Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/267

Rh How much effective influence Kelley exerted before he enlisted the interest of Nathaniel Wyeth can not easily be determined, for we have to rely mainly on autobiographic claims of a much later date which every one would acknowledge to be exaggerated, and which can not be established by satisfactory evidence. That Kelley influenced Wyeth at the start is no doubt true, but Wyeth soon lost confidence in his judgment. That his writings were not widely circulated or generally influential is the conclusion to which I am led by such study as I have given to the question. As a bit of minor negative evidence may be mentioned the fact that the Yale Library does not contain anything from Kelley's pen, although most of the early Oregon literature is well represented on its shelves.

The case is far different with John Floyd of Virginia. To him unquestionably belongs the credit of first proposing in Congress the actual occupation of the Columbia River country by the United States Government, of promoting its settlement, and of organizing it as a territory with the name Oregon, and finally, of persistently urging these measures for years. To one freshly approaching the subject the work of Floyd for Oregon seems immensely more important than Hall J. Kelley's to whom more space is usually allotted in Oregon histories.

John Floyd was born in Kentucky of a Virginia family in 1783. His academic education was received in Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, and his professional training at the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1806. He then settled in Virginia. After a brief service as a surgeon in the 1812 war, he entered the Virginia legislature in 1812. In 1817 he was elected a member of Congress where he served for twelve years, and was distinctly the leader of the Virginia delegation. In 1830 he was elected governor of the State by the Assembly, and again in 1831