with those of the Jesuits in New France. Such comparisons, however, would prolong my paper beyond its allotted time.
In coming so great a distance to speak to an audience upon the history of their own home one can not help a certain feeling of perplexity as to what can be said that is new or that will be interesting. I feel sure, however, that fixing the date and place and author of the proposal to give the name Oregon to this Northwest will be new to some of you, and interesting to all of you; and I hope that you will be disposed to follow me when I urge that in your State, and in this Northwest, far greater honor and celebrity should be accorded to John Floyd of Virginia than has been done in the past. He, more than any one of his day, was the unwearied prophet of the commercial future of the Pacific Northwest. Certainly his speeches and reports should be reprinted and made accessible, and he should have some lasting and conspicuous memorial.
The day of bitter sectionalism is passing and the country is more united than ever before. What better symbol of this larger unity could there be than some notable memorial in this great Northwest to the Southern statesman who was its prophet and champion, who gave it its historic name and who first asserted the Pacific Ocean to be the natural boundary of his country and all in less than twenty years after the Louisiana Purchase.
Yale University.
