I thought Seward purchased Alaska with money and stuff. We didn’t steal it.
Yes, we did buy Alaska, but “fair and square” is the issue. As always in these nonsensical discussions, the hinge for the argument is that Tzar Alexander II did not have the authority to sell Alaska to the U.S. in the first place. Any counterargument only leads one further down the rabbit hole. The same was said about the Louisiana Purchase: namely, that Napoleon lacked the authority to sell what was Spanish territory to the U.S., thus making the proper owner Spain. This was no academic argument. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, contained some puzzling language which looked harmless but which the American delegates could not see into. As it turned out, the British fought and lost the Battle of New Orleans after the treaty was ratified, but had they won, the seemly innocuous language in the Treaty would have allowed them to remain in posession of the city using the same argument.
If we can toss in Senator Lisa Murkowski, I might be for it.