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WHEN John Floyd entered Congress, in 1817, our claims to the territory along the Columbia River were disputed. Captain Gray of Boston had probably discovered the mouth of that river in 1792; later Lewis and Clark had certainly explored the country through which it flowed; and, in 1811, John Jacob Astor had planted a trading post, Astoria, near its mouth. Meanwhile our chief rival, Great Britain, had done little or nothing to make good her claims to the country. Notwithstanding her inactivity a British sloop-of-war, the Raccoon, captured Astoria in 1812, hauled down the American flag, and placed in its stead the Union Jack. Peace had been followed, however, by a notification of our intention to reoccupy the country and by a consequent series of diplomatic negotiations resulting in a treaty of joint occupation of 1818. Under this arrangement the territory in dispute was opened for a period of ten years to the citizens of both countries without prejudice to the rights of either on the subject of ultimate ownership.

Meanwhile the people at home knew little of the country in dispute and probably cared less. Indeed there was little available information about it. Some had read the interesting Diary of Patrick Gass, and, in 1811, Nicholas Biddle had published the Journals of Lewis and Clark. But, as late as 1817, the Columbia Valley was known to William Cullen Bryant only as

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The continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound
Save his own dashings.

It was left to John Floyd, a young Virginian, himself a child of the frontier, to bring our claims to the Columbia Valley prominently before the American people. "To him," said Professor E. G. Bourne, "unquestionably belongs the credit of first proposing in Congress the actual occupation of the Columbia River country by the United States Government, of promoting its settlement, and of organizing it as a territory with the name Oregon."(21) Scholars now generally agree in crediting Floyd with this initiative, dismissing the rival claims made for Hall J. Kelley, the Massachusetts schoolmaster, and for others as without foundation.(22)

Floyd's interests in the Columbia River country are not difficult to determine. George Rogers Clark was the boyhood idol for whom he had later named a son; his first cousin, Charles Floyd, was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, holding the rank of sergeant and losing his life in the early months of its history; and the friendship of William Clark, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was an "honor" which Floyd had enjoyed "from his earliest youth." Moreover, in the early winter of 1820-- 1821 he lodged, while in Washington, at Brown's Hotel where he met Thomas H. Benton who was then the author of a series of articles for the St. Louis Enquirer regarding our claims to the Columbia Valley and our interests there.(23) At this hotel he, also, met Ramsey Crooks of New York and Russell Farnham

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of Massachusetts, both of whom had been engaged in the Astoria enterprise. Of their influence upon Floyd, Benton later wrote: "Their conversations, rich in information upon a new and interesting country, was eagerly devoured by the [his] ardent spirit."(24) As it had already provoked adverse criticism our treaty of joint occupation with Great Britain was doubtless a subject of conversation among these friends, and it is not at all improbable that they then and there resolved to change it for a more aggressive policy.

At all events, on December 20, 1820, Floyd brought the question of our rights in the Columbia country, for the first time, to the attention of Congress. By a resolution, he asked that a committee be appointed to "inquire into the situation of the settlements upon the Pacific Ocean and the expediency of occupying the Columbia River."(25) The resolution carried, and the proposed committee was appointed with Floyd, chairman, and Metcalf of Kentucky, and Swearingen of Virginia, members. The boldness and vision of the report which this committee later made is best understood in the light of the popular conception then prevalent regarding the frontier and the far West.

At this time, 1820, the frontier was a wedgelike area, the apex of which rested near the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. The flanks of this advance army of civilization widened gradually to the eastward, that to the south passing near New Orleans and that to the north passing near Detroit. Within the waterways were the highways controlling the distribution of population. At opportune times

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areas of white settlement had made rapid strides to the westward, but now a further advance seemed almost impossible. In the first place there were few who desired it. In the second place the areas already preempted for settlement seemed sufficient for all time. Besides, the outlet to the far West seemed now closed, because the Missouri, the door of exit, had taken an abrupt turn to the northward to an inhospitable climate and to the home of the most warlike of the savage foes. Nature and expediency had thus seemingly placed a limit to the frontier.

Moreover, the country beyond the Missouri, and between it and the "Stony Mountain," was then thought to be a great desert. Geographers had described it as such and had furnished their proof. Were not the sections nearest the mountains without rainfall? Then, too, Major Stephen B. Long, after a trip through the country in 1819--1820, had described it as a barren waste incapable of supporting an agricultural population. Also, the newspapers of the day described the country just east of the Rockies, as a land "covered with sand, gravel, and pebbles" and as utterly destitute of timber, and they expressed the belief that the Creator had fixed the bend in the Missouri as the point beyond which the white man was never to go.

Nevertheless, on January 21, 1821, Floyd presented his report, to-day justly considered famous. It was accompanied by a bill authorizing our occupation of the Columbia River. In both the handiwork of his friends, Benton, Crooks, and Farnham, is evident. They certainly supplied the details regarding the climate, the fertility of the soil, the experiences

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of the Astorians, the nature of the overland routes, and, more important than all else, the plans and suggestions for the development of the fur trade with the East and with China. In its expressions and in the embodiment of the ideas and impulses that were to shape the progress of events this pioneer report "bears the same relation to Oregon that Richard Hakluyt's famous Discourse on Western Planting bears to the foundation of the English colonies in America."(26) No other apology is therefore needed for a further presentation of its contents.

Floyd based our claims to the Columbia country almost wholly upon our rights under the Louisiana Purchase and gently hinted to the European nations that "there is no longer territory to be obtained by settlement and discovery" in the New World. Spain had not yet relinquished her claims to the territory north of the forty-second degree of north latitude. The Treaty of 1819 for the purchase of Florida remained unratified, but Floyd did not hesitate to restrict Spanish possessions to the northern boundary of Mexico. Thus by a strange elasticity the Louisiana Territory was made to embrace another empire. If, however, doubt remained regarding the validity of our title, he would have removed it by asserting our rights accruing from the discoveries and explorations of Hendricks, in 1785-- 1786, from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, in 1804--1807, and from the Astoria settlement made in 1811.

Thus satisfied with our rights on the Columbia, Floyd urged its immediate occupation, that the citizens of the United States might haw a free and full

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opportunity to participate in the fur trade. Following an able presentation of the value of that trade to the early German tribes, to the Tartars, and to the French he traced the rise of the British Hudson Bay Company and the Northwestern Company, showing how their agents had carried Indian supplies from Montreal to the Rocky Mountains and later to the Pacific coast. Returning with their furs they had followed routes more than three thousand miles long, paddling their birch canoes through innumerable rivers across more than sixty lakes and over a hundred and thirty portages varying in width from a few yards to thirteen miles. Despite these obstructions and consequent delays these two companies had exported annually from Quebec alone, to say nothing of their exports from New York, Philadelphia, and the mouth of the Columbia, furs valued at more than a million dollars. Floyd insisted that such a source of income could not be neglected by the United States, because, valuable as the fur trade was, its routes were soon to become the highways of emigrants going to the far West and of trade to China.

