Brigadier-General Rousseau to Mr. Seward. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE COLUMBIA, SIR: I have the honor to report that, on the receipt from you of my appointment by the President as United States commissioner to receive the formal transfer of the Territory of Alaska, and also your instructions touching that transfer, I repaired at once to New York to make the necessary preparation to sail on the 21st of August, but on reaching that city I found it impossible to get off on that day. I sought and obtained at once an interview with Baron Stoeckl, the Russian minister, and Captain Pestchouroff, of the Russian imperial navy, and Captain Koskul, representing the Russian American Company; and it was arranged that we should sail from New York on the 31st of August, and we accordingly sailed on that day, via Panama, reaching San Francisco, California, on the 22d of September. As we entered the harbor of San Francisco the batteries of the forts fired a salute. On reaching San Francisco, we found the preparations for taking military possession of the new Territory completed by Major-General Halleck, who had ships laden with supplies for the troops, and transportation all ready for the troops themselves to Sitka. Admiral Thatcher, also, had provided transportation for the commissioners on the propeller man-of-war Ossipee, Captain Emmons commanding. Returning the admiral's call, visiting him on board his flag-ship Pensacola, the commissioners received a salute of her batteries. Hastening in preparation, we took our departure for Sitka on the morning of the 27th of September. When we set sail we intended to go directly by the open sea to New Archangel, but after three or four days, during which the sea was very rough, with little or no wind, and making very slow progress, we concluded to go by way of Victoria and the straits, thus taking the inland passage. The troops and supplies had preceded us a day or two from San Francisco, and as they could not land at Sitka before we reached there, it was thought best to take the inland route in order to insure our arrival at the latter place certainly within a reasonable time. This we could not do in the open sea, as it was quite rough, and what wind we had or expected to have in October and till the middle of November was from the northwest (a head wind for us). Our ship was very slow, and with a head wind or rough sea made not more than two to four knots an hour. The winds in the Northern Pacific, from May to November inclusive, are from the northwest generally, and the balance of the year from the southeast. Besides, I suffered greatly from sea-sickness, followed by what I feared was congestive chills, and sought to avoid this suffering by taking the inland passage. We reached Esquimalt, Vancouver's Island, on the night of the 4th of October, took in a supply of coal, and steamed for Sitka on the morning of the 6th. After a pleasant passage, taking it altogether, we cast anchor in the harbor of New Archangel on the 18th of October, at eleven o'clock a. m., where we found the troops and supplies had preceded us several days. The day was bright and beautiful. We landed immediately, and fixed the hour of three and a half o'clock that day for the transfer, of which General Jeff. C. Davis, commanding the troops there; Captain Emmons, United States ship Ossipee; Captain McDougall, United States ship Jamestown; Captain Bradford, United States ship Resaca, and the officers of their respective commands, as also the governor of the Territory, the Prince Maksontoff, were notified and invited to be present. The command of General Davis, about two hundred and fifty strong, in full uniform, armed and handsomely equipped, were landed about three o'clock, and marched up to the top of the eminence on which stands the governor's house, where the transfer was to be made. At the same time a company of Russian soldiers were marched to the ground, and took their place upon the left of the flag-staff, from which the Russian flag was then floating. The command of General Davis was formed under his direction on the right. The United States flag to be raised on the occasion was in care of a color-guard-a lieutenant, a sergeant, and ten men of General Davis's command. The officers above named, as well as the officers under their command, the Prince Maksontoff, and his wife the Princess Maksontoff, together with many Russian and American citizens, and some Indians, were present. The formation of the ground, however, was such as to preclude any considerable demonstration. It was arranged by Captain Pestchouroff and myself that, in firing the salutes on the exchange of flags, the United States should lead off, in accordance with your instructions, but that there should be alternate guns from the American and Russian batteries, thus giving the flag of each nation a double national salute, the national salute being thus answered in the moment it was given. The troops, being promptly formed, were, at precisely half past three o'clock, brought to a present arms, the signal given to the Ossipee, (Lieutenant Crossman, executive officer of the ship, and for the time in command), which was to fire the salute, and the ceremony was begun by lowering the Russian flag. As it began its descent down the flag-staff the battery of the Ossipee, with large nine-inch guns, led off in the salute, peal after peal crashing and re-echoing in the gorges of the surrounding mountains, answered by the Russian water battery (a battery on the wharf), firing alternately. But the ceremony was interrupted by the catching of the Russian flag in the ropes attached to the flag-staff. The soldier who was lowering it, continuing to pull at it, tore off the border by which it was attached, leaving the flag entwined tightly around the ropes. The flag-staff was a native pine, perhaps ninety feet in height. In an instant the Russian soldiers, taking different shrouds attached to the flag-staff, attempted to ascend to the flag, which, having been whipped around the ropes by the wind, remained tight and fast. At first (being sailors as well as soldiers) they made rapid progress, but laboring hard, they soon became tired, and when half-way up scarcely moved at all, and