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 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 121 long speeches on the topic. He reviewed the diplomatic aspects of the subject to date and considered that the prospects for an ultimately favorable outcome for the United States were not promising; he considered that the whole diplomatic treatment as not worthy the best traditions of the American executive. It is to be noticed that Benton did not commit him- self so far as to define the boundary to which the United States ought to push its claims. He succeeded no better than in the previous session in stirring the Senate into action or even to words. The pioneer work of the Seventeenth Congress was actively followed up by its successor. The not too-discouraging re- sults of Floyd's efforts in 1822-3 were the prelude of a more determined assault in the winter of 1823-4, followed in turn by a campaign in 1824-5 which resulted in the passage of his bill by the House. The vigorous message of President Monroe of December, 1823, with its direct reference to the Russian Ukase and the policy of the United States enunciated as a result of it, gave good grounds for agitation of the Oregon Question. Floyd began his work with another resolu- tion for a committee, which, a few weeks later, reported a bill. This measure did not get beyond a reference to the Committee of the Whole in the course of this session. Shortly after the report of his special committee Floyd introduced another resolution calling upon the President to lay before the House information as to the expense of transferring two hundred of the troops then at Council Bluffs to the mouth of the Columbia. While these steps concluded the legislative activities of the session Dr. Floyd was busy laying his plans for vigorous action later. To the Secretary of War, Calhoun, he wrote, as chairman of the special committee, asking for "any facts or views which may be in the possession of the War Department, relative to the proposed occupation of the River in a military point of view," respecting the ease with which troops might be marched! to that point, and their importance in checking