Treasury Warrant for the Purchase of Alaska
This document is the Treasury warrant issued for the purchase of Alaska in 1867. In 1866, the Russian government offered to sell the territory of Alaska to the United States. On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward and Eduard de Stoekl, Russian Minister to the United States, agreed that the United States would pay Russia $7.2 million for Alaska. Opponents of the Alaska Purchase persisted in calling it “Seward's Folly” or “Seward's Icebox” until 1896, when the great Klondike Gold Rush convinced even the harshest critics that Alaska was a valuable addition to the United States.
The Alaska Treasury Warrant is filed in the series Warrants, March 1801–December 1921, in Record Group 217: Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury. This series contains warrants that were authorizations for the disbursement of monies from the U.S. Treasury or for paying monies into the Treasury. The warrants were signed by the Secretary of the Treasury and countersigned by the Register, the Comptroller, or a Department head (such as the Secretary of War). Learn more about the Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury
Treasury Warrant for the Purchase of Alaska. National Archives Identifier: 301667
View and download the Alaska Treasury Warrant on the National Archives Catalog. You can explore more of our holdings by visiting our online Catalog or by visiting the National Archives in Washington, DC. This record is located with Record Group 217: Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury, Series: Warrants, March 1801–December 1921. Many of the records in this collection have yet to be digitized. We encourage researchers to visit us onsite to explore these records and learn more about the archival collections held in the National Archives in Washington, DC.