The practicability of occupation was not even questioned; its necessity was imperative. Did not the British Northwest Fur Company then occupy posts in the Louisiana Territory east of the Rocky Mountains? Our occupation of the Pacific Northwest was not therefore to be delayed. To make it effective all that was needed was a small guard at the mouth of the Columbia and another at "the most northeastern point of the Missouri River," thus "confining the foreigners to their own territory."

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It was urged that these outposts could be maintained with comparative ease by the United States. Instead of passing the great lengths and obstructions of the Canadian rivers, as the British were forced to do in reaching the far West, our citizens could reach that region by way of "a smooth and deep river [the Missouri] running through a boundless extent of the most fertile soil on the continent, containing within its limits all those valuable furs which have greatly enriched others, a certain, safe, and easy navigation, with a portage two hundred miles uniting it with another river [the Columbia] equally smooth, deep and certain running to the great western ocean." Furthermore several passageways leading from the Missouri to the Columbia had already been discovered in the Rocky Mountains. Responsible initiative was, therefore, all that remained to make our occupation of the Columbia Valley a certainty. Men with their wives and families stood ready to follow such leadership, and it could rely, moreover, upon the Chinese to supply a laboring population.

The Columbia country was desirable, also, for its natural resources other than furs. From the ocean to the head of tide, a distance of two hundred miles, it was heavily timbered with a variety of woods "well calculated for ship-building and every species of cabinet and carpenter's work." Then came another belt of inferior but desirable timber two hundred miles in width. This was followed to the eastward by the plain country which produced grass of the finest quality and horses surpassing in perfection those of Andalusia and even Virginia.

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Besides, the Pacific coast waters abounded in fish of numerous varieties, and Floyd saw the possibility of making a port at the mouth of the Columbia the center of the whale fishing industry of the world.

To strengthen the courage and faith of those who believed Oregon a forbidding wilderness beyond the reach of civilization and settlement, this report called attention to the magic power, dauntless courage, and clear vision with which Russia had extended her territory across the continent of Asia, even to the western coast of North America and to the islands of the Pacific, making it possible for her subjects to journey in open boats from Kamchatka to Japan in their own territory. If Russia could carry cannon through "immense oceans, round Cape Horn" and drive sledges loaded with articles of trade across the continent of Asia "through seas of ice, and storms of snow so terrible as to obscure an object beyond the distance of a few paces, in an effort to build up her commerce with China and Japan and to extend her own territory, thus laying tribute upon the four quarters of the globe and winning for herself a "proud security" among the nations of Europe, Floyd was "persuaded that, with a little care and small expense," the United States could lay the foundations of a power in the Columbia Valley that would eventually be necessary to complete her national development and serve her best commercial and industrial interests.

Although nothing beyond the presentation of this report was accomplished at this time, the subject being not even discussed in Congress, Floyd had struck a telling blow in our fight for the Columbia

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country. Of his efforts on this occasion Benton said: "Public attention was awakened, and the geographical, historical, and statistical facts set forth. . . made a lodgment in the public mind which promised eventual favorable consideration"(27) Others did not think so favorably of Floyd and his proposals. For instance, John Quincy Adams saw in him only a "flaunting" canvasser and a politician seeking to win prestige and patronage, particularly the latter, by a vigorous opposition to the party in power. In this connection his support of W. H. Crawford in preference to Adams for the presidency should be taken into consideration. Moreover, Adams questioned Floyd's honesty in urging the occupation of the Columbia Valley, insisting that he was actuated by a desire to provide a retreat for a defaulting relative and possibly for himself.(28) Of the report itself Adams' "Memoirs" has this amusing comment:

The president gave me yesterday [January 17, 1821,] a paper to read which this man [Floyd] has prepared as chairman of a committee, being a report urging an immediate settlement and territorial establishment at the mouth of the Columbia river, and a total change of our system of intercourse and trade with the Indians. Floyd had put it into tho President's hands with the request that he should suggest any alternative that he might think desirable. I returned the paper this morning to the President who asked me what I thought of it. I told him I could recommend no alternative. The paper was a tissue of errors in facts and abortive reasoning, of individual reflections and rude invectives. There was nothing could purify it but the fire.(29)

Notwithstanding this opposition from those high in power Floyd was undismayed. On December 10,

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1821, he reintroduced his resolutions of the previous year but with important modifications. It was now proposed to inquire into the "expediency of occupying the Columbia River and the territory of the United States adjacent thereto. Ignoring completely Mr. Calhoun, the secretary of war, who, like Adams and probably for similar reasons, was thought to be unfriendly to his proposals, Floyd one week later presented an additional resolution asking that the secretary of the navy be instructed to furnish the House with an estimate of the expenses of a survey of the harbors of the United States upon the Pacific Ocean and of exporting artillery to the mouth of the Columbia River.(30) One month later, January 18, 1822, these resolutions were followed by a bill authorizing and requiring the president to occupy "the territory of the United States" on the waters of the Columbia River, to extinguish the Indian titles thereto, and to make land grants to prospective settlers. What is probably even more important this bill provided that "When the population of the settlements amounted to 2000 souls, all that portion of the Unites States north of the 42d parallel of latitude and west of the Rocky Mountains is to be constituted a territory of the United States, under the name of the Territory of Oregon."(31)

Thus Floyd had taken a bold stand. In neither of the above mentioned resolutions nor in the bill did he express the slightest doubt about our sovereign rights of ownership in the Columbia Valley which was now boldly spoken of as the "territory of the United States." The skillful wording

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employed was probably intended to force the president and his cabinet officially to recognize Floyd's contentions regarding our rights in the Columbia Valley, now generally spoken of as the Oregon country. The resolutions showed that Floyd's plans for furthering our interests on the Pacific had advanced, in one year, from that of a commercial outpost to that of a nascent state in the Union. Moreover, they contain the first formal proposal whereby the territory in question was called Oregon.(32)

Every possible effort was made to secure a favorable consideration for Floyd's propositions. Thinking that it might contain important information regarding the Louisiana Territory which, Floyd maintained, included Oregon, he next called upon the president to cause to be laid before the House all the correspondence relating to the Treaty of Ghent, which it "might not be improper to disclose."(33) In this request it is not at all improbable that Floyd desired to damage the political ambitions of John Quincy Adams by making it appear that he had neglected the interests of the West in the negotiations of 1814. Be that as it may, the desired information was forthcoming, but it failed either to arouse interest in the Oregon bill or to incriminate Adams. Accordingly the whole matter was again passed by with little consideration.

