"If," said General Butler, "we are to pay this price as usury on the friendship of Russia, we are paying for it very dear indeed.

If we are to pay for her friendship, I desire to give her the seven million two hundred thousand dollars in cash, and let her keep Alaska, because I think it may be a small sum to give for the friendship if we could only get rid of the land, or rather the ice, which we are to get by paying for it." He maintained that it was in evidence before the House officially, "that for ten years the entire product of the whole country of Alaska did not exceed three million dollars." -- Mr.Peters of Maine pronounced the territory "intrinsically valueless; the conclusive proof of which is found in the fact that Russia is willing to sell it." He criticised the action of the Senate in negotiating the treaty.

"If the treaty-making power can buy, they can sell.

If they can buy land with money, they can buy money with land.

If they can buy a part of a country, they can buy the whole of a country.