have continued an equipoise to England. She ha now determined to confine her dominion beyond the Pacific. England never voluntarily contracted her possessions. Rest assured Alaska, if not ours, will be transferred to Great Britain. The nation which struggled so hard for Vancouver and her present Pacific boundary, and which still insists on having the little island of San Juan, will never let such an opportunity slip. Canada, as matters now stand, might become ours some day, could her people learn to be American; but never in such an event.
Ah, says my colleague on the Fore'ign Affairs Committee, from Wisconsin, [General Washburn,] "the place is worthless." He dbes not wish it at any price. The climate is frightful, the furs few, and the mineral deposits are not proved to his satisfaction. Well, my friend is not original—and he knows I do not use the word offensively—in the rdle of a croaker. We had them every time new territory was added to our domain; the files of the Congressional Globe are very ugly reminders of the fact. When we acquired Louisiana by the treaty of Paris, a croaker of that day called it " a dreary and barren wilderness." Yet this fertile province was divided into rich States of the Union, and its noble stream which, with the tributaries, forms an outlet for the productions of the mighty West, has a value world-wide, for the possession of which the armies of freedom and slavery reddened its very water, now forever dedicated to liberty.
California was called an ill-starred.purchase and bad bargain; yet this same California, laden with wealth, its cereals and fruits unsurpassed, its vines bidding fair to rival those of France and Italy, came to us in less than three years a free young State, forming the first barrier on the southwest against the extension of slavery, which finally led us to its conquest. The $2,000,000,000 in gold it has added to the wealth of the world sink into insignificance beside its geographical advantages and their development, of which no doubt the pursuit of tha wealth was the instrument.
But, says my friend, Alaska is in a bleak and northern region. Perhaps there is no commoner error than that latitude is the controlling element of temperature. I do not pretend tff ie a climatologist; but it is well known that the southwest equatorial winds and thermal currents of the oceaji exert a controlling influence on whatare known on land as isothermal lines; and the great hot currents which, lessened in intensity, flow against the shores of Britain and Norway, are but different directions of those which lave the coast of Alaska. Western Europe, like western America, is milder in the same latitudes than on the east. If this befnot so, I hope my friend will explain why London, nearly eleven degrees latitude north of New York, is eight degrees warmer. Let me illustrate by the eastern hemisphere: Pekin, on the western border of Asia, at forty degrees north latitude, has winters very nearly as severe as
at St. Petersburg, in sixty degrees. My doubting colleague says facts are worth a thousand theories. So be it. It is a geographical fact that in many cold climates, like Canada, severe winters refresh the earth; and when the snow is removed the fertility of the soil is so gr at. that vegetation is luxuriant and rapid, making their brief summers yield richer abundance tnan in more tropical climates.
If, however, the argument of latitude is to prevail, did it ever enter the gentleman's mind to wonder what England wanted with the barren, bleak, dismal soil of her possessions east of Alaska, or why she tried during the Crimean war to capture Sitka I Has he ever been to the beautiful city of Quebec—strange it should have been built in so inhospitable a region—eleven degrees south of Sitka, it is true, but twenty degreescolder. What barbarians to be sure!
Then go to the fashionable and elegant metropolis of Russia itself, one degree fifty-six minutes north of the parallel of Sitka, and fifteen degrees colder. Certainly one must die there of frost 1 And then, sir, remember that in 1845 the United States were convulsed with an insane desire. We were actually going to war with England to obtain the strip of ground between forty-nine and fifty-four degrees .forty minutes. Yes., "fifty-four forty or fight" was theory; and what for? Simply to adjoin this terrible land from which my colleague shrinks with a coldness beyond that of the climate he depicts—a territory for •whichj.we had under Van Buren and Polk twice offered five millions and been refused.
Mr. WILLIAMS, of Pennsylvania. Will my colleague furnish the proof and evidence of that statement? I would be glad to see the evidence of it.   •
Mr, MYERS. The Congressional^ Library is as open to my colleague as it is to me, and if the information is not there the archives of the State Department are as open to him as to me. If the gentleman looks to the files of the State Department he will find tlie evidence.
Mr. BANKS. What is the fact that is denied?
Mr. MYERS. The former offers of this Government for Alaska. But whether it be so or not the gentleman will not deny that this nation were about to go to war with Great Britain to obtain the country next to Alaska up to 54° 40'.
Mr. BANKS. If the gentleman from Pennsylvania will allow me, I will say that this Government has three times contemplated the purchase of Russian America from the Russian Government; and twice it has made the offer of $5,000,000, which has each time been refused.
Mr. WILLIAMS, of Pennsylvania. Has the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations [Mr. Bawks] furnished to the House and the country any evidence to this effect?
Mr. BANKS. I have not. But I understand that to be the fact, and I make the statement'