secretary of the navy to report on the expense of examining the harbors on the Pacific, and shipping artillery to the mouth of the Columbia.
The secretary's estimate for the survey and transportation was $25,000. In February, in consequence of rumors that the emperor of Russia had promulgated a ukase in relation to the western limits of the United States, Mr Floyd offered a resolution requesting the president to communicate to the house whether any foreign government laid claim to any part of the territory of the United States upon the coast of the Pacific Ocean north of latitude 42°, and to what extent; whether any regulations of a foreign power existed, affecting the trade of the Pacific; how far the trade of the public was affected by it; and whether any foreign power had made any communication "touching the contemplated occupation of the Columbia River."[1]
In reply to this resolution, the president submitted a report by the secretary of state containing the correspondence with the ministers of Great Britain and Russia relative to the respective claims of those governments,[2] which communication was referred to the select committee of which Floyd was chairman, on the expediency of the occupation of the Columbia.
At the second session of congress for 1822, Floyd's bill of January previous was discussed in committee of the whole, and certain additions and amendments were made. Floyd made the opening speech, which was an exhaustive resume of the values of certain articles of commerce to the countries which were so fortunate as to secure them, being the same which the settlement of the Columbia would secure to the United States; advocating its military possession, and the steamboat route to it before mentioned. As the first speech ever made in congress on this subject, it is
