Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/301

THE FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON III. BY LISTER BUERELL SHIPPEE CHAPTER V. LINN AND THE OREGON TERRITORY. In any study of Oregon in its relation to the government of the United States two names stand out most prominently among the members of Congress, those of Floyd and Linn. John Floyd was foremost in the agitation from 1821 to 1829, when he retired from active participation in national politics and confined his attention largely to Virginia. Senator Lewis Field Linn of Missouri was the leader of the Oregon forces from 1837 until his death in 1843. It is not difficult to understand the causes of Dr. Linn's interest. He was of pioneer stock, born in Louisville, Ky., and taken to Missouri Territory in 1809. Here he was in close touch with all that life so imbued with the spirit of west- ern expansion: General Ashley's expeditions into the Rocky Mountain country started from St. Louis; St. Louis was the rendezvous of all those who believed fortune for them existed somewhere across the frontier. Through Missouri went persons bound for the West. 1 Those going to the Northwest Coast perforce took the Oregon Trail which started from Fort Independence on the western edge of the State ; whether they were missionaries, fur traders, trappers, or emigrants, they all passed through Missouri and drew in their train, as Oregon began to loom larger, many inhabitants of that State. Merely to state that Dr. Linn was a Missourian would be enough to explain his activity, and when one considers that most members of Congress are not altogether unmindful of the desires of their constituents one needs to go no further, for Dr. Linn became the personification of Missouri's "occu- pation of Oregon spirit. 1 '* i The statement by Prof. Shippee, line 16, that "all persons bound for the West" went through Missouri is erroneous. See Or. Hist. Quar. Vol. 15, pp. 285-299. I crossed the plains from Illinois in 1853, and saw wagons west bound by the hundred enroute to Oregon through Iowa, none of which ever entered Missouri. George H. Himes, Curator Oregon Historical Society. i-a Linn & Sargent, Life and Public Services of Dr. Lewis F. Linn (1857) * s the cust9mary eulogistic "life" of the times. In the personal portion of the narra- tive, written by E. A. Linn, there is no reference to Dr. Linn's interest in Oregon, although the preface contains a statement calling attention to his "perse-