Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 18/Hall Jackson Kelley
.jpg)
1790–1874
THE QUARTERLY
of the
Oregon Historical Society
Copyright, 1917, by the Oregon Historical Society
The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages.
HALL JACKSON KELLEY—Prophet of Oregon
CHAPTER ONE
Youth and Early Manhood
Any statement as to Kelley's early life must be pieced together from fragments now at hand over forty years after his death as a worn-out old man. That he was born at Northwood, New Hampshire, February 24, 1790, is set forth by the town records. He was a descendant of John Kelley, one of the settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts. His grandfather was Samuel Kelley of Salem, and his father was Benjamin Kelley, a native of Salem and a physician who practiced in the New Hampshire towns of Northwood, Loudon, and Gilmanton. His mother was Mary ("Polly") Gile of Nottingham.
Kelley was a boy of ten when his family went to Gilmanton after four years' residence in Loudon. He attended Gilmanton academy, and at the age of sixteen taught school at Hallowell, Maine.[1] In 1813 he graduated from Middlebury college, Vermont, with the degree of A.B.[2] From his own words it is possible to picture the sort of boy he was.
"Blessed with intelligent and pious parents, who led me in early youth to fear God, I came into active life serious minded; and much inclined to consider my ways, and to seek to know what could make me useful and happy. Before the years of manhood, I resolved on a fearless obedience to the divine commands . . .[3] Pious, maternal instructions, in early youth much inclined me to lead an active and useful life . . .[4] It was a mother who taught me never to take the name of God in vain—never to be guilty of the sin of insulting the Almighty with the breath he gives. She impressed my mind with a profound and pious reverence for Jehovah, and with a high and solemn veneration for the institutions of Christianity; and so impressed it with the love of truth, that not a single doubt, as to the divine authenticity of the Scriptures, ever profaned the sanctuary of my heart. Her instructions and examples inclined me to be diligent and persevering in business, and faithful and patient in the discharge of duties; to be hospitable and merciful,—when enemies hunger and thirst, to feed them, and give them drink; and to bless them that persecute . . .
"Early in youth I acquired a fondness for reading. The post came along once a week and left at my father's house the newspaper. Besides accounts of events, accidents and remarkable occurrences, it contained bulletins concerning the terrible wars then raging in Europe, and thrilling accounts of Bonaparte's invading and devastating armies. They were new to me, and I read wth an intense desire to know about them. . . . I read them, and was led to read bodes and papers of every kind as they came to hand. They were calculated to inspire ambition and to interest my feelings. . . . I did not then, so early in youth, understand the distinctions proper to be made as to the conductors in those wars. But afterwards, in riper years, reading, hearing and observations enabled me better to comprehend the meaning of what was read, and better to discriminate between lovers of their country and philanthropists, and traitors and misanthropes. Hence, was my fondness for reading and itching ears for news. At once I left my juvenile plays and sports, and turned to books and papers. I read at times through the day, and more than once through the night. When taking up a bode, treating on some subject I would wish to comprehend, it was not laid down until I understood all its pages could inform me. 'Neil's History of the Indians of New England/ the first ever published, and other histories of that benighted and oppressed people were read. While preparing for college I have more than once studied my Virgil lessons by moonlight; in this way, often times I overstrained the optic nerves, the stress so often brought upon them caused near-sightedness and to be slow of apprehension. . . .
"At the age of fourteen I first experienced a difficulty in utterance. For one or two years I suffered an impediment in my speech; in the presence of superiors was unable readily to begin utterance. About the time of entering college I discovered myself to be 'slow of speech' (of apprehension). . . ."[5]
Earnest, introspective, and diffident, he was also religious to the degree of fanaticism. "In my youth the Lord Jesus revealed to me in visions the lonely, laborious and eventful life I was to live; and gave at the time of the visions, and afterwards, unmistakable signs that the revelations were by Him."[6] In practical matters, however, he showed early in life a disposition to get at the truth through actual experiment. Thus he said:
"A year or two prior to my entering college, much was said in the papers in regard to a perpetual motion. I went into a workship determined on knowing the reality of such a motion, spent several days in an attempt to find out the truth about it. After several days of study and mechanical labor, I was enabled to demonstrate its impossibility. . . ."[7]
Of his college life little is known except that he enjoyed the respect of his fellow students as a young man who could be relied upon to meet the problems which presented themselves.
"When 'in college,' my class was put to the study of astronomy. For the purpose of illustrating, I constructed an Orrery—a machine showing the pathways of the moon round the earth, and the earth round the sun. Lead pencils fixed to the axes of those bodies, and the machine put in motion, their orbits were exactly delineated on paper. It was similar to a figure on one of the plates of Ferguson's Astronomy. My class-mates thought me to have some inventive power and mechanical ingenuity. In my Junior year, a Senior, whose class had been required to calculate and project a certain eclipse of the sun, which would happen far in the future, came to me, saying, if he could be furnished within twenty-four hours, with an accurate projection of that eclipse, he would give me $5.00. I promptly complied with his request, and the money was promptly paid, and was very acceptable, being, as I was at the time, in needy circumstances."[8]
Kelley sought his opportunity in Boston, where he again became a school teacher.[9] On May 4, 1815, he married Mary Baldwin, a daughter of Rev. T. Baldwin, D.D.[10] On the records of the school committee of Boston Kelley's name first appears as master of the West reading school, a position to which he was appointed on September 29, 1818, after several weeks' service as a substitute during the last illness of his predecessor. On June 17, 1820, Kelley was appointed master of the Hawkins Street grammar school, and on March 20, 1821 he became reading and grammar master of the Mayhew school. Here, it appears, he became involved in "difficulties" with the usher, whose dismissal was recommended by the sub-committee of the Mayhew school. Further inquiry was made into the matter by a special committee headed by the mayor, Josiah Quincy, with the result that on July 18, 1823, the secretary was directed to inform Kelley that the school committee would dispense with his services, but that his salary would be continued through the quarter.
