of the national government to defer official action. To assume less would be to deny to Kelley that marked propensity for getting information which so distinguished him in all cases of which we have knowledge.
"In the year 1824," he tells us, "I announced to the world my intention to settle Oregon, and to propagate in regions beyond the Rocky mountains, Christianity."[1] In the same year Russia formally abandoned all claims to territory on the American continent south of 54 degrees 40 minutes, thus removing another obstacle in the way of American occupation. Yet Kelley's first memorial to congress was not introduced until February 11, 1828. His name was first mentioned in the deliberations upon the Floyd bill on December 24, 1828, and then it was obscured through the reporter's error. It is necessary, therefore, to consider in some detail the activities of those persons, who like Kelley, but independently of him, sought to influence congress to act, particularly those who signified their desire to establish permanent settlements in the Or^on country.
Most prominent among those who interested themselves in the Oregon question was that champion of the West, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Although a practicing lawyer, Benton edited the St. Louis Enquirer, perhaps as early as 1815, and used its editorial columns as a means of promoting Western interests and his own political advancement. Some of his articles he reprinted in 1844 in a booklet bearing the title, Selections of Editorial Articles from The St. Louis Enquirer On the Subject of Oregon and Texas As Originally Published in that Paper in the Years 1818-19 and Written by the Hon. Thomas H. Benton. According to the preface these articles were reprinted to arouse interest in the Oregon question at the State Democratic convention soon to be held, and to call attention to the "statesman-like foresight which those who now read them, for the first time, will duly appreciate." When a politician assumes to present historical materials tending to
- ↑ Settlement of Oregon, 20. This was also the year in which Dr. John McLoughlin was commissioned Chief factor of the Hudson's Bay company in the territory west of the Rocky mountains.
