"Yeah, well who's laughing NOW, big boy!"
On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska for 7.2 million dollars. Critics attacked Seward for the secrecy surrounding the deal with Russia, which came to be known as "Seward's folly." They mocked his willingness to spend so much on "Seward's icebox" and Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden." [...]
According to this site, "$101221757.32 in the year 2006 has the same "purchase power" as $7200000 in the year 1867." A hundred and one million sounds like quite a bargain, especially if you read down this list of export values of Alaskan products.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at March 30, 2007 10:28 AM