As to the results of his educational activities, he claimed, "I improved the system of common school education in my adopted State. The Black Board and the Monitorial Desk were first introduced into the schools of Boston by me. The late distinguished Joseph Lancaster was the first to use them."[11] Now that the blackboard has fallen into disfavor and the Lancasterian monitorial system has been long since abandoned by educators, no one is likely to dispute the claim. He also interested himself in the subject of industrial education. "I attempted the founding of an institution, to be called, 'Massachusetts Mechanical and Agricultural College.' The subject was two years before the legislature. The Committee on Education said to me, that if I would raise a fund of $10,000, the State would give $10,000 more. A munificent individual of Charlestown proposed to subscribe $2,000; myself would give a portion of my estate in the town."[12] The project was abandoned; but Kelley expressed satisfaction that "his zealous efforts . . . excited in others of abler talents, correspondent intentions and labors, which resulted, in some small benefit, to our literary institutions."[13] However active he may have been in promoting this movement, he was not its originator; nor does his name appear in any of the published documents relating to the matter.[14]
Kellcy's interest in the welfare of youth also prompted him to take an active part in the organization of the Boston Young Men's Education Society, of which he was the first secretary, and in the founding of the Penitent Females' Refuge, which was organized in 1821 and incorporated in 1823.[14] His strong
[15]
6 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
religious bent naturaUy led him to attempt to promote the systematic study of the Bible. "The first Sunday School in Boston and perhaps New England was organized by me with the assistance of the late Rev. Daniel Chesman. In 1820, or the year following, I prepared for the use of the Sunday Schools in Boston, a small bode called Sunday School In- structor."^*
As a writer of elementary school books, Kelley met with considerable favor, if we are to judge by the number and variety of editions. First came The Instructor's First Book.^^ Diligent search has failed to bring to light a single copy of this work, and its date of publication is unknown. It was doubtless the same as the First Spelling Book, Or Child's Instructor, the eighth edition of which was published in 1827. In 1825 ap- peared The American Instructor, Second Book, which accord- ing to the title page was "Designed for the common schools in America; containing the elements of the English language; lessons in orthogfraphy and reading, and the pronunciation of Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary; all made easy by the arrangement and division of words, and an improved use of figures and letters." A second edition was published in 1826. A fifth edition, published in 1827, bore the title Kelley's Second Spelling Book. There was a further change of title in 1832, when The Western Spelling Book was published in Qncinnati.
The American Instructor contains selections for reading on geography, agriculture, architecture, mechanics, astronomy, and prosody, with special attention to Thomson's poetry. Its frontis- piece shows Minerva, book in hand, directing two boys to the "temple of fame" on a nearby height ; a globe, a compass, and
i6Kelle7> Explanatory Remarks, Ms. attached to a copy of Kelley's Second Spelling Book, presented to the Amherst allege library about 1869.
"In 18 18 provision was made for the instruction of children from four to seven years of age. The primary schools established for this purpose seem to have originated in a general desire ot our citizens to relieve the Sunday-schools from the great amount of secular instruction received there, which was fast crowding out uie religious trainins that should be the ol^ect of such institutions." — ^Dillaway, Education, in Winsor, Mtmorial Hist, of Boston, IV, 24s.
17 S^tUment of Oregon, 9.
Hall Jackson Kblley 7
several books giving to the scene a scholarly setting. *T5e- lightful task to rear the tender thought f so runs the legend. This, of course, was Kelley's only by adoption. It was typical of that generation of school masters who forced our grand- mothers, while in their 'teens, to read and appreciate such ponderous books as Watts' Improvement of the Mind; and — it helps us to understand Kelley.^
According to the minutes of the meeting of the corporation of Middlebury college held on August 16, 1820, Kelley was "admitted to the degree of Master of Arts." This was not an "honorary" degree, as we now understand the term, for ac- cording to the president of the college, "as it was quite cus- tomary at that period to confer that degree upon any g^duate of more than three years' standing who applied for it, it could not be regarded as a distinguished honor." Within the year Harvard also conferred the same degree ad eundem gradum}^
Kelley was twice married. His second wife was Mary Perry, adopted daughter of T. D. Bradke of Boston, to whom he was married on April 17, 1822 at Boston. They had three sons, Benjamin, John S., and Charles H. His first wife also left a son, Thomas B.»
After his second marriage, and probably after his dismissal from the Boston schools, Kelley took up his residence in Charlestown. Many years later, he gave a description of his property in Charlestown and Boston. There was an "estate in Milk Row, Charlestown," and four other "estates." "One comprised twelve acres of land ; and is situate near Craigie's Point, Charlestown. . . . The other three consisted of houses and lands, situate in Boston, where at this time [1854] are the Lowell, the Eastern and the Western railroad depots.
i8 "Perhaps no spdlinj; book while this was extant, and iu author was about in the land looking to its interest, had a wider circulation and was more popular: and perhaps there was no book of the kind more perfect in orthography ana method of showing the true Towd sound and correct pronunciations. Walker's orthography as far as it regards words ending with tick and our is now an objection to its use — that of Webster now being generally sdopted in the 8chools.'*~'Kelley, Explanatory Remarks, Ms.
19 Harvard UniTcrtity, 0«ffi^#fMMs/ Catalaguw, 1913: 817.
so Middlebury College, Central Catalogue, /Soo>i90o: 46; Temple, 265.
8 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
. . . They had been purchased in anticipation of improve- ments which it was supposed would much enhance their value."^^ This is evidence that early in life Kelley possessed a certain amount of business enterprise. His subsequent busi- ness ventures were of quite another sort.
We do not know when Kelley took up the work of a sur- veyor. We do know that he was interested in higher mathe- matics, and he tells us that as early as 1815 he had conceived what he considered an improved system of geog^'aphical and topographical surveying. After declaring that the system in general use was unsatisfactory in both theory and practice, he said :
"The system which I propose scarcely admits of an error. It points out an easy and correct mode of running the line 5 re- quired in the survey. My method has many advantages over that now in practice.
"The numerous errors of the compass are entirely avoided. The interests of the land proprietor are better promoted, and the wide door so much open for litigation, which often costs him his freehold, is effectually closed. It is the only simple method by which right lines, having a given course, can be run with precision. It is attended with as much certainty as the high operation of trigonometrical surveys."^ His nearest approach to a definite description of his system appeared in the Manual of the Oregon Expedition, or General Circular, in which he set forth the manner in which divisions of lands should be made in Oregon.