Meanwhile a rare opportunity for placing the Oregon question before the people presented itself. Aroused and alarmed at the growing power of Russia, which was then said to be making claims of ownership to the Pacific northwest south of the Columbia River, and distrustful of Adams, the secretary

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of state and the guardian of our interests there, Floyd next secured the adoption of a resolution calling upon the president to communicate to the House "whether any foreign government had made claim to any part of the territory of the United States upon the coast of the Pacific Ocean, north of the 42° of latitude, and to what extent; whether any regulations have been made by foreign powers affecting the trade on that coast; and how it affects the interests of this Republic; and whether communications have been made to this government, by foreign powers touching the contemplated occupation of the Columbia River.(34) Again his resolution brought the desired information which was, however, considered to be of too confidential a nature for use in the open House. Accordingly the Oregon question was allowed to take its course in the rounds of diplomacy, thus defeating another attempt to popularize it.

Two years later, in 1824, the United States concluded with Russia a treaty in which the latter government renounced any and all claims to territory on the Pacific coast south of 54° and 40'. Nevertheless Floyd did not cease his attacks upon Adams. For some time, it seems, that he searched in vain to expose him because of his alleged neglect of our interests on the Pacific coast. But "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," especially When that day falls in a presidential campaign in the United States of America. Probably through the author himself, who was then a member of Congress and had been one of our commissioners at Ghent, in 1814, word

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came to Floyd of a letter written by Jonathan Russell to James Monroe on December 15, 1814. This letter was said to contain proof positive of Adams' neglect of and opposition to the interests of the West in the negotiations ending our second war with Great Britain. Floyd determined to have that letter. It would serve two purposes: that of making Adams unpopular in the West and that of arousing popular interest in Oregon. A resolution of inquiry placed the letter at his command,(35) but it, too, failed to produce the desired sensation. Instead the anti-Crawford press attacked the "electioneering tactics" embodied in the Oregon movement with such persistency as to call from Floyd a defence of his conduct. In a letter to the Richmond Enquirer of August 27, 1822, he refuted the charges made against him but refused to give the source of his information regarding the Russell letter.(36)

The provocation thus extended Adams called for more than one of his customary confidences to the pages of his diary. In a brief letter to the National Intelligencer for August 31, 1822, he accused Russell of aiding and abetting the attacks which Floyd was making upon him. But one must go to Adams' Memoirs to learn what he really thought of the incident and of Floyd. The whole affair was a part of an alleged plot to injure him with the western people and thus to prevent his election to the presidency. Back of it all Adams saw Henry Clay working "like a mole" to discredit him in the West. He was certain that the influence of the press alone had defeated their diabolical attempts. Strange as it may seem, his opinion of Floyd had experienced

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a complete change. From a "flaunting canvasser" and an abettor of fugitives he had, in the short period of eighteen months, become "a man having in the main honest intentions." His usefulness was still impaired, however, by a fondness for gigantic projects formed out of crude and half digested information, by a disposition to suspect dishonesty and corruption in others than himself, and by the delusions of an "obfuscated" intellect and a violent passion.(37)

In making the Oregon country a subject of diplomatic negotiations and in connecting it with the name of a prominent candidate for the presidency, Floyd had rendered impossible a further delay in the official consideration of the subject. Accordingly Monroe, in his annual message of December, 1822, suggested that the time had come for serious consideration of our rights and interests on the Pacific coast. Following this suggestion Floyd reintroduced his bill of January, 1822, which was promptly referred to the Committee of the Whole. The debate which followed was one of the most animated and illuminating of the session.

As the first speech ever made in Congress on Oregon, Floyd's is especially interesting and instructive. Unlike his other efforts it showed the results of painstaking investigation on his own part. In a graphic presentation of the operation of those democratic ideas and practices which had carried the pioneer from the Atlantic to the Pacific, often in defiance of law and always at a rate to astound those who opposed, he assured his hearers that it was the "ball of empire" rolling to the westward, which

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had made his alleged "fanciful" measures and "bold" projects a reality. Then he showed how the King of England had tried in vain to limit settlements to within one hundred miles of the Atlantic coast; how Sevier had been outlawed for leading his fellow countrymen into Tennessee, only later to be esteemed a gentleman of honor and integrity fit for any trust; and how Boone, in defiance of the wishes of government, had found a safe and beautiful retreat in the Ozark Hills, there to die a patriot and a benefactor. Thus it was and always would be with authority "whether Republican, Imperial or Royal." Authority could never hope to take unto itself the "exclusive privilege of thinking for the people, of checking the progress of population in one direction, and of fixing bounds to it in another, beyond which they the people are not permitted to pass." They might be held in check temporarily by military and other restrictions, but these in turn would be crushed by succeeding revolutions of the ball of empire as it moved to the westward.

Nor was the lawlessness and boldness of those who carried empire to the westward a cause of alarm to Floyd. Their acts were simply proofs of the ability of the people to "preserve their own interest long before government can be prevailed upon to relinquish to them their privilege of acting." He was certain, therefore, that our republic would never bind its citizens to a sterile soil simply to please the notions of those in authority. Mandates to the contrary, such as "would have kept Boone's Lick a wilderness," would be made only to be defied.(38)

As the occupation was inevitable Floyd urged

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that it be immediate. By such a course he would have opened a mine of riches to our shipping interests and to the western country surpassing the hopes of avarice itself. Laboring under great disadvantages, had not the American fur traders on the upper Mississippi and Missouri cleared almost four hundred thousand dollars annually? Give our citizens access to Oregon and encourage the whaling industries of the Pacific, and he was certain that our trade would, in a short time, rival that of the British and become the basis of a commerce with China more than sufficient to balance our purchases from that country. Besides, this new field of commerce would become a training school for sailors, whence could be drawn "hardy sons of the sea," who, like those in our second war with Great Britain, would "shed a blaze of glory over the arms of the nation" and teach "the British lion to crouch to the banners of the republic." To those who argued that the proposed settlement would, in time, become a free and independent state and thus drain the United States of her population and wealth, Floyd replied with the wise suggestion that our security would be better conserved by the presence of a neighbor upon the Pacific coast, who spoke our language and adhered to our manners and customs, than by the presence of a Russian state with all its "disgusting notions of monarchy."

