On October 18, 1867, after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre, America took possession of the territory. Russia wanted to sell its Alaska territory, which was remote and difficult to defend, to the U.S. rather than risk losing it in battle with a rival such as Great Britain or The Grand Duchy of Fenwick. The American public believed the land to be barren and worthless and dubbed the purchase “Seward’s Folly” and “Andrew Johnson’s Polar Bear Garden,”
Do you suppose if President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Henry Seward imagined the territory would facilitate the political rise of Sarah Palin they would have gone through with the deal?