to stimulate the action of Congress. In this light he approved the call of the Philadelphia Convention. Congress, however, occupied different grounds, and an apparent alienation arose between him and his former political associates.

While slavery had the controlling influence in our government, projects for the acquisition of northern territory received little favor. The war of the Rebellion precluded the administration of 1861-65 from giving much attention to the subject, although Mr. Seward during that time did not lose sight of the peaceful enterprise. In March, 1867, formal negotiations were instituted for the purchase of Alaska, and before the month closed, a treaty for that object was signed by Mr. Seward and Mr. de Stoeckl, the Russian Minister.1 The Senate ratified the treaty with but little opposition, and having been ratified by Russia, a proclamation thereof was made on the 20th of June, 1867. The appropriation for the sum named as the purchase-money was made by Congress on the 27th of July, 1868. Formal possession by the United States took place in August, 1868.2

Our Minister to Russia, at the time of the negotiation, although he was intrusted with no part in it, regarded the treaty as "a brilliant achievement which adds so vast a territory to our Union; whose ports, whose mines, whose timber, whose furs, whose fisheries, are of untold value; and whose fields will produce many grains, even wheat, and will become hereafter the seat of a hardy white population." 3

Immigration was always regarded by Mr. Seward as a chief source of the nation's wealth and prosperity, and as one of the principal replenishing streams appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of war and the wastes of national strength and health. Congress, in July, 1864, passed an act giving the Department of State supervision of the whole subject. Under the operations of the law immigration was encouraged and the welfare of the immigrant protected. This was consistent with the policy Mr. Seward had all his life advocated, and which, like his policy of freedom, had encountered objections, political, religious, and social. He, early in

1 See post, page 601.

* The United States derives a revenue of nearly half a million from Alaska already. Its postal revenue is larger than that from any other territory, and exceeds that of a few States.

3 See Alaska and Its Resources. By W. H. Dall. Lee and Shepard, Boston. 1870.

the Senate, on Alaska, 1867, by Charles Sumner.

Also speech in

the war, issued a circular to our consuls abroad, calling their attention to the Homestead Act, and requesting them to make public that in no country in the civilized world are such opportunities offered as in the United States, to active, industrious, and intelligent men, for the acquisition of abundant means of support and comfortable homesteads for themselves and their families.1

In 1868, Congress failed to make the necessary provision for the support of the Bureau of Immigration, which Mr. Seward had organized in 1864, and it was discontinued. Some of its duties have since been assumed by the Bureau of Statistics in the Treasury Department.

Consistently with his efforts to encourage immigration he steadily opposed all schemes for the colonization in foreign lands of colored men, and discouraged the emigration of the emancipated race. In this he differed from President Lincoln.

Having advocated the recognition of the independence of Hayti and Liberia, he had the satisfaction of receiving Ministers from those countries on equal terms with those of other foreign powers.2

The return of peace seemed only to increase the arduous duties of the Department of State. An increasing number and a greater variety of questions pressed for consideration.

The Paris Exposition of 1867 was, to our countrymen especially, a great success. Under the management of the Department of State, exhibitors from the United States enjoyed facilities which lightened their labors and relieved them of many embarrassments. A conference for the establishment of uniform coinage was held in Paris, the same year, in which the Department was actively interested.

In 1866, Mr. Seward was able to congratulate the country that, while sentiments of reconciliation, loyalty, and patriotism had increased at home, a more just consideration of our character and rights, as a nation, had been manifested by foreign governments.

The somewhat mysterious course of France toward Mexico was a subject of much anxiety to Mr. Seward. The introduction, into a neighboring Republic, of a monarchical form of government, under a European prince supported by French arms, could but excite the gravest apprehensions. Mr. Seward had plainly indicated to the

1 See Vol. I., p. 289.

2 Hayti, March 3, 1863; Liberia, May 18, 1864.

French government (September 26, 1863) that such a proceeding must lead to war between France and the United States. The French Minister intimated that if war must be the result his government would naturally select their own time to commence hostilities, which would be the present, while the United States was burdened with domestic difficulties. No such intimidation moved Mr. Seward. Striving ever to maintain a strict neutrality with France and Mexico while the war between the two nations had a legitimate character, he maintained that the United States could not renounce the doctrine that the continuance of free republican institutions throughout America was required for the safety of our own institutions, and for the attainment of that destiny to which we as a nation aspire. This was the sentiment of the people.1 Congress attempted to give it expression in a resolution which passed the House of Representatives, but received no action in the Senate. This action served to increase the sensibilities of the French government on the subject, and to renew the correspondence between its Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mr. Seward, who took occasion to say that the question in its decision rested with the executive branch of our government, and not with Congress, and that the President did not at the present contemplate any change in the policy so far pursued.

