202 VERNE BLUE
that information he could have laid before the House the previous session, he was at that moment not prepared to present. By a bit of parliamentary tactics the bill was enabled to be brought up again. 18 On December 17 this was done and the House went into Committee of the Whole on its consideration.
Floyd defended the bill in a speech which was mainly a resume and amplification of the report of the Commit- tee of Occupation which had previously been presented. One finds here traces of the objections which the pro- posed scheme had evoked since it had been brought for- ward: He dismisses the charge that the measure is "fanciful" or that he himself is a "bold projector." He warns his fellow Congressmen of the inevitable progress of population westward. It had always proceeded in spite of whatever attempted inhibition on the part of governmental authority.
The dominating note of his speech is commercial : 19
"The settlement on the Oregon as contemplated by this bill connecting the trade of that river and coast with the Missouri and Mississippi is to open a mine c . wealth to shipping interests and the western country surpassing hope of avarice itself. It consists principally of things which will purchase the manufactures and products of China at a better profit than gold or silver, and if that attention is bestowed upon the country to which its value and position entitle it, it will yield a profit, producing more wealth to the nation than all the shipments which have ever in one year been made to Canton from the United States."
Bold words, these. The doctor seemed to be basing them on what he considered to be the laws of probability rather than actual statistics. Undoubtedly they reflect his conversations with Benton and the two former associ- ates of Astor. There is the true Bentonian ring when he pictures the fleets from the Atlantic seaboard to the
18 Annals of Congress, XL, p. 355.
19 Ibid., 198.
