, and are soon to become
largely dependent upon
those of the Pacific. The
entire region of Oregon,
Washington Territory, British
Columbia, and Alaska,
seem thus destined to become
a ship-yard for the sup-
ply of all nations. I do not
forget on this occasion
that British Columbia belongs
within a foreign juris-
diction. That circumstance
does not materially affect
my calculations. British Columbia,
by whomsoever
possessed, must be governed
in conformity with the
interests of her people and
of society upon the Ameri-
can continent. If that
Territory shall be so governed,
there will be no ground of
complaint anywhere. If it
shall be governed so as to
conflict with the interests of
the inhabitants of that
Territory and of the United
States, we all can easily forsee
what will happen in
that case. You will ask me,
however, for guaranties
that the hopes I encourage
will not be postponed. I
give them.
Within the period of my own
recollection, I have
seen twenty new .States added
to the eighteen which
before that time constituted
the American Union, and
I now see, besides Alaska,
ten Territories in a forward
condition of preparation for
entering into the same
great political family. I
have seen in my own time
not only the first electric
telegraph, but even the first
railroad and the first
steamboat invented by man. And
even on this present voyage
of mine, I have fallen in
[page break]
16
with the first steamboat,
still afloat, that thirty-five
years ago lighted her fires
on the Pacific ocean. These,
citizens of Sitka, are the
guaranties, not only that
Alaska has a future, but that
that future has already
begun. I know that you want
two things just now,
when European monopoly is
broken down and United
States free trade is being
introduced within the Terri-
tory: These are, military
protection while your num-
ber is so inferior to that of
the Indians around you,
and you need also a
territorial civil government.
Congress has already supplied
the first of these wants
adequately and effectually. I
doubt not that it will
supply the other want during
the coming winter. It
must do this, because our
political system rejects alike
anarchy and executive
absolutism. Nor do I doubt
that the political society to
be constituted here, first as
a Territory, and ultimately
as a State or many States,
will prove a worthy
constituency of the Republic. To
doubt that it will be
intelligent, virtuous, prosperous,
and enterprising, is to doubt
the experience of Scot-
land, Denmark, Sweden,
Holland, and Belgium, and
of New England and New York.
Nor do I doubt that
it will be forever true in
its republican instincts and
loyal to the American Union,
for the inhabitants will
be both mountaineers and
sea-faring men. I am not
among those who apprehend
infidelity to liberty and
the Union in any quarter
hereafter, but I am sure that
if constancy and loyalty are
to fail anywhere, the fail-
ure will not be in the States
which approach nearest
to the north pole.
Fellow-citizens, accept once
more my thanks, from
the heart of my heart, for
kindnesses which can never
be forgotten, and suffer me
to leave you with a sincere
and earnest farewell.
Alaska
State Library - Historical Collections, PO Box 110571, Juneau AK 99811-0571
mailto:ASL.Historical@eed.state.ak.
IMAGE AND FULL TEXT
http://vilda.alaska.educgi-bin/docviewer.exe?CISOROOT=/cdmg22&CISOPTR=2574
HTML FULL TEXT:
http://library.alaska.gov/hist/html/ASL-F907.S38-1869.htm