Mr. Seward's positions were controverted by the House, and resolutions adverse thereto were adopted. The Senate took no action and expressed no opinion in the matter. The original declaration of the House was regarded by France as a menace of hostilities. Mr. Seward's explanation served to relieve the question of its warlike character, and to renew the peaceful relations of the two countries.

After the war had been declared to be at an end (on the 2d of April, 1866), the occupation of Mexico by the French was no longer to be tolerated. Mr. Seward had already repeatedly notified the imperial government of France that the presence of a foreign army in an adjacent and sister Republic was inconsistent with the policy of the United States and with the doctrine proclaimed by President Monroe. On the 9th of April, 1866, assurances were

1 The "Monroe Doctrine," which had hitherto been a cherished theory, became, under Mr. Seward, an irreversible fact.

See Mr. Seward's speeches in Senate on Clayton and Bulwer treaty, Vol. I., page 376. Globe App. 1855, 1856.

given by the French government that its troops should, within a reasonable time, be withdrawn from Mexico. Many delays occurred in the fulfilment of this promise, and it was not until March 19, 1867, that it was fully accomplished. Maximilian was captured and shot on the 19th of June, 1867, by the Mexicans, notwithstanding the earnest efforts of Mr. Seward to save his life.1

The Republic of Mexico, having been delivered from foreign intervention, soon reëstablished her constitutional system of gov

ernment.

In 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant was nominated by the Republican party as its candidate for President. Horatio Seymour was his opponent. Neither the candidate of the Democrats nor the platform on which he stood were such as to claim the support of the true friends of the Union and its restoration.

Mr. Seward, in a speech 2 of great solemnity, on "the situation and the duty," at Auburn, a few days before the election (October 31, 1868), made the path of duty very clear for those who had been accustomed for many years to follow his counsels in political affairs. This was the twelfth presidential canvass in which he had participated, and he felt that it might be his last. His words, on this occasion, reached beyond the approaching election, and became the farewell address of his political life.

In January, 1866, Mr. Seward made a voyage to the West Indies, visiting St. Thomas, Santa Cruz, San Domingo, Hayti, and Cuba, in all of which places he was received with demonstrations of hospitality and respect on the part both of the people and the authorities. In addressing the President of the Republic of San Domingo, he said that "the United States regarded the neighboring Republics founded, like that of the United States, upon the principle of the equal rights of man, as buttresses, which it was in the interest of the American people and government to multiply and strengthen as fast as it could be done without the exercise of fraud or force."

Mr. Seward's policy of extending the jurisdiction of the United States over the North American continent received a signal illustration in the acquisition of Alaska. Believing that a further step

1 See despatches to Mr. Campbell, U. S. Minister to Mexico.

* See page 540.

3 General Grant was elected President, receiving 214 electoral votes. Mr. Seymour received 80.

in that direction could be wisely taken, he entered into negotiations in January, 1866, with the Danish Minister, General Raasloff, for the purchase of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John in the West Indies. Neither the Minister nor his government at first listened to Mr. Seward's proposals with favor, but rejected them. He renewed them as opportunity offered, and in October, 1867, Denmark consented to part with her islands for the sum of seven million five hundred thousand dollars. In January, 1868, the cession was approved by the people of the islands, almost unanimously.1

Both houses of the Danish Rigsdag ratified the cession, and the treaty was signed at Copenhagen on the 30th of June, 1868. The Senate of the United States, however, withheld its approval, and the whole negotiation failed.

Mr. Seward likewise favored the annexation of San Domingo and Hayti to the United States. He was convinced that the time had arrived when such a proceeding would receive the consent of the people interested, and also give satisfaction to all foreign nations.

In his desire to obtain a foothold for his government in the West Indies, as well for defence in time of war as for the interests of commerce in time of peace, he early in 1868 laid before the Committee on Foreign Relations, in the Senate, an offer he had received, from San Domingo, of the sale of the Bay of Samana, one of the finest harbors in the world. He strongly advocated the purchase, and took some important steps toward securing it.

The interests of the South American States and of the Republic of Mexico received much attention from Mr. Seward, during the last year of his administration.

In the summer of 1868, Mr. Anson Burlingame, who had left the service of the United States, appeared in Washington with a Chinese Legation. They were introduced to the President, who welcomed them to the capital in a speech prepared by the Secretary of State. After a few days' stay in Washington, the embassy, with Mr. Seward, proceeded to his home in Auburn, where a treaty with China was concluded. Mr. Burlingame being the recognized chief of the Chinese Legation, the negotiations were carried on by him and Mr. Seward. The treaty was signed by Mr. Seward, Mr. Burlingame, and his Chinese associates, and, in time, duly ratified. By it the United States gained great commercial advantages, while,

1 The vote was 1,244 for annexation to the United States, and 28 against.