on the mountain sides
as far as two thousand feet above the tide level. The timber is of
the character generally found in Northern climates: yellow cedar of
durable quality, spruce, larch, fir of great size, and hemlock. In
the world's rapid and wasteful consumption of wood, the forests of
Alaska will prove not merely a substantial resource for the interests
of the future, but a treasure-house in point of pecuniary value. To
this source of wealth on land that of the water must be added, in the
seal and food fish which are found in immeasurable quantities along
the coast of the mainland and the islands.

From the time of the acquisition of Louisiana until the purchase of
Alaska, the additions of territory to the United States had all been
in the interest of slavery. Louisiana, stretching across the entire
country from South to North, was of equal value to each section; but
the acquisition of Florida, the annexation of Texas, the territory
acquired from Mexico by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, with the
addition of Arizona under the Gadsden treaty, were all made under the
lead of Southern statesmen to strengthen the political power and the
material resources of the South. Meanwhile, by the inexcusable errors
of the Democratic party, and especially of Democratic diplomacy, we
lost that vast tract on the north known as British Columbia, the
possession of which, after the acquisition of Alaska, would have given
to the United States the continuous frontage on the Pacific Ocean from
the south line of California to Behring's Straits. Looking northward
for territory, instead of southward, was a radical change of policy in
the conduct of the Government,--a policy which, happily and
appropriately, it was the good fortune of Mr. Seward to initiate under
impressive and significant circumstances.

[(1) Turner _vs_. The American Baptist Missionary Union, 5 McLean, 544.]

[(2) Mr. Jefferson, more promptly than other great statesmen of his
generation, appreciated the degree of power residing in the House of
Representatives. In a private letter discussing the subject he
expressed views in harmony with Justice McLean's opinion, long before
that opinion was delivered. He wrote to Mr. Monroe: "We conceive
the Constitutional doctrine to be, that though the President and Senate
have the general power of making treaties, yet whenever they include
in a treaty matters confided by the Constitution to the three branches
of the Legislat