Thomas Hart Benton
and the
Oregon Question
BY WILLIAM A. HANSEN*
A view of the life and work of Thomas Hart Benton constitutes
an exciting and important segment of the history of the United
States. As a foremost speaker on timely and timeless issues during
the thirty years of his productive tenure in the Senate he ascended
to a "peak in his career as a political leader, and as an advocate,
*William A. Hansen is an associate professor of Speech at Seattle Pacific
College, Seattle, Washington. He received a B.A. from Seattle Pacific College,
a M.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle, and is currently a Ph.D.
candidate in Rhetoric and Public Address at the University of Oregon, Eugene.
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