The romance of American expansion . fairs. Unhappily,he also indulged in grandiloquent and, as it seemedat the time, extravagant suggestions which onlyamused those who heard him. He would occupythe Columbia in order, for one thing, to carry thelights of religion, science, and free government tothe ^^imprisoned and exuberant populations ofChina and Japan, who might also find their ^gran-ary in its smiling valley. And, with a fine outburstof new West indignation, he declared: I, for one,had as lief see American ministers going to theEmperors of China and Japan, to the King of Per-sia, and even t
The romance of American expansion . fairs. Unhappily,he also indulged in grandiloquent and, as it seemedat the time, extravagant suggestions which onlyamused those who heard him. He would occupythe Columbia in order, for one thing, to carry thelights of religion, science, and free government tothe ^^imprisoned and exuberant populations ofChina and Japan, who might also find their ^gran-ary in its smiling valley. And, with a fine outburstof new West indignation, he declared: I, for one,had as lief see American ministers going to theEmperors of China and Japan, to the King of Per-sia, and even to the Grand Turk, as to see themdancing attendance upon those European legiti-mates who hold everything American in contempt anddetestation. * At which everybody in and out of theSenate, save those who shared Bentons faith in thetrans-Pacific destinies of the United States, laughedheartily, and forgot all about the really vital issue offorestalling the British in the occupation of Oregon. * Bentons Thirty Years View, vol. I, p. Thomas Hart BentonFrom a portrait in the possession of the Missouri Historical Society. THOMAS HART BENTON 119 In the House the zealous Floyd was more for-tunate. On December 21,, 1824, or more than fouryears after he had first brought the subject to theattention of his colleagues, he had the satisfactionof participating in the passage of a bill by which thePresident was authorized to occupy the ColumbiaValley with a military force, and to set up a territorialgovernment whenever he might find it expedient todo so. The Senate, however, had still to be reck-oned with and the Senate proved obdurate, despiteBentons vehement pleadings; the decisive argumentbeing advanced by Dickerson, of New Jersey, whoasserted that military occupation would lead to awar with Great Britain, and justly, as an infractionof the convention of 1818 providing for joint occupa-tion by the two countries. Upon this Benton,when the opportunity again offered, sought to attainhis ob
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