"All boundaries of towns, and lots of land, will be identified with meridian lines, and parallels of latitude, — not by the parallels as found on the surface of the earth, where they are crooked, as the hills and depressions make them uneven; but by such, as they would be, provided the surface was smooth. . . . It is, however, true, that the divisions of land, as they lay south of each other, increase in quantity, in proportion to
21 Kelley, I^arrative of Events and Difficulties, 6.
22 Settlement of Oregon, ii.
Hall Jackson Kelley 9
the divergence of the meridian lines ; nevertheless their bound- aries will be distinctly marked, and their contents exactly known. A country thus surveyed, gives the advantage of ascertaining, without admeasurement, the relative position or distance of any one place from another, consequently the lati- tude and longitude of the metropolis being determined, those of any other place are known."^
Confident that the principle he advocated would be of g^eat public utility if generally adopted and practiced, he presented his system to the national government in the form of a petition to congress on April 10, 1830.^
It was as a surveyor that Kelley in 1828 became interested in the affairs of the Three Rivers Manufacturing company, which had been incorporated in 1826 to build and operate a textile mill in the village of Three Rivers in the town of Palmer, Massachusetts. This village, which was then but a hamlet, lies at the point where the combined waters of the Ware and Swift rivers join the Quaboag and form the Chic- opee, which is one of the branches of the Connecticut. The company had met with unexpected difficulties in digging a canal, for its engineers were unable to make much progress on account of the solid granite rock near the dam which they had built. Kelley put his money as well as his efforts into the project. He made surveys and prepared a comprehensive plan, including the manufacturing plant, the water power, and the village itself. One of his hobbies was straight streets and rectangular blocks (a natural reaction in a Boston engineer).
23 Kelley, Gtn^rai Circular, 13.
24 **The [senate] committee [on naval affairs] to which the subject was referred, for a n)od and obyioos reason, saTc the investigation of the subject to General [Simon] Bernard, then at the heaa of the corps of civil engineers.
"This profound mathematician carefully examined the papers and the formula I had prepared for their illustration, reported an opinion highly creditable to his own talent, liberally estimating the talents of the memorialist. Notwithstanding the system was recommended as being worthy of public adoption, yet nothing was oone to bring it into practice. President Jackson promised to adopt it, whoiever 'a book, giving directions for its practice and a proper apparatus, should be pre- pared. Ihad described minutely the iipparatus and the manner of using it, and had begun the toblo of dtflocHons necessary for the book, and this was all my Oregon enterprise afforded me time to do. The tables might require for their preparanon one or two years of assiduous attention of some learned mathematician." — Settle- mont of Oregon, lo-i; ai cong. i sess. S. jour., 236, 275.
10 Fred Wilbur Powell^ A. M.
but the position of the rivers and the configuration of the land fortunately limited his efForts in that direction. True to his New England inheritance, he reserved land for a small com- mon in the center of the village.
The company soon became bankrupt, however, and Kelley lost heavily. At the sale of the company's property, he pur- chased some land, having become enthusiastic about the ulti- mate prosperity of the village ; and early in 1829 he brought his family from Charlestown and established his home there.^
Kelley was now in his fortieth year; yet in the record of his life as, here set forth, there is little that would seem to bear out his early vision of a "lonely, laborious and eventful life." It is a workaday record of a school master and a man of small affairs. We have now to consider the man of dreams — and his all-possessing dream of the settlement of Oregon.
2$ Settlement of Oregon, 23; Templ«, 263-3: Alkn, The Town of Palmer, in Cbpeland. Hist, of Hampden County, II, i44« Temple is authority for the state- ment that Kelley projected a canal from Three Rivers to the Connecticut river for the transportation 01 the supplies and ffoods of the mill and village. This plan was not new, however. The citizens of Brookfield, at a public meetins held on May 23, 1825, had proposed the cotistmction of a canal to Springfield, via the Quaboag and Chicopee rivers. — Sprinrfield Republican^ June i, 1825. The canal- building spirit was at its height in Massachusetts in the twenties.
CHAPTER TWO Years of Agitation
The Biddle version of the journals of Lewis and Clark was published in 1814.* On December 24, 1814, the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States was terminated by the Treaty of Ghent, which provided that "All territory, places, and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war . . . shall be restored without delay," and ratifications were exchanged early in 1815. At the end of the war, Astoria, John Jacob Astor's trading station and fort at the mouth of the Columbia river, was held by the British, by whom it had been renamed "Fort George.^ Under the terms of the treaty the United States arinounced its inten- tion of asserting sovereignty over this fort and the region of the Columbia, but no response came from Great Britain. ' Ac- cordingly a sloop of war was dispatched in September, 1817 to take possession. This action compelled the British to declare themselves, which they did by asserting a claim to the territory upon the ground that it had been "early taken possession of in his majesty's name, and had been since considered as forming part of his majesty's dominions."
These events served to arouse great interest in the Pacific Northwest. It was only natural, therefore, that Hall Jackson Kclley should have sought out the Lewis and Qark journals and read with avidity all that they had to tell of the far-off land. Here was a young man with boundless enthusiasm and ambition, and with energy which refused to be confined. Fate had placed him in Boston, the home port of Captain John Kendricky Captain Robert Gray, and the Winships. There were men in Boston wHo could tell of their voyages and of
I The History of tho Bspodition Undor tko Command fo Captains Lowis and Clark, it the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky mounuins and down the River Columbia to the Pacific ocean. Philadelphia, 1814. 2 v.
12 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
the nature of the disputed lands. Such an opportunity was not to be neglected. To Kelley it meant an objective which dwarfed all other interests and governed his thoughts and movements throughout the rest of his long life. Of his awakening, or "vision" as he termed it, he said :
"In the year 1817 *the word came expressly to me* to go and labor in the fields of philanthropic enterprise and promote the propagation of Christianity in the dark and cruel places about the shores of the Pacific. . .? The perusal of Lewis and Qark's journal, personal conference with intelligent navfgators and hunters who had visited and explored the territory beyond the Rocky mountains, and facts derived from other sources entitled to credit . . . satisfied me that this region must, at no remote period, become of vast importance to our Gov- ernment, and of deep and general interest. ... I foresaw that Oregon must, eventually, become a favorite field of mod- ern enterprise, and the abode of civilization."'
