Alaska, Territory & State, Session laws, 1913–, various printers. (The first permanent European settlement in Alaska was founded in 1784, and for the
next 80 or so years the Russians engaged in modest colonizing, and administering the territory from their base in New Archangel {later Sitka}. But
the colony was never very profitable, and Russia was happy to sell it to the U.S. in 1867 when the U.S. offered $7.2 million {ca. $111 million in 2010
dollars}. The purchase was negotiated by Lincoln’s Secretary of State William H. Seward. Perhaps needing time to live down its derisive nickname as
Seward’s Folly, in its relations with the United States Alaska languished for most of the next ninety-two years in benign neglect. For the first
seventeen years it was classified as a military and customs district under the jurisdiction of the War Department. During that period the Army, Navy, and
Revenue Cutter Service administered law and justice, while the only civil officers were the collector of customs and his deputies. Military courts took
care of minor offenses, and those charged with more serious crimes were sent to California, Oregon, or the Washington territory for trial before federal
district judges there. An Organic Act of 1885 created Alaska as a “District” rather than a “Territory.” The act provided for a governor and a
district court, to be headquartered out of a temporary seat of government in Sitka. It specifically ruled out any form of legislature or any district
representation in Congress. The laws of Oregon were declared to be in force. Oregon was chosen because it was the closest admitted state, Washington being
still a territory. The Oregon laws were replaced with laws specifically designed for Alaska with the congressional passage of an Alaska Penal Code in
1899, and an Alaska Civil Code in 1900. In 1900 also Congress moved the seat of government to Juneau, and in 1906 Alaska was given a non-voting
delegate in Congress. Finally, in 1912 Congress passed a Territorial Organic Act for Alaska, giving it a watered-down form of self-government, with the
provision that all acts of the territorial legislature be subject to congressional approval. The first territorial legislature met in1913. Statehood was
finally achieved as of 3 January 1959, when Alaska became the largest U.S. state by area.)
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