finally came to a stand-still. There was a dilemma; but in a moment a "boatswain's chair," so called, was made by knotting a rope to make a loop for a man to sit in and be pulled upward, and another Russian soldier was quickly drawn up to the flag. On reaching it he detached it from the ropes, and not hearing the calls from Captain Pestchouroff below to "bring it down," dropped it below, and in its descent it fell on the bayonets of the Russian soldiers. The United States flag (the one given to me for that purpose, by your direction, at Washington) was then properly attached and began its ascent, hoisted by my private secretary, George Lovell Rousseau, and again the salutes were fired as before, the Russian water battery leading off. The flag was so hoisted that in the instant it reached its place the report of the last big gun of the Ossipee reverberated from the mountains around. The salutes being completed, Captain Pestchouroff stepped up to me and said: "General Rousseau, by authority from His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the Territory of Alaska," and in as few words I acknowledged the acceptance of the transfer, and the ceremony was at an end. Three cheers were then spontaneously given for the United States flag by the American citizens present, although this was no part of the programme, and on some accounts I regretted that it occurred. Captain Pestchouroff, the governor, and myself, on the Monday following, went to work to distinguish between the public and private buildings in the town of New Archangel, and giving certificates to private individual owners of property there. * All the buildings in any wise used for public purposes were delivered to the United States commissioner, taken possession of, and turned over to General Davis, as were also the public archives of the Territory; and in a spirit of liberality the wharf and several valuable warehouses belonging to the Russian-American Company were included in the transfer by the Russian commissioner. Both the wharf and the warehouses were very much needed by our people. We could not visit Kodiak, or any other point in the new Territory, as the season in which we might expect stormy weather was rapidly approaching. For the further action of the commissioners, in the execution of their commission, your attention is respectfully called to the protocol, map, and inventories accompanying this report. With this report and accompanying papers I return to you the United States flag used on the occasion of the transfer of the Territory. In your instructions, both written and verbal, you were somewhat particular to impress me with your desire that all the intercourse between the Russian and American commissioners should be liberal, frank, and courteous; and I am pleased to say, that from the meeting of Captain Pestchouroff and myself in your office till we parted after our work was ended, all our communication and association with each other, personal and official, were of the friendliest character, and just such as I am sure you desired. Hoping that the President and yourself will be satisfied with my efforts to discharge the duty assigned me, in accordance with instructions given for my guidance, and that the new Territory may prove as valuable an acquisition to our country as you would desire it, I have the honor to be your very obedient servant, LOVELL H. ROUSSEAU, United States Commissioner, and Brigadier-General U. S. A. Пon. WILLIAM II. SEWARD, Secretary of State. [Here followed inventories and schedules of public and private property in New Archangel, Sitka.] AREA AND COST OF THE PURCHASE. This purchase cost the United States $7,200,000, and added to the national and public domain an area of 577,390 square miles, as estimated, or 369,529,600 acres-all lying in Alaska, and subject to disposition and control by the Congress of the United States, excepting certain grants made by the Russian Government. The land laws of the United States have not as yet been extended over Alaska, and although public domain, it is not yet open to settlement under United States land laws, because the lands have not yet been opened for settlement or surveyed by order of Congress (which is the first step after the Indian title is extinguished), and after this, Congress, by law, directs how, when, and by what system the lands may be disposed of. AUTHORITIES. See "Treaties and Conventions," July 4, 1776, to July 21, 1871; also, H. Ex. Doc. No. 125, second session Fortieth Congress; Message from the President of the United States in relation to the transfer of territory from Russia to the United States. 10 L 0-VOL III CHAPTER V. THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.-NORTHWEST AND SOUTHWESTERN TERRITORIES. GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES NORTHWEST OF THE RIVER OHIO. CLAIM OF VIRGINIA AND NEW YORK TO THE LANDS THEREIN. The entire territory east of the Mississippi River, north of the Ohio River, and west of the State of Pennsylvania, which had, prior to the Revolutionary War, been subject to the jurisdiction of the Province of Quebec, was claimed by the State of Virginia at and prior to March 1, 1784, the date of her first cession to the confederated government. She was in possession of the French settlements of Vincennes and Illinois, which she had occupied and defended during the Revolutionary War. The first charter of Virginia (James I., April 10, 1606) extended along the sea-coast from the thirty-fourth degree to the forty-first degree of north latitude, but only fifty miles inland. By the second charter for Virginia (James I., May 23, 1609) the limits of the colony were extended so as to embrace "the whole sea-coast, north and south, within two hundred miles of old Point Comfort, extending from sea to sea west and northwest, and also all the islands within one hundred miles along the coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid," evidently meaning the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The third charter, dated March 12, 1612, annexed to Virginia all the islands within 300 leagues of the coast. Those three charters were vacated by quo warranto before the 15th of July, 1624, on which day a commission issued for the government