In another place, writing in the third person, he declared :
"He then conceived the plan of its colonization, and the founding of a new republic of civil and religious freedom, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean . . . and w^hout con- ferring with flesh and blood, and in despite of witreaties of prudent, worldly-wise friends, he resolved on the devotion of his life in the realization of his plans, hoping to do something worthy the sacrifice, by planting, in the genial soil of those regions, the vine of Christianity and the germ of Civil Free- dom."*
His plans developed slowly, however, for he needed first to inform himself as to the nature of the Oregon country; its climate, its soil, its natural products, and its native inhab- itants. The possibilities of trade with the Atlantic states,
a Kelley, Hitt. of the Settlement of Oregon, 124; see also Kelley, Petition. x866: X. Kelley himself was uncertain as to the exact date of the conception of his ccrfonization idea. In an earlier statement he said it was "about the year 1818." — ^Kelley, Memorial, 1844, in Palmer Sentinel, December 10, 1846.
J Kelley. Memoir, in Committee on Foreign Affairs, Territory of Oregon, emental report, 47> ^S cong. 3 sess. H. rep. loi. 4 Petition, 1866: x.
Hall Jackson Kelley 13
with Mexico and South America, and with the Asiatic peoples demanded investigation, and the possibility of a practicable route overland invited attention. No less important was the question of title to the territory itself. Besides, there was the immediate, personal matter of a livelihood. As we have seen, Kelley became a master in the Boston public schools in 1818 and continued in that employment until 1823, when he left it not at his own desire. The prudent man when he finds himself out of one position, looks for another; not so Kelley, who now took up the matter of Oregon to the practical exclu- sion of lesser interests.
Meanwhile, events had been shaping themselves in such a manner as to emphasize the need for action. In 1818 by the joint-occupation treaty it was agreed that the disputed territory west of the Rocky mountains should be "free and open for the term of ten years" thereafter ; thus leaving the question of title unsettled while putting a premium upon early occupa- tk)n. By the Florida treaty, Spain in 1819 ceded' to the United States all claims to the Northwest country. Russia, however, in 1821 asserted a claim to lands in that territory as far south as the fifty-first parallel. Within the year, by act of parliament, the North- West company was merged with its great rival, the Hudson's Bay company, thus strengthening and consolidating British interests in that region. Already, December 19, 1820, the expediency of occupying the Columbia river had been brought to the attention of the house of representatives by John Floyd of Virginia, and a committee had been appointed to in- quire into the situation, but "more through courtesy to a respected member, than with any view to business results";* and the attitude of the succeeding congress was no more favor- able to positive action.
We have no means of knowing as to how familiar Kelley was with contemporaneous developments on the Columbia, or even with the proceedings of congress, but we may safely assume that he knew of Floyd's activity and of the disposition
5 6«nton, Thiriy Years* V^tw, I, ij. of the national government to defer official action. To assume less would be to deny to Kelley that marked propensity for getting information which so distinguished him in all cases of which we have knowledge.
"In the year 1824," he tells us, "I announced to the world my intention to settle Oregon, and to propagate in regions beyond the Rocky mountains, Christianity."[16] In the same year Russia formally abandoned all claims to territory on the American continent south of 54 degrees 40 minutes, thus removing another obstacle in the way of American occupation. Yet Kelley's first memorial to congress was not introduced until February 11, 1828. His name was first mentioned in the deliberations upon the Floyd bill on December 24, 1828, and then it was obscured through the reporter's error. It is necessary, therefore, to consider in some detail the activities of those persons, who like Kelley, but independently of him, sought to influence congress to act, particularly those who signified their desire to establish permanent settlements in the Or^on country.
Most prominent among those who interested themselves in the Oregon question was that champion of the West, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Although a practicing lawyer, Benton edited the St. Louis Enquirer, perhaps as early as 1815, and used its editorial columns as a means of promoting Western interests and his own political advancement. Some of his articles he reprinted in 1844 in a booklet bearing the title, Selections of Editorial Articles from The St. Louis Enquirer On the Subject of Oregon and Texas As Originally Published in that Paper in the Years 1818-19 and Written by the Hon. Thomas H. Benton. According to the preface these articles were reprinted to arouse interest in the Oregon question at the State Democratic convention soon to be held, and to call attention to the "statesman-like foresight which those who now read them, for the first time, will duly appreciate." When a politician assumes to present historical materials tending to
Hall Jackson Kelley 15
show his "statesman-like foresight," the historian must exercise all possible caution. When that politician is Benton, the need for caution is imperative, for in him were combined the qual- ities of unquestioned personal integrity and of equally unques- tioned political agility. So this booklet with its selections bear- ing no dates more specific than those on the title page, could hardly be accepted in the absence of supporting evidence.
Fortunately, we have such evidence and of a conclusive char- acter. There is nowhere a complete file of the St. Louis En- quirer, but from the numbers available it is possible to identify one of the selections. Furthermore, if such evidence were lacking, it would be possible to prove that as early as 1819 Benton's newspaper was giving space to the discussion of the settlement of Oregon. In the Independent Chronicle and Bos- ton Patriot of June 9, 1819, appeared an article "from the St. Louis Enquirer" under the head, "The Columbia River." This article is reproduced in part below :
"The project of some citizens of Virginia to settle on the Columbia, revives the idea of a town or colony on that river.
"Mr. John Jacob Astor of New York, made an establishment at its mouth just before the commencement of the last war, which was broken up soon after by British and Indian hostility.
