 Complete the following phrase:  The boundary between Alaska and Canada had become an issue in the late 1890s due to the Klondike Gold Rush, as American and Canadian prospectors in Yukon and Alaska raced to make for gold claims. Access to the main Canadian gold fields required a transit of Alaska. Canada wanted an all-Canadian route. They rejected McKinleys offer to lease them a port and demanded full ownership according to their maps. A treaty on the border between Alaska and Canada had been reached by Britain and Russia in the 1825 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, and the United States had assumed Russian claims through the 1867 Alaska Purchase. Washington argued that the treaty had given Alaska sovereignty over disputed coastline. Meanwhile, the 