it was possible
that the better conditions afforded by freedom had changed this. Even
should the decrease go on, the colored people bade fair to be at least
eight or ten per cent. of our total population in 1900. As a matter of
fact the proportion was in 1900 11.6 per cent. These decreasing
proportions did not, of course, necessarily imply any positive decadence
in the black race, as they might be accounted for by greater prolificacy
or vitality on the part of the whites, or in part by immigration. The
subject will be resumed in Chapter IX. of Period VI.

CHAPTER V.

THE WEST

[1890]

Aside from West Virginia, made during the war from the loyal part of
Virginia, the new States created between 1860 and 1900 were Kansas,
1861; Nevada, 1864; Nebraska, 1867; Colorado, 1876; North Dakota, 1889;
South Dakota, 1889; Montana, 1889; Washington, 1889; Idaho, 1890;
Wyoming, 1890; and Utah, 1896. The whole number of States had thus
become forty-five. We had also, in the year 1896, three organized
territories, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, the last carved out of
Indian Territory in the year 1890. Alaska was as yet a partially
organized territory, having no territorial legislature, and being under
the laws of the United States and of the State of Oregon. It was
purchased by the United States from Russia in 1867, for the sum of
$7,200,000. It remained without any organization until the act of May
17, 1884, which gave it a governor, a district court, an attorney, a
marshal, and commissioners.

[Illustration: Swampy area on shore of Lake Michigan.]
The Site of Chicago.

The value to our Union of this new acquisition, with its 531,409 square
miles and a coast-line longer than that upon our Atlantic and Gulf
coasts together, was at first doubtful, and continued so till gold was
found on the Yukon and at Cape Nome. Clearly, however, the money had not
been thrown away. Governor Swineford, appointed over the Territory in
1885, declared that throughout Southern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands
the climate was moderate, even in winter; and he gave records of
thermometrical observations which seemed to prove this. He further
maintained that, in the parts named, all our hardier plants and crops
grew to maturity in summer, and attained extraordinary luxuriance. In
1890, 4,298 white people had homes in Alaska, besides 1,823 mixed,
23,531 Indians, and 2,288 Mongolians, a total population of 32,052.

The Alaska Commercial Com