"The Virginians contemplate an establishment on the navig- able waters of the Colimibia, but we should think that the place of its junction with the Multnomah would furnish the most eligible. — These rivers unite their streams, in tide water, one hundred and twenty miles from the Pacific Ocean, and a short distance below the range of mountains. From thence to Asia the navigation would be easy and direct, the distance not great, and the sea so peacable, as its name indicates, that no more mariners would be wanting to conduct a ship, than hands enough to set her sails at the outset of the voyage, and take them down at its termination. To the same point also (the
7 The editorial, "Treaty of 1818 — Columbia River** (Selections, 8-9) appeared in the St. Louis Enquirer of March 17, 1819. The Enquirer on Januar^r 0, i8ai, rej>riated an article "from the Western Spy*' on "Commerce with Asia,** which dcdared *'A series of essasrs on this subject was imblished in the St, Louis En- quirer,"
16 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
confluence of the rivers) would come the commerce, at pres- ent chiefly drained by the Multnomah and the Columbia; a region embracing fourteen degrees of longitude, and sixteen or eighteen of latitude, larger than all the Atlantic states put together, and possessing a climate as mild as that of Europe. An establishment formed at that place would doubtless receive many immigrants from Asia. . . .
"Whatever may be the result of the Virginia company, the progress of the fur trade itself, will form a town at the point indicated. Its trade may at first be limited to furs; but in process of time it will become the emporium of that rich East India commerce which is destined to find its way into the valley of the Mississippi ; by the Columbia and Missouri rivers. And when this time arrives, a new Tyre will be seen in the west, of which the old, and although 'queen of cities,' will have fur- nished but a faint image of power and splendor."
While this article does not appear among the Selections, the subject matter is the same and the style is the same. Both may be traced to a ccmmion source in the chapter on "View of the Country on the Columbia,*' in Brackenridge's Views of Louis- iana, from which Benton quoted with credit in the Selections.* Thus he quoted from Brackenridge the following paragraph :
"The route taken by Lewis and Qarke across the mountains, was perhaps the very worst that could have been selected. Mr. Henry, a member of the Missouri company, and his hunt- ers, have discovered several passes, not only very practicable, but even in their present state, less difficult than those of the Allegany [sic] mountains. These are considerably south of the source of the JeflFerson river. It is the opinion of the gentleman last mentioned, that loaded horses, or even wagons, might in its present state, go in the course of six or eight days, from a navigable point on the Columbia, to one on the waters
8 Henry Marie Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana; together with ajoumal of a vcnrage up the Missouri river in 1811. Pittsburgh, 1814; 304 pp. Thus, Benton said: "Look to the map. See the Arkansas, the Platte, and the Yellow Stone, all issuing together from the Rocky Mountains in the neighborhood of the sources of the Buenaventura and the Multnomah [Snake], which issue from the opposite side; the mountains between no more than gentle swells, over whkh loaded waggons may easily pass."— P. 7.
Hall Jackson Kelley 17
of the Missouri. — ^Thus, rendering an intercourse with settle- ments which may be formed! on the Columbia, more easy of access than between those on the heads of the Ohio, and the Atlantic States."^
He quoted further from Brackenridge to emphasize that the soil in the vicinity of the Columbia is rich, the climate more temperate than in the same latitude in the United States, and the natives very numerous (although he omitted a sentence telling of the "almost, continued fog, and drizzling showers of rain, which renders it extremely disagreeable near the sea*'). From this he concluded : "This seems to indicate a capacity of supporting a dense population, practically exemplified by the number of inhabitants who live upon its spontaneous pro- ductions.
He then proposed the establishment of a series of posts along the overland route from the Missouri to the Columbia, thus opening "A channel to Asia, short, direct, safe, cheap, and exclusively American, which invites the enterprise of American citizens, and promises to them a splendid participation in the commerce of the East. . . . Nothing is wanting, but a second Daniel Boone to lead the way, and thousands of ardent spirits would immediately flock to develop its vast means of agriculture and commerce, and to open a direct trade between Asia and America. . . . With the aid of the American government, the trade upon this route would immediately begin. That aid is not required in money, but in government protection ; in giving to an American fur company an act of incorporation, with leave to form a port of entry at the mouth of the Columbia, and to establish a chain of posts and trading stations from thence to the upper navigable waters of the Missouri river. With these aids the enterprising citizens of the West are now ready to commence this trade. In two years, they would have it in operation, and would begin a revolution in commerce which would check the drain of gold and silver from the United States, and revive upon the banks of the
9 pp. ii>a; Brackenridge, 96.
18 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
Columbia and Missouri the wonders of Tyre and Palmyra, of Memphis and Ormus. Without that aid, and the same revolu- tion will be eventually accomplished."*^
While Benton was writing of the necessity of a transconti- nental route to the Columbia river country, another man was developing the same idea. This man (perhaps the editor, John S. Skinner) in an anonymous article, which appeared in the July 9, 1819 number of the American Farmer of Baltimore, proposed "The Bactrian camel as a beast of burthen for culti- vators, and for transportation across the continent, to the Pacific ocean." Under this head he presented a glowing pic- ture of the possibilities of the Northwest, its fertile soil, its great quantities of excellent timber, its productive fisheries, and its salubrious climate as indicated by its numerous and robust population of Indians. He continued :
"Settlements, will, no doubt, very soon grow up, and spread along the shores of the Columbia river with astonishing rapid- ity; — and the young athletic powers of our government will, ere long, launch into its waters a fleet to move along the coasts of the Pacific, and take imder its protection the commerce, which the enterprise of our citizens will soon create and extend over those seas, to an incalculable amount. ... To enable the government to wield its potent energies with eflFect, and to give to the American people the means of exerting their enterprising commercial spirit to the greatest advantage, and to enable them to make due profit frtnn the great resources of their coimtry, it has become necessary, that a short, direct, and certain means of communication should be established into every quarter, to the most remote point, and particularly over the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
- Steam Boats have effected much; our improvements and
facilities of intercourse, in that way, have justly attracted the admiration of the civilized world ; but there are physical diffi- culties and obstacles which that masterly invention can neither surmount nor remove, with all its skill and power. . . .
zo pp. i^, z8, 22-3, 27- See also Brackenridge, 96- 7> aft to the practicability of aa overland route as a meant of developing the trade with the East Indies.
