Friday, March 30, 2007

 

This Day in American History

On this day in 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward reached an agreement with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7,200,000 in gold in a deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly." It works out to about two cents an acre, which seems a pretty good deal to me. Also there's gold and oil there and it would have been a big problem to have had a huge portion of North America under Soviet control during the Cold War. Also it's right pretty up there, or so I'm told.

# posted by Roger Fraley @ 6:34 AM
Comments:
Its fortunate that Seward was even around to make the deal. On April 14, 1865, the day Lincoln was shot, Lewis Powell, an associate of John Wilkes Booth, attempted to assassinate Seward. Although Powell stabbed Seward several times, Seward survived. Unfortunatly Seward's wife and daughter died soon after probably as a reult of the stress caused by the assassination attempt.

Powell was an associate of John Wilkes Booth and was lated hanged alnong with several other conspirators. No solid evidence has ever linked the assassination plot to a conspiracy involving any elements of the Confederate government.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 1:13 PM
 
Thanks, Peter b, for the history lesson, about which I only knew a little. I'm slightly doubtful of the death from stress thing, but I guess it's possible. I always thought the Booth conspiracy was not from the Confederacy (although in revenge for its defeat by an unaffiliated franchise).

As for Booth, his father was named Junius Brutus after the conspirator/murderer of Caesar; do you think it possible John Wilkes yearned for a tyrant to kill?
# posted by Blogger Roger Fraley : 11:03 PM
 
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