Whereas Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867, for approximately 2 cents per acre; Whereas the Senate ratified the treaty with Russia regarding the purchase of Alaska on April 9, 1867, and the House of Representatives approved the fund appropriation for that purchase on July 14, 1868; Whereas, on August 1, 1868, the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias acknowledged that $7,200,000 had been received from the United States Treasury as payment in full for the cession of Alaska; Whereas New Archangel, later Sitka, served as— (1) the capital of the territory of Alaska from the time of Russian rule until 1906; and (2) the location for the signing of the Alaska Purchase on October 18, 1867; Whereas Alaska is home to— (1) the highest mountain peak in North America, Denali, which rises 20,310 feet above sea level; (2) the northernmost, easternmost, and westernmost points of the United States; (3) more active glaciers and ice fields than in the rest of the inhabited world; (4) a variety of animal species, including— (A) the largest concentration of American Bald Eagles and the largest species of brown bear in the United States; and (B) 90 percent of the sea otters in the world; (5) 24 national parks, including the 5 largest national parks in the United States, Wrangell–St. Elias National Park, the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Denali National Park and Preserve, Katmai National Park and Preserve, and Glacier Bay National Park, which, together, are larger than the 8 smallest States combined; (6) the 2 largest national forests in the United States, the Tongass and Chugach National Forests, spanning more than 37,000 square miles; (7) more than 38 percent of the shoreline and nearly 54 percent of the coastline of the United States; and (8) more Federal land than there is total land in the States of Texas and Nebraska combined