It was into such diplomatic and domestic interests that Floyd was to fling another element. A discussion of his motives will be presented later after there has been a presentation of what he actually did, together with his own words. However, to serve as an introduction to both, the immediate reason for the action he took will be related here.
By no one had the convention of 1818 been attacked with more bitter vehemence than by Thomas Hart Benton. He incarnates the western spirit of expansion, and in essays and newspaper articles had been urging for some years the definite acquisition of the Oregon River country by the United States. 3 It is not possible that Floyd could have missed reading these. Already he had a background of interest in his knowledge of the Lewis and Clark expedition through his personal relations with the Clark family.
When Benton arrived in Washington in December, 1820, he found that Missouri as yet was not legally a State in the Union, and thereby, he had no seat as senator. At the hotel where he lodged he found a man who was likewise a westerner, a Kentuckian, now serving Virginia in the national House of Representatives. 4 Benton found Dr. John Floyd to be a man of like ideas to himself. Two other men, former employees of J. J. Astor, happened to be in the hotel, men who had been on the Columbia. These four, the Senator, the Congressman and the two explorers, had many an evening's conversation together on the subject of Oregon. Of them all, Floyd was the only one who could do anything. As a result of these conferences and certainly with Benton's approval he undertook to bring the matter before the House.
The Committee presented their report January 25th, 1821. This interesting document has been reprinted in
3 Benton, Thirty Years View, Vol. I, 109-110.
4 Bruce, Romance of American Expansion, pp. 117-121.
