Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/242

194 the general mass there were some who received this endowment in greater degree than others. The centrifugal force which animated the entire body was constantly detaching individuals from it and sending them off as the advance guards of the nation. Such were Boone, Crockett, Clark, Lewis, Pike and the long list of lesser names who are the entire pioneer host.

Of the same sort are men like Floyd the Virginian who went in spirit where others went in person. Jefferson the philosopher may be claimed for this band. Not every expansionist could be a frontiersman; but it was the same spirit in each which impelled him to do his work. Neither, given a fair chance and an opportunity, could act differently than as he did. The Cumberland pass opened Kentucky to Daniel Boone; Lewis and Clark's expedition opened Oregon to Floyd.

John Floyd entered Congress during Monroe's presidency. The men were not cordial friends, and still less was Floyd on good terms with John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State, for Floyd was then a follower of Clay. By one of the provisions of the Treaty of Ghent, 1814, Astoria was returned to American possession. Still warm were the proceedings executing this. Newer yet was the Treaty of 1819 whereby the United States bought the Floridas and surrendered any chance of expanding the Louisiana Purchase at the expense of Spain. The Spanish South American colonies were in revolt, and Adams had his hands full seeking to find a working basis on the subject with England, prodded all the time by Clay. The "Monroe Doctrine" was yet unborn.

The all engrossing domestic question was the status of Missouri and the problem of slavery implicated in it. Also here was the western end of the United States; here settlement dissolved into frontier. Only along the rivers were fingers of population pushing farther westward.