245-50.] [Footnote 990: Bigelow, _Retrospections_, I, 634, Slidell to Benjamin, March 4, 1863.] [Footnote 991: For example of American contemporary belief and later "historical tradition," see Balch, _The Alabama Arbitration_, pp.

24-38.
Also for a curious story that a large part of the price paid for Alaska was in reality a repayment of expenses incurred by Russia in sending her fleet to America, see _Letters of Franklin K.Lane_, p.260.The facts as stated above are given by F.A.Golder, _The Russian Fleet and the Civil War_ (_Am.Hist.Rev_., July, 1915, pp.

801 _seq_.).

The plan was to have the fleet attack enemy commerce.

The idea of aid to the North was "born on American soil," and Russian officers naturally did nothing to contradict its spread.