This year marks the 150th anniversary of sa国际传媒, so every Sunday we are looking back at editorials from our predecessor newspaper, The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle, in 1867.
The editors were continuing to berate the British
government over the American purchase of Alaska from the Russians.
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The expressions of the principal New York papers on the purchase of the Russian possessions explain the object held in view by the United States government in acquiring them.
That object was nothing more nor less than to hem in and enclose the British possessions on the Pacific, and render them of little or no importance to Great Britain, and insure their easy conquest in case of war between the two nations.
The New York Herald boldly says that 鈥渂arring the fish oil and furs鈥� the new possessions are utterly worthless from a material point of view, but that 鈥減olitically considered鈥� the country is worth all that was paid for it, as involving a hint 鈥渇rom the czar to France and England that they have no business on this continent.鈥�
The same paper adds that: 鈥淸William] Seward has always had a weakness for the annexation of sa国际传媒.鈥�
Those of our readers who perused the brilliant speeches delivered by that eminent statesman in 1860, when 鈥渟tamping鈥� the North in favour of [Abraham] Lincoln, who was then a candidate for the presidency, will call to mind the emphasis with which he declared that the inevitable fate of the whole North American continent was to be absorbed by the United States.
This is the 鈥淢onroe Doctrine,鈥� of which we hear so much during every presidential canvass, and in which Seward is a firm believer.
The New York Times seizes upon the occasion of the purchase to indite a panegyric on Seward鈥檚 consummate statecraft, and predicts that many now living will see the day when the Pacific coast will be as thickly studded with ports and cities as the Atlantic is now; and concludes that the Russian purchase is a 鈥渕eans to an end鈥� of settling the Pacific Coast and hastening the absorption of Vancouver Island and British Columbia by the Great Republic.
The New York Tribune alone treats the purchase with disfavour, and denounces the scheme as a stupendous folly. But the Tribune is too radical in its politics to look with satisfaction upon the adoption of any scheme likely to redound to the popularity of the administration.
It hates Johnson and Seward with an intensity amounting almost to fanaticism, and is so blinded by prejudice that it cannot or will not see that by this accession, the United States control the Pacific coast for 35 degrees of latitude, while Great Britain is limited to five degrees. It goes so far as to denounce the Monroe Doctrine as a humbug, and the believers in it as 鈥渁 mob with whom argument has no weight.鈥�
The denunciations of the Tribune, however, had but little influence with the senators, all but 10 of whom voted for the ratification of the treaty.
Here, in Vancouver Island, within a few degrees of the recently acquired tract, we are in a position to state that it is a valuable acquisition, and that its cession to the United States is likely to inflict a serious blow to British interests in the Pacific, if it does not exercise an unfavourable influence upon the whole of British North America.
The purchase is regarded here as the masterstroke of Seward. By it, the United States virtually secures control of the coast, wrests from our grasp the Sitka trade, which was assuming vast proportions, opens a new field for American enterprise and capital, compels 300 miles of British territory lying behind the 30-mile strip to pay tribute to a foreign power before the inhabitants can enjoy communication with the coast, and places the whole of Her Majesty鈥檚 possessions on the Pacific in the position of a piece of meat between two slices of bread, where they may be devoured at a single bite.
The moral effect of this purchase has been to dissipate the rose-coloured pictures we had painted of the future of British institutions on the Pacific, and to increase popular discontent with a government that has contributed so little to support and encourage this young colony.
The bitter experience we have had of the low estimate that England places upon her possessions in the Pacific leads us to the belief that even had the first offer been made to our government, it would have been regarded as a 鈥渟mart trick鈥� on the part of the Russian government to get rid of an exhausted fur territory, and respectfully declined.
Had ordinary precaution been taken, or sufficient interest manifested in the welfare of this colony by our government, the whole of the magnificent territory to the north of us would today be under the British flag; but the imbecility, ignorance or neglect of British statesmen has allowed a glorious opportunity to pass unimproved, and the colony of British Columbia, closely hemmed in by her colossal neighbour, has scarcely room left in which to draw a long breath.
The anxiety of the United States to extend its territory on the Pacific may attract the attention of our government to the necessity of extending us a helping hand; but the prestige of British institutions on this side of the continent has received a severe blow from the effects of which they may not recover, except under most favourable circumstances, for many years.
The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle, May 16, 1867
