"At the end of his life, William Seward was asked: Which of your public acts do you think will live longest in the memory of the American People?
Seward replied, 'The purchase of Alaska. But, it will take another generation to find it out.'
"WE ARE THE NEXT GENERATION"
So reads the cover of the invitation to the Seward House Museum's 50th Anniversary of Alaska's Statehood celebration. The event is a fundraiser for the Seward House Museum located in Auburn, in the northwest corner of New York State.
While I suspect there won't be many Alaskans at the gala today, as a member of the Seward House Circle of Friends, I received an invitation. Appropriately, Gov. Sarah Palin will be the guest of honor. The museum director reports that since the governor's attendance has been confirmed, the phones have rung off the hook.
The historic home of William H. Seward is now a 15-room museum that houses Seward's collection of art, historical documents, photographs, books, period furniture and household items. Gifts that Seward received during his 1869 Alaska visit, including a kayak, slat armor, carvings and a scrapbook of pressed Alaska flowers and plants, are part of the collection as well.
Seward also brought back a bald eagle that lived in his Auburn house garden for a few years and an "Alaska dog." While it is unclear what breed of dog it was, there is a charge in the household account book: "Six dollars for stuffing the Alaska dog."
William Henry Seward had served as governor of New York for eight years, then as U.S. senator from New York for 12 years. After losing the 1860 Republican presidential primary to Abraham Lincoln, Seward campaigned for Lincoln. Believing that he owed it to the country to make use of Seward's talents, Lincoln appointed him secretary of state, and soon Seward emerged as Lincoln's closest adviser in the cabinet.
Seward's two greatest accomplishments in public office were his participation in the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation and negotiating the Alaska Purchase Treaty. An ardent expansionist and fervent proponent of Manifest Destiny, Seward believed, "Our population is destined to roll its resistless waves to the icy barriers of the North."
Seward's nemesis for most of his political career was Horace Greeley. From the 1840s to the 1870s Greeley was editor of the New York Tribune, America's most influential newspaper. Seward's loss in the Republican presidential primary was due in part to Greeley's attacks, and the hammering continued as Seward campaigned vigorously for the purchase of Alaska .
The "Alaska Room" of the museum contains oversize reproductions of newspaper cartoons lampooning the Purchase Treaty and quotations from newspaper editorials detailing the "Dark Deed Done in the Night that shocked an unsuspecting American public." Because of the bad press, many Americans were swayed by Greeley's opposition, labeling the purchase "Seward's folly," "Seward's icebox," Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden" or "Walrussia."
Also in the Alaska Room is the original oil painting by Emanuel Leutze, "Signing of the Alaskan Treaty." Two copies of this historic painting were made in 1934. One hangs in the Department of the Interior Treaty Room in Washington, D.C., and the other in the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.
My favorite item in the collection is the certificate of appointment, penned in elegant calligraphy and signed by Abraham Lincoln on March 5, 1861, naming Seward as secretary of state:
"Know Ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the Patriotism, Integrity and Abilities of William H. Seward, of New York, I have nominated and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint him to be Secretary of State of the United States."
Alaska has spent the last year celebrating 50 years of statehood. That our governor can help the Seward House Museum preserve and celebrate the man's legacy is a good thing. She'll lend fanfare to the event and take the message that Alaska still has a great deal to contribute, continuing to prove that Seward's vision lives strong while the Horace Greeleys of the world, past and present, remain frozen in denial.
Paulette Simpson lives in Juneau.
By PAULETTE SIMPSON