Floyd was ably seconded in most of his arguments by Francis Baylies(39) of Massachusetts, who spoke chiefly for the whale fishing industries of New Bedford and Nantucket. Unlike most of the representatives of the New England States, Baylies was

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pleased with the idea of multiplying and extending the states of the Union as a certain means of preserving it. Thus a variety of interests could be depended upon to neutralize each other, cementing the whole. In the following prophetic utterance he even urged the extension of our territory and population to the Pacific:

As we reach the Rocky Mountains we should be unwise did we not pass that narrow space which separates the mountains from the ocean, to secure advantages far greater than the existing advantages of all the country between the Mississippi and the mountains. Gentlemen are talking of natural boundaries. Sir, our natural boundary is the Pacific Ocean. The swelling tide of our population must and will roll on until that mighty ocean interposes its waters and limits our territorial empire. Then with two oceans washing our shores, the commercial wealth of the world is ours, and imagination can hardly conceive the greatness, the grandeur, and the power that await us.(40)

Those who opposed the bill were equally zealous and were doubtless as patriotic as either Floyd or Baylies. Tucker of Virginia did not think the proposition visionary but rather too practical. With the deserted farms of his own state being abandoned to grow up in briars and pines; he thought it time to call a halt upon the westward movement of population and capital. Tracy of New York pictured the "imaginary Eden" on the Columbia as an inhospitable wilderness, and Wood of the same state opposed occupation because of the indifference on the subject. Numerous others opposed, urging mainly the inaccessibility of the Oregon country.

On January 27, 1823, the vote was taken on

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Floyd's bill. It stood: ayes 61, noes 100, an analysis of the vote showing the representatives of the manufacturing and frontier sections in the majority and those from the commercial and small farming sections in the minority.(41) Public indifference had probably done most to defeat the measure, but its friends had no reason to despair even on that account. In less than one month after their defeat, Little of Maryland presented a memorial from eighty farmers and merchants within his district praying Congress to pass the Oregon Bill.

At the following session of Congress, that for 1823--1824, Floyd again introduced a bill providing for the occupation of the Columbia River, but the progress of diplomatic negotiations with both Great Britain and Russia regarding our interests there rendered discussion inexpedient at that time. He was unwilling, however, completely to bury Oregon in the labyrinth of diplomacy. Accordingly he secured the adoption of a resolution requesting the president to cause to be laid before the House an estimate of the expenses for transporting two hundred troops from Council Bluffs to the mouth of the Columbia.(42) Later he addressed a letter to Calhoun, the secretary of war, asking for the president's opinion upon the proposed occupation of Oregon from a military point of view. The official replies to these inquiries showed such occupation wholly practicable and estimated the expense at about $44,000. They also carried a tone of official approval.(43)

Thus slowly Floyd was winning his way into executive favor. Our difficulties with Russia satisfactorily adjusted, President Monroe suggested to

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the next session of Congress, that for 1824--1825, that it take the necessary steps to establish a military post at the mouth of the Columbia River. Such a post was now desired as a resort for our ships of war, a point of strategy in dealing with the Indians, and a base of commercial intercourse between the East and the West. Accordingly Floyd again reintroduced his bill for the occupation of the Oregon country.

Under these changed conditions the time seemed ripe for results, and Floyd made a master effort in behalf of his pet measure. His opponents continued to talk of the inaccessibility of Oregon, of the insuperable difficulties in maintaining a local government there, and of the folly of establishing settlements that could not be protected and defended in time of war. They were reminded, however, of the achievements of the application of steam to navigation bringing Oregon closer to the East than Wheeling and Pittsburg had been in 1810, of the success of the frontiersmen of Missouri and elsewhere in solving, for themselves and in their own way, the problems of local self-government, and of the experiences of the "Dark and Bloody Land," where the settlers, alone and unaided save by the use of their rifles, had defended themselves and the Union against the designs of foreign enemies. Floyd was certain that the interests of the citizens of the United States upon the Pacific coast "would be identified with the interests of the people of the whole Atlantic coast in a stronger degree" than had been the interests of the people of Vermont and Louisiana at an earlier date. He therefore urged an outpost on the Pacific

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as a center, whence the Unlined States in time would rule the Pacific and probably achieve the victories in India for which Napoleon had longed in vain.

To prove further the urgent necessity of occupation he then produced a wonderful array of facts concerning the geography and topography of Oregon and of our commercial interests there. He, also, predicted the rise of a city at the mouth of the Columbia, that would become a world mart for the precious goods of Asia and of a vast inland empire. He saw, in fact, a modern Tyre in America. Thence the Unites States would supply Canton with flour, cotton, and tobacco, thus completing a commercial circuit of the globe.

To those who still questioned the practicability of maintaining a settlement in Oregon, Floyd conceded the impossibility of finding there the wealth and splendor then found in the salons and drawing rooms of Washington, that "magnificent counterfeit of European royalty;" neither would they find what was very common in Washington, namely: "a heartless intercourse, an aping etiquette of miserable pretenders to the monthly fashions just from Europe." But he assured them that they could find there salmon sufficient to subsist fifty thousand men annually; potatoes grew wild along the banks of the Columbia; and gooseberries were found in abundance with strawberries, raspberries, onions and peas. Moreover, wheat and all kinds of grains could be had cheaply in a few days from Mexico; hogs, sheep, and cattle could be procured in abundance and in a short time from California and the Sandwich Islands; and enterprising citizens had reduced

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the difficulties of the trans-continental route to a minimum.

Floyd dosed his argument with this characteristically imaginative and instructive statement:

"I . . . appeal to the House to consider well our interests in the Western Ocean, on our western coast, and the trade to China and India; and the ease with which it can be brought down the Missouri. What is this commerce? Thousands of years have passed by, and, year after year, all the nations of the earth have, each year, sought the rich commerce of that country; all have enjoyed the riches of the East. That trade was sought by King Solomon, by Tyre, Sidon; this wealth found its way to Egypt, and at last to Rome, to France, Portugal, Spain, Holland, England, and finally to this Republic. How vast and incomparably rich must be that country and commerce, which has never ceased, one day, from the highest point of Jewish splendor to the instant that I am speaking, to supply the whole globe with all the busy imagination of man can desire for his ease, comfort, and enjoyment! Whilst we Rave so fair an opportunity offered to participate so largely in all this wealth and enjoyment, if not to govern and direct the whole, can it be possible that doubt, or mere points of speculation, will weigh with the House and cause us to lose forever the brightest prospect ever presented to the eyes of a nation?"(44)

On this occasion no set speeches were made in opposition to Floyd's arguments, those who did not agree with him contenting themselves with the suggestion that our occupation of Oregon, at that time, would be a violation of the spirit of the treaty of joint occupation with Great Britain under which our citizens had access to the country. Nevertheless the bill passed the House by a vote of 115 to 57, crowning with partial success the ability and efforts of one man. From the House the bill went to the Senate, where it was championed by Benton of Missouri

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and James Barbour of Virginia; but their efforts could not prevail to command for it even a respectful hearing, and thus the question of our occupation of Oregon ceased again to be agitated for a brief period.

