Please accept, Mr. Secretary of State the assurance of my very high
consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
Translation of instructions given to Captain
Pestchouroff, commissioner on the part of the Imperial
Russian government, for the delivery of the Russian American
colonies to the government of the United States.
1. Captain Pestchouroff has been directed to proceed to
Washington and enter, through the medium of the Secretary of
State and the Russian minister, into communication with the
commissioner appointed by the United States government to
receive the said colonies, for the purpose of establishing an
understanding as to the said transaction.
2. On the arrival of the two commissioners at Sitka, Captain
Pestchouroff will proceed, in. the first place, to the formal
transfer of the territory under mutual national salutes.
3. All the forts and military posts are to be delivered at once
to the American military forces that may follow the United
States commissioner. Captain Pestchouroff will take the
necessary steps to send home the Russian troops as early as
convenient, and deliver the barracks to the use of the American
soldiers.
4. Public buildings, such as the governor’s house, the buildings
used for government purposes, dock-yard, barracks, hospitals,
schools, public grounds, and all free lots of ground at Sitka
and Kodiac, will be delivered by Captain Pestchouroff to the
American commissioner as soon as practicable.
5. All the houses and stores forming private property will remain
to be disposed of by their proprietors. To this same category
belong smiths, joiners, coopers, tanners, and other similar
shops, as well as ice-houses, flour and saw mills, and any small
barracks that may exist on the islands.
6. The two commissioners, after making the division between the
property to be transferred to the American government and that
left to individual proprietors, will draw up a protocol, and the
American conunissioner, on the documents furnished by the local
Russian authorities, will deliver legalized certificates to the
owners of the said property in order to enable them to possess
that property if they remain in the country, or to dispose of
it.
7. The churches and chapels remain, in accordance with the
stipulations of the treaty, the property of the members of the
Greco-Russian church. The houses and lots which were granted to
these churches remain their property.
8. As the Russian American Company possess in the colonies large
stores of furs, provisions, and other goods, at present
distributed in Sitka, Kodiac, and different other stations on
the continent and islands, they will require a certain lapse of
time to collect, sell, or export their property. For that
purpose the company will leave an agent or agents charged with
the duty of settling finally their affairs.
It is hoped that the federal government will allow the Russian
American Company to settle finally their business in the
colonies without subjecting their property or their agents to
any taxes for a period of 18 months or at least one year,
considering that the same property has never been taxed
heretofore, and that the company, under the present
circumstances, will have to dispose of their property at a great
loss.
9. In the settlement of all the affairs in connection with the
transfer of the territory, Captain Pestchouroff is directed to
proceed in the most amicable way, and the imperial Russian
government hopes that the authorities of the United States will
be guided by the same liberal views, in order to avoid all
difficulties and to complete this transaction in the spirit of
the friendly relations existing between the two governments.
