Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/260



212 VERNE BLUE

will be postponed yet a little while. It is not in the in- terest of any part of the country that more immigration should take place."

With five years of work surveyed now, some evalua- tion of Floyd's motives and purposes other than was suggested at the beginning of this study, may be at- tempted. Nothing is more dangerous than this assertion of motives, particularly in the absence of letters, diaries, or any private documents which to the prying historian do give an insight into the cause of a man's actions. Even then there are intimacies of hope and motive and ambition which are not revealed and can never be known. This summing up of the motives actuating Floyd must be considered as suggestive rather than dogmatic.

It may help to see how he was regarded by two other prominent men of the time, Benton and J. Q. Adams. The latter it should be observed has two opinions, one in the early days of the contest when he saw in Floyd's "futile fight to occupy the Oregon country" a play of politics to assist Clay in beating Adams for the presi- dency, and a later one when these difficulties had been ironed out. 37 Floyd from a man "eager for distinction, forming gigantic plans upon crude and half digested in- formation" became one "energetic and well-meaning."

Benton, after describing the doctor as "an ardent man of great ability and decision of character," says that the proposition to occupy and settle the Columbia region made by him was taken up "with the energy which belonged to him, and it required not only energy but courage to embrace a subject which at the time seemed more likely to bring ridicule than credit upon its advocate." 38

Adams in conversation with Monroe reduced Floyd's motives to (1) political maneuver; (2) an opportunity to open more government positions; (3) provide an

37 Memoirs, VI, 58.

38 Thirty Years Fiew, Vol. I, 13.