Hall Jackson Kelley 19
Therefore, whatever advantage may be derived from steam boat transportation of heavy articles, by the way of the Missouri, into the interior, it must certainly be abandoned as the mail route to the coast of the Pacific, and, also, I am inclined to believe, as the route for the transportation of any article across the continent, farther than the Yellow Stone River. . . ." He therefore proposed the establishment of communications by the most direct route and the use of the Bactrian camel, whose good qualities he proceeded to set forth at great length, and concluded with the question, "Why not add the majestic, long lived, placid, and valuable Bactrian Camel to the number of the auxiliary laborers & carriers for the active citizens of the nation?""
This question was answered by Robert Mills, in a Treatise on Inland Navigation, published in Baltimore in 1820, in which he proposed the application of steam as the "moving power to carriages, upon rail roads across the mountains" between the Yellowstone and the Coliunbia. In this book Mills followed the article in the American Farmer so ^closely as to suggest common authorship, were it not for his reference to a "late writer" in connection with an extensive quotation from that article.*^ This book went through two editions. Like the article upon which it was based, it served to spread abroad the idea that at our very doors lay an undeveloped territory of great possibilities, and that means should be devised to make it more accessible to emigrants.
When we come to inquire as to the source from which the unknown sponsor of the Bactrian camel obtained his informa- tion as to the Northwest, the name of Benton suggests itself. When we inquire as to the person responsible for arousing Floyd's interest in that country, we find that again it was Benton.
At the opening of the second session of the sixteenth con-
11 I, XI3-5' 'Hie descriptive part of this article was reprinted in the Ntw Bngland Palladium and Commercial Adverttger of Boston, July 14* i8jo.
12 Pp. 53-9- Sec also Qeveland and Powell, Railroad Promotion, 259-64.
20 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
gress in December, 1820, Benton was in Washington as sen- ator-elect from the new state of Missouri, awaiting formal ad- mission to his seat. There he had quarters at Brown's hotel with Congressman Floyd, Ramsay Crooks of New York, and Russell Famham of Massachusetts. Crooks and Famham had been in the service of John Jacob Astor on the Northwest Coast. Floyd had already become interested in Western af- fairs during his early residence in Kentucky, and he had read the articles which Benton had published in the St. Louis Enquirer. These circumstances led to earnest conversations among the four men; and Floyd determined to bring the question of occupation to the attention of congress.*' He re- newed his efforts in the following congress and continued his endeavors until 1829, when he became governor of Virginia. He died in 1837 ; and it does not appear that he was active in the movement after leaving congress.
On February 22, 1823, Peter Little of Maryland presented to the house "a memorial from eighty enterprising farmers and mechanics within his district, praying congress to pass the [Floyd] bill now on the clerk's table, for the occupation of the mouth of the Columbia river, intimating their wish to re- move thither, for the improvement of that country, and of their own condition."**
Benton's first formal action in the matter was taken on January 10, 1825, when he reported to the senate the Floyd bill, which had already been passed by the house.^*^
Growing interest in the Oregon question is indicated by the proceedings of the twentieth congress. The terms of the joint- occupation agreement had been continued indefinitely in 1827, but made terminable upon a year's notice. On February 11, 1828, Floyd presented a "memorial of citizens of the United States, praying for a grant of land, and the aid of Government in forming a colony on the Northwest coast of the United
13 Benton, Thirty Y tars' View, I, 13; 16 cong. a test. Annals of Congrsss, tXXVn, 679. 945-59; H. joor., 80, 171.
1417 cong. a tew.. Annals of Congrtss, XL, 1077; H. jonr., 150. 15 x8 coog. a test. S. joor., 74
Hall Jackson Kelley 21
States/' The speaker, Andrew Stevenson of Virginia, also presented a similar memorial from Alfred Townes of Ken- tucky/*** The memorial presented by Floyd declared that the memorialists . . . are mostly engaged in agricultural and mechanical pursuits" and that they for themselves, and three thousand others who will associate in solemn covenant with them" asked for a grant of land on the Oregon river between the forty-sixth and forty-ninth parallds of latitude and extending from the Pacific ocean to a longitudinal line one hundred miles from the mouth of the rivcr.^^
This memorial was the work of Kelley, as was explained by Edward Everett of Massachusetts during the following session on December 29, 1828. According to the record:
"His attention had been turned to the subject by the drctun- stance, that he had been called on by a constituent (at the head of an association which wished to emigrate to the region in question), to sutmiit a memorial to congress, at the last session, which, in his own necessary absence, Mr. E. stated he had done, through the courtesy of the gentlemen from Virginia (Mr. Ftoyd). . . . His thoughts had been in this way directed to the subject and he confessed that he had formed a very favorable impression of the general nature of the pro- posed measure."^'
On December 10, 1828, Henry H. Gurley of Louisiana pre- sented "a petition of James M. Bradford, and twenty-four others, stating that they have associated together for the pur- pose of removing to, and permanently settling on, the waters of the Columbia or Oregon river, within the territorial limits of the United States, as a company to hunt, trap, and trade — praying for grants of land, and other encouragement.""
i6ao cong. i test. H. jour., 280.
ijStHUmtnt on the Ortgom Rwer, 20 cong. i mss. H. doc. 139. 4 pp.
18 20 cong. a seas. Rtgister of DthaUs, V, 13a. "As etrlv m i8a6. I began to communicate with membera of CongrcM upon the subject ot the settlement of Oregon; that year, I think, with the Hon. Ttmothjr Fuller, member of the House [from Massachusetts], and with the Hon. Edward Everett in \%2y:*SottUmo$tt of Orogon, 93. As Fuller's last term expired in March, x8as, Kelley was clearly in error; and if we are to accept his sutement, which is unquestionably true as to Everett, we must give him credit for a year earlier than he claimed.
19 so cong. a sess. H. jour., 44.
22 Fred Wilbur Powell^ A. M.
The matter was taken up for discussion in the committee of the whole house on the state of the Union on December 23,
1828. Gurley proposed an amendment to the Floyd bill, pro- viding for a grant of land forty miles square to Bradford's New Orleans con^>any. Everett, however, "stated that, in that part of the country from which he came, there was an association of three thousand individuals, respectable farmers and artizans, who stood ready to embark in this enterprise, as soon as the permission and protection of the Government should be secured to them." He therefore raised the question whether an exclusive grant of land such as was proposed would be fair to other prospective settlers as enterprising and meritorious as those of the New Orleans company.
