City of Washington.[1] Two of them, Ramsey Crooks of New York and Russell Farnham of Massachusetts, were traders who had been connected with the unsuccessful enterprise of Mr. Astor. The other two were members of congress, John Floyd of Virginia and Thomas H. Benton of Missouri. Mr. Benton had for some time been interested in the question, and had been pondering upon a method of procedure. During this period of acquaintance they talked much together and became convinced of the advisability of an aggressive campaign for the protection of American trappers and traders, and the maintenance of the full American rights in the joint territory.
There were probably no better men to take the leadership in a movement of this kind than Floyd and Benton. Both were western in their training and in their sympathies, and both were enthusiastic in any movement pertaining to a westward extension of the country. Western men were already beginning to have weight in the national councils, and were exerting a distinct influence upon national policy. Although rough and unskilled in many of the essentials of good government, their influence tended toward a true American life and a broader idea of American national destiny.
The course upon which they entered, though carefully considered, was a bold one. The Oregon country was very far off and few knew very much about it. It seemed a land so far away that the American people, as a whole, had nothing to do with it. Perhaps they had heard of the Oregon river, and it had a place in their imagination along with the ideal beauty of Bryant's poetic country; perhaps they had learned of the part performed by Captain Robert Gray and his ship Columbia in crossing the
- ↑ Irving's Astoria.