Meanwhile the question of our rights and interests on the Pacific had again entered the rounds of diplomacy. After some delay the treaty of joint occupation was renewed for another term of ten years but not without protests. Floyd's distrust of Adams together with the demands of the diplomats had served, however, to prevent a discussion of the Oregon question in Congress, but now, that the former of these barriers was removed, popular interest in Oregon began to revive. As a result three companies of adventurers, one in Massachusetts, one in Ohio, and another in Louisiana, were formed with a view to colonizing the country. The time thus seemed opportune for another effort, and Floyd revived and reintroduced his bill providing for our occupation of the Columbia Valley.

Like a school of hungry trout after a new bait, a number of the newer members of the House attacked the measure resolved to defeat it. Most prominent among them was James K. Polk of Tennessee, who later entered the presidency as the champion to our claims to "fifty-four forty." With Bates of Missouri, Mitchell of Tennessee, Drayton of South Carolina, Ingersoll of Connecticut, and others, mostly young men, Polk argued against any use of the Oregon country that might drain the East of specie and offend Great Britain. He thus spoke for a generation in greater accord with the mother country.

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To one of Floyd's traditions and prejudices his arguments were deplorable. Besides marking a backward step they rendered necessary the temporary abandonment of our rights and interests on the Pacific.

Though the outlook seemed hopeless Floyd fought to the last. His opponent's alarm, lest their specie should some day take wings and fly to the West, he traced to the "ignorant days of British commerce," the days of the Mercantilists, when England had actually prohibited the exportation of gold and had suffered untold consequences. Nor was he willing to take seriously our treaty obligations with Great Britain. He predicted that the British would soon repeat in Oregon the scenes of Kentucky, where the "British trader" and the "British agent" had induced the Indians to murder our citizens on their own territory, to drive them from the fur producing regions, and to deter them from returning. Regardless of their treaties, were they not then increasing their establishments upon the Columbia? Under the circumstances he thought it imperative that Congress take some steps to prevent the murder of our citizens and to command respect for the "sovereignty and rights of the Confederacy,"(45) but the House would take no action.

In a few days after this effort Floyd voluntarily ended his congressional career, but his work had not been in vain. He had succeeded abundantly in filling the minds of the American people with a sort of romantic interest in the lands upon the Pacific and in kindling in them a patriotic resistance to British aggressions in that quarter. These forces

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later combined to win the prize for which he had labored. Following the lines thus marked out the American fur traders carried their activities across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. Through the knowledge which they brought back of the superior tribes of Indians who dwelt there and longed to know of the white man's God, Jason Lee of the Methodist Mission Board answered the call for the gospel and, in so doing, paved the way for the colonization of the Columbia Valley. This movement gave a new interest to the Oregon country, and, in 1838, Senator Lewis F. Linn again took the matter up in Congress, where Floyd had left it ten years before. At the later period the movement for occupation was carried to a successful conclusion.

Whatever credit may belong to Linn and others, John Floyd remains, nevertheless, the father of the Oregon country. "He, more than any one of his day, was the unwearied prophet of the commercial future of the Pacific Northwest."(46) Far greater honor and credit should therefore be accorded him in the future than he has received in the past. His famous report on Oregon has been reprinted; some of his speeches should be preserved; and he himself should have some lasting and fitting memorial.

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THOUGH concerned in a proposed national vaccine institution for the eradication of small-pox.(47) in the alleged rights of the free negroes in the District of Columbia,(48) and in the prompt payment of the public debt, Floyd's minor activities and interests centered in national politics. To the great surprise and alarm of the politicians of the rival factions he was, in 1824, made chairman of a select committee appointed to consider the "Address of Ninian Edwards,"(49) which made charges of malfeasance in office against William Henry Crawford, then a prominent candidate for the presidency. The composition of the committee together with Floyd's known friendship for Crawford's candidacy were thought to render impossible an impartial investigation.(50) But the politicians had set their hearts upon a political scandal and were determined to have no whitewash instead. Accordingly some of them joined in a movement to remove Floyd from the committee, but the "caucus politicians" remained loyal to Crawford and defeated every effort to depose Floyd.

Then followed a period of anxiety during which the country waited for the results of the investigation, the suspense being increased by one of John Randolph's antics. Deserting the committee of investigation of which he was a member, he left in a flurry for Europe, leaving behind for publication in the Richmond Enquirer a letter in which he attacked Edwards, the president, and his fellow investigators.(51) Meanwhile rumor had it that Floyd was

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trying to dismiss the charges against Crawford as "frivolous and malicious," and suspicion and uncertainty increased.(52)

But the fears of the politicians were ill founded. The Committee of Investigation finally acquitted Crawford of all charges of wrong doing, and most persons were satisfied that the evidence and circumstances showed a deep laid and infamous plot to discredit an honest, though at times careless, public servant; and Floyd received only praise for the thoroughness and fairness with which it was exposed. Thus he triumphed over his critics, vindicated his choice for the presidency, and terminated one of the most embarrassing and painful incidents of Monroe's administration.

Among other questions having a direct bearing upon the presidential succession, but of later date than the above, the proposed Panama Congress of 1826 was important. Both Adams and Clay, his secretary of state, favored the project and thought that the United States should be represented in it. Although he doubtless had an eye to the presidency, Floyd's opposition to their plans was not entirely political. He, too, favored an "American policy" but desired no counterpoise to the Holy Alliance.

Such a course meant defiance to Europe and war. Moreover, he did not care to participate in any arrangements which might result in Hayti sending a negro minister to Washington, in the liberation of the slaves of Cuba and Porto Rico, and in subjecting the southern states to the possible attacks

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and the subtle influences of a neighboring free negro population.(53)

It was about this time, probably earlier, that Floyd and other southern leaders of his type had their first definite understanding regarding the presidential election of 1828. Up to that time they had been determined to defeat Adams for a reelection but could not agree upon a candidate to oppose him. Jackson was considered impossible, but their favorite, Calhoun, could not command a popular following. After his unsuccessful contest of 1824--1825 they had expected Jackson's star to set in peaceful oblivion, but the developments of a period of anxious waiting convinced them that he had come into the political arena to stay. As the innocent victim of the famous "corrupt bargain" by which Clay was alleged to have placed Adams in the presidency, Jackson had constantly grown in popular favor. The leaders had, therefore, no other choice between him and certain defeat. They flattered themselves, however, that Jackson in the White House could easily be relegated into the background of his own administration and that the affairs of government could thus be carried on as of old. Accordingly, Martin Van Buren, speaking for the North, and Littleton Waller Tazewell, one of Floyd's intimate friends, speaking for the South, concluded a working alliance between the "planters" of the latter section and the "plain republicans" of the former by which Andrew Jackson was to be made president.(54)

Confident of success and probably of preferment under the leadership of the "Old Hero" who

