Most of the territory of Alaska had been held by Russia since 1741, but by 1866, pressure from American and British settlers was increasing on Alaska's southern border and the Russians needed money. Accordingly, the Russian minister to the United States was instructed to negotiate a sale. Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed that the United States would purchase Alaska for $7.2 million in gold.
Needing to get approval of the treaty in the United States Senate, President Andrew Johnson called them into a special session to debate it. Radical Republicans called it "Seward's Folly," but with strong support from Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the treaty was approved on April 9, 1867, by a vote of 37-2.
