Commencing at the parallel of fifty-four degrees forty minutes north latitude, so famous in our history, the line ascends Portland Channel to the mountains, which it follows on their summits to the point of intersection with the one hundred and forty-first degree west longitude, which line it ascends to the Frozen Ocean, or, if you please, to the North Pole. This is the eastern boundary, separating this region from the British possessions, and it is borrowed from the treaty between Russia and Great Britain in 1825, establishing the relations between these two powers on this continent. It will be seen that this boundary is old; the rest is new.” The purchase treaty was ratified and the United States came into possession of territory whose limits had been definitely fixed forty-two years before, and remained undisputed in the interval. As Mr. Balch says: "In buying Alaska, the United States understood that they obtained from Russia a continuous, uninterrupted strip of land on the continent from Mount St. Elias to the Portland Canal, whereby Great Britain was shut off from access to the Pacific Ocean above fifty-four degrees forty minutes. Secretary Seward and Senator Sumner so interpreted the purchase." And the British government made no protest either against the voiced claims or against the visual representation of the boundary line upon the map shortly thereafter published by the state department. ---Thereafter, the boundary line appeared as described in the purchase treaty on numerous maps published in England, including government maps. Not until 1898 did Canada advance its claim that the boundary line should pass across the sinuosities of the sea, instead of following them at the prescribed distance of ten marine leagues inland. That was when the opening of gold fields had made the territory more valuable and access to the sea more desirable for Canada. Mr. Balch then devotes considerable space to an argument tending to prove the absence of support for Canada's belated claim. He makes an excellent case for the United States. This monograph may be regarded as a summary of the representations which the United States members of the joint commission will make to their colleagues. DEPARTMENT OF STATE. WASHINGTON, March 28, 1903. T. W. Balch, Esq., Philadelphia. DEAR SIR:-In your work "The Alaska Frontier" you reproduce two maps, No. 7 on page 26 and No. 8 on page 28, which you say were taken from atlases now in your possession. I should be much gratified if you would loan me those atlases for examination in connection with the preparation of the case of the United States before the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal, which has been entrusted to me by the President. They can be sent by express to my address, Department of State, charges to be collected here. I will see that they are carefully preserved and safely returned to you. Very truly, JOHN W. FOSTER, Agent of the United States before the [The first of the two maps to which Mr. Foster refers in the above letter is a map in a copy of Piadischeff's Geographic Atlas of the Russian Empire (printed both in Russian and French) now in the possession of my brother that belonged to Prince Alexander of Hesse, the brother of the Empress Alexander the Second of Russia. The titles and nomenclature of the Atlas are given both in Russian and French. The French title is: Atlas Géographique de l'Empire de Russie, du Royaume de Pologne et du Grand Duché de Finlande * * par le Fonctionnaire de la 6o Classe Piadischeff, employé au Dépot Topographique militaire dans l'Etat-Major de Sa Majesté Impériale: Commencé en 1820 et terminé en 1827, revu et corrigé en 1834. Map "No. 60" (a)" of this atlas is entitled, “Carte Générale de l'Empire de Russie," etc. This is a map of the whole Russian Empire in 1829, and in the left hand lower corner the boundary of the Russian American lisière is given as on map "No. 58." Charles Sumner used a copy of this general map of the Empire, "No. 60," in preparing his speech in support of the purchase of Alaska in 1867. The second map to which Mr. Foster refers in the above letter is "Map No. 63" in a copy of the Atlas of the Russian Empire (printed in Russian) published by the Russian War Office in the years 1830 to 1835, now in the possession of my brother, which belonged originally to Count Dimitry Petrowitsch Severin, at one time Minister Plenipotentiary of the Emperor of Russia to the King of Bavaria. Reproductions of the two maps just referred to are given here.-EDITOR.] |