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Show ACQUISITION OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 85 ceeded by the $25 million paid for the Virgin Islands in 1916. Today, parts of the region have been intensively developed with federally subsidized irrigation water and low cost electric power; Phoenix on the Gila River and Tucson in the center of the tract have prospered, the latter through the location of the federally aided State University and an Air Force base.17 Alaska Purchase So far as contiguous areas are concerned, America's boundaries were completed by 1853. That is not to say that the thirst for additional land was slaked, for it was not. Many interests kept up a drumfire of demand for territory from Mexico-the most notable being William Randolph Hearst-as compensation for damages owed or claimed to be owed by Mexican nationals to Americans. Others continued to hope that Canada, to which hundreds of thousands of Americans were emigrating, might ultimately fall like a ripe apple into the American lap; they neglected to consider the strong anti-American feelings of the descendants of the United Empire Loyalists and of the French Canadians who could not look favorably upon a country where anti-Catholic movements flourished. Most astonishing of all the United States acquisitions of territory was the purchase of Alaska. It had not been preceded by strong public demand for the territory or even by public discussion of its desirability. The Russians were anxious to sell and Seward, one of the most expansionist-minded of American Secretaries of State, was equally anxious to buy. The proposal to buy was scoffed at by many, although Thomas Bailey's examination of newspaper opinion of 17 J. Fred Rippy, The United States and Mexico (New York, 1931), pp. 126-67; Cong. Globe, Appendix, 33d Cong., 1st sess., June 26, 1854, pp. 1034-35; Arizona the Grand Canyon State, American Guide Series (New York, 1966), pp.252-68. the time shows much more favor than opposition. Walter LaFeber concludes that the principal favoring factors were "traditional American friendship for Russia, the hope that the deal would sandwich British Columbia between American territory and make inevitable its annexation . . . the belief that Alaskan resources would more than pay the $7,200,000 price tag," and that it would provide a useful foothold for commercial and naval operations.18 Thus was added to American territory and to the public domain an unsurveyed area only slightly touched by human habitation-the Eskimos, Indians, and scattered Russian trading posts. Alaska was the last acquisition which brought public land to the United States. Later acquisitions of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, Samoa and smaller Pacific islands made no addition to the public domain except for sites of public buildings, parks, and minor reservations. As the acreage of public lands expanded by cessions and purchase, reaching a very high figure in 1803 and again in 1846-48, there is no evidence that the abundance of land tended to make Congress more generous in its disposal. The increasing liberality toward the states and toward settlers seems to have been much more the result of western pressures, and the recognition of many eastern representatives who had once been strongly opposed to such liberality, that what aided the West was also good for the East. Both Congress and administrators, however, were anxious to show generosity toward the residents of the areas being incorporated into United States territory. Legislation, management, and court decisions affecting the land claims all reveal this generosity. 18 Thomas A. Bailey, "Why the United States Purchased Alaska," Pacific Historical Review, III (March 1934), 39 ff.; Walter LaFeber, The New Empire (Ithaca, N. Y., 1963), p. 28. |
