Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/124

 112 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE period and President of the United States from 1825 to 1829, more than any other individual determined the course of the United States on the Oregon Question during the period, was in a position to know most public men of his day, and he en- tertained no such view so far as can be judged by his writings which have been preserved to us. Nevertheless, one is forced to believe that, although a small number actually desired decisive action, they were thwarted by two facts ; the mass of men in places of authority believed that the time was not ripe for pressing the matter that the United States stood to gain more by a policy of waiting than by forcing the issue; and the public at large refused to be- come excited over Oregon, in fact, ignored the whole affair and so failed to bring to bear that popular pressure which was manifest in 1845-6. There is positive evidence to bear out the first statement, and both positive and negative testimony on the second. The precipitancy with which the question sank into practical oblivion at the beginning of Jackson's first ad- ministration, not to emerge for nearly ten years, is merely cor- roborative evidence. During the period under consideration in this chapter Dr. John Floyd, a member of Congress from Virginia and later governor of that State, occupied the leading position in the advocacy of settling the Oregon Question. In all cases one is interested to discover, if possible, the motives actuating a man when he rides a particular legislative hobby for a series of years, when he comes to be looked upon as the especial cham- pion of a cause. In the case of Dr. Floyd there seems to be left no direct personal evidence other than found in his speeches in Congress; these, however, afford no real information, em- phasizing as they do the customary zeal for securing for Amer- ican citizens then and in times to follow their rightful her- itage. Thomas Benton ascribes the beginning of Floyd's ac- tivity to a meeting with Ramsay Crooks and Russell Farnham in Washington. These men had been members of Astor's party and they recounted their experiences on the Northwest Coast