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was thought to have at least one foot in the grave, Floyd was active on the political battle line. At times his ardor seems to have dulled his judgment. This was certainly true when he gave to the Democratic Central Committee, for publication, a statement of a private conversation with Clay, in 1824, in which the latter, in response to Floyd's efforts to dissuade him from supporting a man of Adam's unpopularity for the presidency, was alleged to have said: "Give us [Adams and Clay] the patronage of the federal government, and we will make ourselves popular." Despite the methods used to secure it, Floyd considered Jackson's election a triumph for true democracy. Accustomed, as he was to the old methods of caucus politics, he doubtless considered himself partly responsible for the victory?(55)

Relying upon Jackson's supposed intention to select his advisers from the "talented and distinguished men of the Confederacy" and probably expecting for himself a call to the new cabinet, Floyd, in January, 1829, declined a reelection to Congress. Considering his future course his printed letter to his constituent's announcing his purpose to retire is as amusing as it is interesting and instructive. The letter is here given in full:

Fellow Citizens--I have been your representative in Congress, and I feel proud of having been so distinguished by my fellow citizens. This favor has been the more grateful to me, and is cherished in every recollection, when I reflect in this long period, you have conferred that office upon me without opposition.

I know you have had something to pardon and forgive

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in your representative, because I, in common with mankind, am liable to err. Whatever my errors may have been, they were, however, unintentional; as I am not conscious of ever having done anything other than the constitution of our country, your honor, and your interest required at my hand. That portion of the sovereign power of Virginia, which you confided to me, is returned to you uninjured and undiminished. Though, in the course of the great conflict, which has eventuated in another great political revolution, the constitution may have received some deep wounds, it has not been by the hand of your representative.

I have the fullest hope, and the strongest belief, that a wise, cautious, circumspect, and temperate course will be pursued by General Jackson whom we all contributed our best wishes and our best efforts to place in the presidential chair of the Confederacy; and that he will aid in healing those wounds, and calming the troubled fears of all.

Whilst this war in the political world was going on, in which, as we conceived, nothing less than the great principles of liberty and the rights of the sovereign states were concerned, I should have deemed myself unworthy the flattering kindness and confidence, with which you have on all occasions honored me, had I in this hour of danger and difficulty, of responsibility and trial, quitted the post which you assigned me. Now it is otherwise. General Jackson will, on the fourth day of March next, commence his duties as President of the United States with a clear sky and a calm sea. To pay the public debt, to lop off all the branches of useless expenditure, to revive our sinking commerce and heal the bleeding wounds in the Constitution, inflicted by ambition, avarice, and a spirit of monopoly, will constitute an ample field, in which he may win laurels no less green than those won on the plains of New Orleans; and crown himself with more true glory in the love and admiration of millions of freemen, than all the conquerors of earth ever possessed, Such, fellow citizens, is the condition of our country which Justifies me in saying to you that I am not a candidate to represent our district in the next Congress.

In taking leave of you, as your representative, I have

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a request which fills me with pain, because I feel assured that I never can convey to you any just idea of the deep sense of my gratitude for your indulgence and kindness to me. Could I manifest that to you and make you sensible of the true condition of my feelings, I should be cheered by the memories of it in my retirement. I am, fellow citizens,(56) Your humble servant,

John Floyd.

For reasons later to be considered Floyd was not given a place in Jackson's cabinet. Accordingly he retired to his home in the Valley of Virginia, there to enjoy the love and confidence of a large famly of children and a devoted wife and to retrieve his declining fortunes. In his retirement his children shared with him the pleasures of the chase and the violin; his wife became his most trusted political and business adviser; and his neighbors again became the recipients of his gratuitous services as a physician.

Of the many wonderful families of Virginia there are few to be found anywhere more interesting and important than that of John Floyd and his wife, Letitia. To this union were born twelve children, of whom George, Susan, and Thomas died in infancy, Mary at the age of six, and Coralie at the age of eleven. Those who survived to maturity were: John Buchanan, who became Governor of Virginia and a member of President Buchanan's cabinet; William Preston, a distinguished physician of Wytheville, Virginia; George Rogers Clark, secretary of the Wisconsin Territory and later a distinguished member of the legislature of West Virginia; Benjamin Rush, a celebrated lawyer of southwestern Virginia; Letty Preston who married William S. Lewis; Eliza

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Lavelette who married George Frederick Holmes, long a professor of history and literature in the University of Virginia; and Nicketti Buchanan who married John Warfield Johnston, from 1870 to 1883 a member of the United States Senate.(57)

Through this family, celebrated for its intellect as well as for its numbers, John Floyd's influence survived long after he had passed from the political stage and had much to do with shaping Virginia's policies at critical periods. Almost without exception, his immediate descendants and their connections were persons of political influence devoted to the state sovereignty theory of government. But for them the history of secession in Virginia might have been written differently. Wherever they resided and were active, even in what is now West Virginia, there the pro-southern and secession sentiment was strong; there particularism, as taught by Patrick Henry, flourished.

There are yet those in Virginia and elsewhere who believe that Floyd's descendants and their connections should have had a greater part and responsibility in directing the affairs of the Southern Confederacy. Such persons criticise President Davis for his failure or refusal to recognize their importance and abilities. Although their favorite was vindicated by the General Assembly of Virginia and the testimonials of his soldiers, there are those who have not forgotten that John B. Floyd was summarily removed from his command after the fall of Fort Donaldson; that Joseph Eggleston Johnston, a member of the famous Johnston family of Virginia, did not receive the promotion which seemed to be due him;

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and that, against the protests of his devoted soldiers, he too was relieved of his command following the fall of Atlanta. The heartburnings thus kindled are yet alive and have rendered the name of Jefferson Davis odious to some confederates.

In his efforts, to relieve his declining fortunes Floyd relied largely upon the products of his pasture lands. Experience, environment, and study had, in fact, made him an authority upon the subject of grazing. The following extract from a letter by Floyd upon that subject shows a broad grasp of the economic forces in the development of this and other countries:

I am inclined to believe that we might almost tell the condition of every country and form a very accurate opinion of its prosperity from simply ascertaining the proximity of the grazing region to the commercial town of that country, provided the soil of the country is adapted to grass from the seaport to the distant frontier.

This is founded upon my knowledge in part and from history which I think fully sustains the opinion.

I cannot now call to mind the precise period, but you recollect that English history tells us at the period referred to, perhaps during the reign of Elizabeth, an ox sold in the markets of London for about thirteen shillings, which ox grazed near the city. Now their beef is fed on the Teese in the mountains of Wales and in the Highlands of Scotland; that small but esteemed beef called the Kyloe is principally had there.

In France, also, grass and beef at a much later period than that first referred to, seems to have employed many of its inhabitants in the neighborhood of their largest towns. Now however the principal supply of beef is obtained at a great distance.