of Virginia, without making, however, any alteration in the boundaries established by the second charter. The colony was afterwards curtailed on the north by the grants to Lord Baltimore and to William Penn, and on the south by that to the proprietors of Carolina. CLAIM OF NEW YORK CEDED. New York, prior to the cession by Virginia, having conveyed to the United States, March 1, 1781, her claims to this territory, being titles derived from treaties and purchases from the Six Nations of Indians, the Congress of the Confederation passed the resolution for the government of the western territory, April 23, 1784. This left Connecticut and Massachusetts the only States that had or laid any claims to the territory north of the river Ohio and west of Pennsylvania. The cessions of those States to the United States, and the further confirmatory cession by Virginia in 1788, gave to the United States an indisputable title to the public lands within that territory as far west as the river Mississippi, which, by the treaty of Paris between George III. of Great Britain and the King of Spain, February 10, 1763, had been established as the boundary between the British possessions in America and the province of Louisiana. ACTION OF THE CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATION ON THE NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA CESSIONS, 1784. The territory ceded by Virginia to the United States, March 1, 1784, became the subject of legislation on the part of the Congress of the Confederation, beginning on the day of cession. On the 1st of March, 1784, a committee, consisting of Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, Mr. Chase, of Maryland, and Mr. Howell, of Rhode Island, submitted to Congress the following plan for the temporary government of the Western Territory: The committee appointed to prepare a plan for the temporary government of the Western Territory have agreed to the following resolutions: Resolved, That the Territory ceded or to be ceded by individual States to the United States, whensoever the same shall have been purchased of the Indian inhabitants and offered for sale by the United States, shall be formed into additional States, bounded in the following manner, as nearly as such cessions will admit; that is to say northwardly and southwardly by parallels of latitude, so that each State shall comprehend, from south to north, two degrees of latitude, beginning to count from the completion of thirty-one degrees north of the equator; but any territory northwardly of the 47th degree shall make part of the State next below. And eastwardly and westwardly they shall be bounded, those on the Mississippi, by that river on one side and the meridian of the lowest point of the rapids of the Ohio on the other; and those adjoining on the east, by the same meridian on their western side, and on their eastern by the meridian of the western cape of the mouth of the Great Kanawha. And the territory eastward of this last meridian, between the Ohio, Lake Erie and Pennsylvania, shall be one State. That the settlers within the territory so to be purchased and offered for sale, shall, either on their own petition, or the order of Congress, receive authority from them, with appointments of time and place, for their free males, of full age, to meet together, for the purpose of establishing a temporary government, to adopt the constitution and laws of any one of these States, so that such laws nevertheless shall be subject to alteration by their ordinary legislature, and to erect, subject to a like alteration, counties or townships for the election of members for their legislature. That such temporary government shall only continue in force in any State until it shall have acquired 20,000 free inhabitants, when, giving due proof thereof to Congress, they shall receive from them authority, with appointments of time and place, to call a convention of representatives to establish a permanent constitution and government for themselves. Provided, That both the temporary and permanent government be established on these principles as their basis: 1. That they shall forever remain a part of the United States of America. 2. That in their persons, property, and territory they shall be subject to the Government of the United States in Congress assembled, and to the Articles of Confederation in all those cases in which the original States shall be so subject. 3. That they shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted or to be contracted, to be apportioned on them by Congress according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on other States. 4. That their respective governments shall be in republican forms, and shall admit no person to be a citizen who holds any hereditary title. 5. That after the year 1800 of the Christian era there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty. That whensoever any of the said States shall have of free inhabitants as many as shall then be in any one of the least numerous of the thirteen original States, such State shall be admitted by its delegates into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the said original States, after which the assent of two-thirds of the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be requisite in all those cases wherein, by the confederation, the assent of nine States is now required; provided the consent of nine States to such admission may be obtained according to the 11th of the Articles of Confederation. Until such admission by their delegates into Congress any of the said States, after the establishment of their temporary government, shall have authority to keep a sitting member in Congress, with a right of debating, but not voting. That the territory northward of the 45th degree, that is to say, of the completion of 45 degrees from the equator, and extending to the Lake of the Woods, shall be called Sylvania; that of the territory under the 45th and 44th degrees, that which lies westward of Lake Michigan shall be called Michigania; and that which is eastward thereof within the peninsula formed by the lakes and waters of Michigan, Huron, St. Clair and Erie shall be called Cherronesus, and shall include any part of the peninsula which |