The obnoxious provision was therefore stricken out on the following day, and the amendment was further modified "by inserting the names of Paul and J. Kelley [sic], and his asso- ciates (a similar company from Massachusetts), and Albert Town [sic] and his associates, (a company from Ohio), as entitled to the permission granted by the bill."^
Of Kelley's other activities during the years from 1824 to
1829, we know little. That he engaged in little if any remuner- ative employment is certain,^* though his engagement as a land surveyor by the Three Rivers Manufacturing c<»npany would suggest that he may have served others in like capacity. It would seem, however, that he neglected his personal affairs, and became involved in difficulties which threatened the loss of his property. These troubles he attributed to the efforts of the opponents of the settlement of Oregon.
"To accomplish their designs, and to prevent mine, and to make an end of my project, they raised an army in the city of Boston, and afterwards in '27, enlisted troops in the cities of New York and Washington, and in '29 raised a more bloody troop in the village of Three Rivers, to which place I had just moved my family. ... As early as in the year '24 . . .
20 20 cong. a sess. Register of Debates, V, 126. See also p. 146. a I Kelley, Narrative of Events and Difficulties, 7.
Hall Jackson Kelley 23
my adversaries first devised my hurt; and in the year *28, taking the advantage of the pecuniary embarrassments brought upon me by a heavy loss of property in the Three Rivers Manufacturing company, they planned to get from me my princely estate and ccwnfortable home in Charlestown, Mass., believing that by so doing they would deprive me of the means which they supposed necessary for the accomplishment of the Oregon enterprise. . . .
"In the spring of '29, to be at a greater distance from adver- saries who were coming daily to worry and impoverish me and to delay progress in my great and benevolent enterprise, I moved with my family to the village of Three Rivers . . . taking with me what household stuflF the plunderers of my property had left."^
These words of a half-crazed man, written long after the events which they suggest rather than describe, are at least sufficient as evidence that during those years he was active in the cause of Oregon settlement, so active in fact that he merged his personality in it and regarded all men who came into opposition to him as opponents not of him but of the idea which possessed him. Despite opposition, however, men were found who were willing to listen to him, and to lend their names and their influence in his behalf. These men in 1829 joined him in instituting the American Society for Encourag- ing the Settlement of the Oregon Territory. Individual agita- tion was now to be supplanted by organized propaganda. The "vision" was becoming more real and distinct.
23 SffUfmtnt of Oregon, si, 33.
CHAPTER THREE The American Society — Plans and Propaganda
In the course of the discussion of the Oregon question in congress and elsewhere, much was said of companies — ^Brad- ford's company, Kellcy's company, Towne's company. Kelley, however, had no desire to become the leader of a mere band of adventurers, still less of a partnership for profit like Astor's. The name of his organization was carefully chosen. It was to be a "society*' of American citizens who were interested in promoting his plan to secure the American title to Oregon by establishing a settlement in the valley of the Columbia.
At its organization in 1829, the American Society for En- couraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory elected Gen- eral John McNeil president, Washington P. Gregg treasurer, and Kelley general agent.^ It was incorporated by special act of the Massachusetts legislature, approved June 22, 1831, McNeil and John L. Blake, D.D., being named as incorpora- tors.* "This society was Hall J. Kelley. He was the body and brains, the fingers and tongue of it," said H. H. Bancroft,* and the s^tement is true. The others were willing to "encour- age"; Kelley was willing to sacrifice everything. The head- quarters of the society was in Boston, and Kelley made fre- quent trips from Three Rivers to attend to its affairs. His duties were those of a publicity agent. When his domestic concerns admitted of his absence, he "traveled New England, everywhere lecturing on Or^on," but according to his own statement he was an indifferent public speaker, due to his extreme diffidence.^ His lectiu-e tours could not have been very extensive, for his expenses on this account were but $200.'
I Kelley, Memorial, 18481 6-9. McNeil later became tonreyor of the port of Boftofu and Gregy, tecretaiT of the common council of Boston, a L. Maaa. s83x» c. 63; XII, 133-4.
3 Bancroft, Hist, of the Northwest Coast, U, S45*
4 Kdley, Hist, of the Ssttismsnt of Orsgon, S5> ^4-
5 Kelley, Naroiwe of Events and DifficnlHss, 7.
26 Fred Wilbur Powell^ A. M.
Probably the opposition which he encountered on these tours» and of which he complained most bitterly, led him to direct his efforts to writing and to conferences with men of affairs and influence.
We have seen that he had convinced Edward Everett of the practicability of his plan as early as 1827. On January 25, 1830, upon motion of Everett, the petition of Kelley which had been presented to the house of representatives by Floyd on Febru* ary 11, 1828, was referred to the committee on foreign affairs.* On January 5, 1831, Benton presented to the senate a "mem- orial of the American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Country . . . praying that a military escort and transports, and convenient military posts, may be estab- lished for the encouragement and protection of emigration to that country," which was referred to the committee on military affairs.
At the cq)ening of the next congress Everett also presented to the house of representatives a memorial of the Society, "praying congress to aid them in carrying out the great pur- poses of their institution ; to grant them troops, artillery, mil- itary arms, and munitions of war; to incorporate the society, with power to extinguish the Indian title to lands; and with such other powers, rights and immunities, as may be at least such other powers, rights, and immunities, as may be at least Hudson's Bay Company."^
This menx)rial appears in the Manual of the Oregon Expedi- tion, or General Circular. As it sets forth in brief the con- tentions of the memorialists as to the right of sovereignty over the territory and the national advantages to result from its settlement, it is reproduced at length.
"They are convinced, that if that cotmtry should be settled under the auspices of the Government of the United States of America, from such of her worthy sons, who have drank of
6 21 cong. t sess. H. jour., 198. 721 cong. 2 sess. S. jour., 71. S 22 cong. I scss. H. jour.» 44.