In our own country the same thing has taken place. The city of New York not many years ago obtained its beef from

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the neighbouring counties. At this day they procure it from the most distant counties, and even from the State of Ohio, Philadelphia and Baltimore thirty-five years ago, were supplied from the counties lying between those cities and Carlisle in Penna. They now get much of their beef from Ohio, and the western counties of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

I have mentioned this briefly to show that as the prosperity of the country increases cities also increase, which arises from the fact that all the commodities produced from the soil are more valuable in market than beef, and hence the beef region is thrown to a greater distance.

Not only is this true, but it requires much more land to produce the same revenue where the ox is grazed, than any product which the farmer cultivates, for example I will take Virginia in her present condition.

The grass region in the southwest may be said to extend from the Roanoke to Kentucky, including all the branches of grazing. The nearest point to this city where is fed for market, intended as proof beef, is Montgomery in that direction. In that county there are many extensive farms some perhaps of from fifteen hundred to two thousand acres, laid down in grass to graze the ox for market. This is the precise point at which flour and other heavy products of the farm cease to be of value to the producer on account of the high price of transportation resulting from the distance to market and the bad condition of the roads.

The farmer finding himself possessed of large tracts of land immediately clears it off, by killing the timber; perhaps sows upon it some grass seed, and in a few days it becomes rich pasture. His next step is to purchase as many oxen, from his neighbour still more distant, as will graze upon these pastures and become fat. If he has slaves he keeps them on his farm during the winter and feeds them the crop of the preceding summer. For this purpose perhaps twenty hands may be necessary where the farm contains fifteen hundred acres of pasture land.

But if the farmer has such an extensive establishment and six or eight men, which is a pretty good supply of labor. he generally sells his cattle in October or November to some purchaser who feeds them as before observed until he can

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dispose of them in the market, which will sometimes require a whole winter's operation.

In this way you will perceive slaves are not necessary, very few however to the feeder and still fewer to him who sells from the pasture, and none to those who furnish the store cattle, because they most generally raise them in the range, as it is called, that is by turning in the forest or in the mountains during the winter months.

To graze an ox well it will require from two and an half to five acres of ground. Taking into view the quality of the soil of the country, the age of the pasture, and the drought, I think five acres would be about a fair average, because I have known some thin soil whilst new to require even eight acres for several years to sustain an ox so as to make proof beef. This however is rarely the case.

By this process the land will be worth perhaps two dollars per acre, sometimes more, but I think the increased value of the ox, when made fat upon the grass alone, will be worth much more. When poor, the animal is purchased, according to his size, say at twelve dollars. If the animals are large and well formed they will command when poor from twenty to twenty-five dollars. The increased value when fat is not in the same proportion, besides this stock sheep are often put over the same ground to follow the fat cattle and become the finest sort of mutton. The only attention in this process is to examine daily to ascertain whether accidents have occurred, to know when the stock should be removed to fresh pasture and to give them salt every day, or every few days. It will not be well to let them want salt longer than three days.

In this mode of drawing a revenue from the soil you will perceive that few slaves are necessary, and more than can be employed in the daily routine described is a bad investment of capital in such a country. Hence a slave is seldom purchased unless his labor is wanted for some specific purpose.(58)

But Floyd was not long permitted to enjoy the pleasures of his home and estate. On January 9, 1830, less than one year after he had declined a reelection

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to Congress, he was made governor of Virginia, receiving one hundred and forty votes to sixty-six cast for Peter V. Daniel.(59) At the time of his election a notable body of men, in convention assembled, was engaged in relaying the fundamental laws of his state. Considering the personnel of that body, containing, as it did, two ex-presidents of the United States, Madison and Monroe, the venerable chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall, the Governor of Virginia, William B. Giles, and a score or more other members prominent in political and judicial life, Floyd was rather conspicuous for his absence. Considering the exigencies of the times from the standpoint of federal relations, he was probably already the choice of the state rights politicians for the governorship of Virginia to succeed Giles. His desire to speak for the whole state in the impending nullification crisis, therefore eliminated him from participation in local politics.

From the sources at hand it is difficult to determine Floyd's position on the question of a proper basis of representation for the several counties of Virginia in the General Assembly, the chief subject of discussion in the state constitutional convention at the time of his election to the governorship. His neighbor favored the white basis as opposed to the mixed basis of property and persons. His silence is probably best explained again by the fact that he was the gubernatorial candidate of the old line politicians of the eastern countries, who favored the mixed basis of representation and opposed reforms generally. The readiness with which he accepted the Constitution of 1830, as the best possible compromise

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of the differences between the rival sections, betrays an unusual sympathy for the tidewater interests, because his neighbors of the Abingdon district were now, for the most part, unwilling to compromise their local political difference with the residents of the eastern counties. Some were open in their expression of a desire for dismemberment of the Commonwealth.(60)

Whatever may have been Floyd's attitude towards the all important question of representation in the local Assembly, he was in thorough sympathy with the interests and demands of his section on the subject of internal improvements. Blessed, as it was with many navigable rivers, the Tidewater had consistently refused to tax itself for the construction and maintenance of roads and canals for the use of the uplands and the sections beyond the mountains. But Floyd thought that the future greatness of the Commonwealth lay in her ability to render available her natural resources and to bind her inhabitants together by the ties of common interest. In his annual messages to the General Assembly he, therefore, recommended that immediate steps be taken to these ends. The debates then waging regarding the comparative values of railroads and canals were of little concern to him; action had become imperative.(61)

The proposed central line of communication connecting Richmond and the Valley by way of the James received his first consideration. Next in importance came the plans for rendering accessible the counties of the southwest. This he thought should be done by a railroad extending to the salt, lead,

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iron, and gypsum mines of that section. Thus, in case of war, the state could command its natural resources and dispatch troops, very important considerations to one who believed, as did Floyd, that "speed is power; dispatch victory." Meanwhile the proposed great highway passing through Fredericksburg, Richmond and Petersburg at the head of tide and connecting the North and the South, and that other proposed highway passing from one end to the other of the Valley were not to be neglected.

Like many other Virginians, Floyd's attitude towards negro slavery, which was receiving serious consideration at this time by his state, was determined largely by local conditions and abolitionist activities. When, in August, 1831, like a firebell in the night, the report of a negro uprising in Southampton County, brought to all the gruesome account of the death struggle of helpless women and children at the hands of their brutal and misguided slaves, thus breaking the long and studied silence upon the subject of the relations between the whites and the blacks, Floyd predicted that "This will be a very notable day." At once he prepared to meet the crisis by sending troops and artillery to the scene of the uprising. Though taking every precaution for the defence of his people, he refused to implicate the slave masses and placed the blame for their conduct in Southampton County upon their misguided leaders. Through the whole excitement he never lost sight of those slaves who had remained loyal to their masters, even in the midst of the uprising. The court sentences of some of those condemned to

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death were commuted to imprisonment or deportation, and others were set free.(62)

In reply to an inquiry from Governor Hamilton of South Carolina, Floyd wrote the following letter regarding the causes of the Southampton Insurrection and suggested ways of dealing with the negro and slave problems:

I received your letter yesterday, and with great pleasure will state my impressions freely.

