The Collected Library, Including Americana and Early Photography

(Washington, D.C.), ca. January 1870. Seven sheets stapled at a top right, 9 3/4 x 8 in. (248 x 203 mm). Unsigned manuscript titled "Memorandum on the Fur Seal Bill now pending in the House January 1870." Docket on verso of last page. Creasing from old folds, scattered foxing and stains from staple.

Early Alaska related document, a scathing memorandum on a piece of legislation being debated in 1870 in the House of Representatives, "The Alaska Fur-Seal Bill."

The unknown author denounces various injustices present within the bill, and argues that its implementation will result in a monopoly of fur-seal trade for one or two companies. In part: "To lease the Islands would be to create a monopoly without precedent in the history of this country. It would commit the Natives to an odious state of peonage. It would operate disastrously to extensive and growing trade interests in Alaska..."

Alaska, originally dubbed "Seward's Folly", was purchased by the United States from Russia in 1867. It would be reclassified as a department, district, and territory before becoming an official state in 1959.