I will notice this affair in my annual message, but shall only give a very careless history of it, as it appears to be public.

I am fully persuaded the spirit of insubordination which has, and still manifests itself in Virginia, had its origin among, and eminated from, the Yankee population, upon their first arrival amongst us, but most especially the Yankee pedlars and traders.

The course has been by no means a direct one. They began first by making them religious; their conversations were of that character, telling the blacks, God was no respecter of persons; the black man was as good as the white; that all men were born free and equal; that they can not serve two masters; that the white people rebelled against England to obtain freedom; so have the blacks a right to do.

In the meantime, I am sure without any purpose of this kind, the preachers, especially Northern, were very assiduous in operating upon our population. Day and night they were at work and religion became, and is, the fashion of the times. Finally our females and of the most respectable were persuaded that it was piety to teach negroes to read and write, to the end that they might read the Scriptures. Many of them became tutoresses in Sunday Schools and pious distributors of tracts from the New York Society.

At this point more active operations commenced; our magistrates and laws became more inactive; large assemblies of negroes were suffered to take place for religious purposes. Then commenced the efforts of the black preachers. Often

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from the pulpits these pamphlets and papers were read, followed by the incendiary publications of Walker, Garrison and Knapp of Boston; these too with songs and hymns of a similar character were circulated, read and commented upon, we resting in apathetic security until the Southampton affair.

From all that has come to my knowledge during and since this affair, I am fully convinced that every black preacher, in the whole country east of the Blue Ridge, was in the secret, that the plans as published by those northern prints were adopted and acted upon by them, that their congregations, as they were called knew nothing of this intended rebellion, except a few leading, and intelligent men, who may have been head men in the church. The mass were prepared by making them aspire to an equal station by such conversations as I have related as the first step.

I am informed that they had settled the form of government to be that of the white people, whom they intended to cut off to a man, with this difference that the preachers were to be their governors, generals and judges. I feel fully justified to myself, in believing the northern incendiaries, tracts, Sunday Schools, religion and reading and writing has accomplished this end.

I shall in my annual message recommend that laws be passed to confine the slaves to the estates of their masters, prohibit negroes, from preaching, absolutely to drive from this state all free negroes, and to substitute the surplus revenue in our treasury annually for slaves, to work for a time upon our railroads, etc., and then sent out of the country, preparatory, or rather as the first step to emancipation. This last point will of course be tenderly and cautiously managed, and will be urged or delayed as your state and Georgia may be disposed to cooperate.

In relation to the extent of this insurrection I think it greater than will ever appear. The facts will as now considered, appear to be these: It commenced with Nat and nine others on Sunday night, two o'clock, we date it Monday morning before day, and ceased by the dispersion of the negroes on Tuesday morning at ten o'clock. During this time the negroes had murdered, sixty-one persons and traversed a distance of twenty miles, and increased to about seventy men. They

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spared but one family and that one was so wretched as to be in all respects upon a par with them. All died bravely indicating no reluctance to lose their lives in such a cause.

I am with consideration and respect. Your obedient servant,(63) John Floyd.

Though impressed with the necessity of moving "tenderly and cautiously" and with due regard to the wishes and conditions of other slave-holding states the alarm occasioned by the Southampton Insurrection, in eastern Virginia, was such that Floyd decided, in November, 1831, to recommend to the General Assembly the enactment of a law providing for the gradual abolition of negro slavery. If such a law could not be made to apply to the whole state, he hoped to have it apply to the counties west of the Blue Ridge Mountains with a view to the final enactment of such a law for the whole state.(64)

Nevertheless his annual message for that year contained no recommendation regarding the abolition or even the gradual abolition of negro slavery. Whether, as on former occasions, the slave-holding states advised delay and caution or the condition of federal relations was such as to render unwise the injection of other and complicating subjects, Floyd had evidently resolved not to push the matter. Yet he did all in his power to precipitate its discussion in the Assembly and expressed his confidence in the ability of his young friends from the western counties: Summers, Faulkner, Preston, Campbell, and others to manage the "affair most excellently."

But, when the debate which he thus aided to precipitate in the House of Delegates began to be heated

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and to engender bad feelings, Floyd, with others, became alarmed. Regarding the delegates from beyond the mountains as allies of the abolitionists and as bent upon the destruction of slave property, the delegates from the eastern counties talked of a dismemberment of the Commonwealth. As expressed by Floyd, "a sensation had been engendered which required great delicacy and caution in touching." It was allayed, and with his approval, by shifting the question from that of gradual abolition to that of the "expediency" of legislating upon the subject at all at that time. On this proposition the pro-slavery party won, the vote being sixty-seven to sixty.

The uncertain condition of federal relations at this time was doubtless a factor in defeating the anti-slavery party in Virginia. Absorbed, as he was in national affairs, Floyd was perfectly willing to turn the whole subject of the state's proper policy regarding negro slavery over to the solution of a master who was at hand in the person of Thomas R. Dew of William and Mary College, a man in whom all Virginia reposed the greatest confidence. In April, 1832, Floyd wrote him inviting his attention to the subjects of slavery and abolition as set forth in the debates of the Assembly of 1831--1832. The able defence and justification of the institution of negro slavery which followed was accepted by Floyd and most other Virginians of whatever section as final. Under the changed conditions the anti-slavery sentiments of 1832 were largely lost sight of in a struggle to maintain the state sovereignty theory of government.

As Floyd's "Diary," published herewith, practically

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covers the period of his term as Governor, the reader is referred to that source for a fuller account of his domestic policies and local activities than is here given. On February 11, 1831, he was re-elected without opposition, this time, to a full term of three years, thus becoming the first governor of Virginia under her Constitution of 1830, a distinction of which he was proud. Like his predecessor he took a keen interest in the selection of his successor, his choice falling upon the successful candidate, Littleton Waller Tazewell. Believing that "great events are in the gale" he urged Tazewell to hasten to Richmond and prepared to lay down his share in the power of the state as he had lain it down for the "Confederacy," "uninjured and undiminished."(65)

The Richmond Whig of April 17, 1834, noted his retirement to private life in this editorial:

Yesterday Governor Floyd left Richmond for his residence in Montgomery, carrying with him the hearty good wishes of the great bulk of this population for his happiness and prosperity. He was escorted out of town by all the volunteer companies--Bigger's Blues, Richardson's Artillery, Myer's Cavalry, and Richardson's Riflemen. No Governor has retired from office with a more general feeling of regard from the citizens of Richmond.