Hall Jackson Kelley 27
the spirit of those civil and religious institutions, which con- stitute the living fountain, and the very perennial source of her national prosperity, great benefits must result to mankind. They believe, that there, the skillful and persevering hand of industry might be employed with unparalleled advantage ; that there. Science and the Arts, the invaluable privilege of a free and liberal government, and the refinements and ordinances of Christianity, diffusing each its blessing, would harmoniously unite in meliorating the moral c(»idition of the Indians, in promoting the comfort and happiness of the settlers, and in augmenting the wealth and power of the Republic.
"The uniform testimony of an intelligent multitude have established the fact, that the country in question, is the most valuable of all the unoccupied parts of the earth. Its peculiar location and facilities, and physical resources for trade and com- merce; its contiguous markets; its salubrity of climate; its fertility of soil ; its rich and abtmdant productions ; its extensive forests of valuable timber; and its great water channel diversi- fying, by its numerous branches the whole country, and spread- ing canals through every part of it, are sure indications that Providence has designed this last reach of enlightened emigra- tion to be the residence of a people, whose singular advantages will give them unexampled power and prosperity.
"These things have excited the admiration of every observer, and have settled in the policy of the British nation the deter- mined purpose of possessing and enjoying them, as their own ; and have induced their Parliament to confer on the Hudson's Bay Company, chartered privileges for occupying with their settlements the fertile banks of the Columbia; which settle- ments have been made ; and are flourishing, in rapid growth, under the culture secured by the provisions of a Colonial Gov- enunept.
"The Society conceive It clearly deduced, from all the facts in the case, Uiat the right of sovereignty over the Oregon territory is invested in the government of the United States of America, consequently, in her is the exclusive right of
28 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
colonizing that country, and of introducing into it the various business and benefits of civilized life.
"The expense and labor necessary to the accomplishment of this work, planned by Providence, made easy by nature, and urged and encouraged by the persuasive motives of philan- thropy, are in no degree, commensurate with the national bles^ sings to be derived' from it ; among which are enumerated the following ; viz. :
"The moral condition of the Aborigines . . . will be improved. . . . Their unjust and tmequal alliances with another nation may be broken, and their friendship secured to this.
"By means, thus honorable, that valuable territory would be held from possession of an unfriendly power.
"Ports of Entry, and Ship and Navy Yards, might be estab- lished with great advantage, on the waters of Oregon, and thereby, the trade and commerce of both the Pacific and At- lantic Oceans would become extended and enriched. Capital- ists and Mariners might pursue, with more profit and safety, the whale and other fisheries in the Western Seas, and the salmon trade in the Columbia.
"A portion of the virtuous and enterprising but not least faithful population, whom misfortunes have thrown out of employment, and who throng our villages and sea-ports, and seek a better home, — might there find opportunities, under the paternal kindness of the government, to succeed to a happier condition, and to greater usefulness to themselves and to their country. . . .
"These are objects so obvious, so vast and valuable, as need not be urged . . . and seem necessarily embraced within the scope of a wise policy. They are yet deemed practicable. Another season — ^their possession will be thought expedient — but not so easily wrested from the grasp of British power.
"The Society view with alarm the progress, which the sub- jects of that nation have made, in the colonization of the Or- egon Territory. Already, have they, flourishing towns, strong
Hall Jackson Kelley 29
fortifications, and cultivated farms. The domicile is made the abode of domestic comforts — ^the social circle is enlivened by the busy wife and the prattle and sport of children. In the convention of 1818, England secured for her subjects, the privileges of a free trade, that of buying furs of the Indians ; but, at first, they practiced trapping and hunting; now, they practice buying and improving lands, and assiduously pursue the business of the farmer and mechanic. Their largest town is Vancouver, which is situated on a beautiful plain, in the region of tide water, on the northern bank of the Columbia. At this place, saw and gfrist mills are in operation. Three ves- sels have been built, one of about 300 tons, and are employed in the lumber trade. Numerous herds and flocks of horses, homed cattle, and sheep, of the best European breeds, are seen grazing in their ever verdant fields. Grain of all kinds, in abundant crops, are the production of the soil.
"Everything, either in the organization of the government, or in the busy and various operations of the settlements, at this place, at Walla Walla, at Fort Colville, and at DeFuca, in- dicate the intentions of the English to colonize the country. Now, therefore, your memorialists, in behalf of a large number of citizens of the United States, would respectfully ask Con- gress to aid them in carr3ring into operation the great purposes of their institution — ^to grant them troops, artillery, military arms, and munitions of war, for the defense of the contemplated settlement — ^to incorporate their Society with power to ex- tinguish the Indian title, to such tracts and extent of territory, at the mouth of the Columbia, and at the junction of the Mult- nomah with the Columbia, as may be adequate to the laudable objects and pursuits of the settlers ; and with such other powers, rights and immtmities, as may be, at least, equal and concur- rent to those given by Parliament to the Hudson's Bay Com- pany ; and such as are not repugnant to the stipulations of the Convention, made between Great Britain and the United States, wherein it was agreed, that any cotmtry on the Northwest Coast of America, to the westward of the Rocky Mountains,
30 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
should be free and open to the citizens and subjects of the two powers, for a term of years ; and to grant them such other rights and privileges, as may contribute to the means of estab- lishing a respectable and prosperous community/*^
Everett was not prepared to give his unqualified endorse- ment to the memorial, and' he took care to get into the record the following statement as to his attitude:
"Lest his opinions on the matter involved should be mistaken from the fact of his having presented the petition, he con- sidered it a duty to state that he could not urge the granting of the prayer of the petition at this time; because it would be impossible to grant it, without violating the stipulations of the treaty on the subject with Great Britain. There was, how- ever, one view of the subject in which it required the considera- tion of the House. It is Stated in the memorial that flourishing settlements of British subjects existed in the Oregon terri- tory. If this were so, it was in violation of a stipulation agreed to between Great Britain and the United States, that, during the convention, no settlement should* be authorized to be made on the debatable lands, by the citizens of either country. This was a matter that required to be looked to, and was an appro- priate subject of inquiry for the Committee on Foreign Relations."i<>
It was as a writer that Kelley was most effective in spread- ing broadcast information as to the Oregon country and arous- ing interest in its immediate settlement by Americans. In 1830 he published A Geographical Sketch of That Part of North America Called Oregon.*^ In the preface he ascribed to Jefferson the honor of having been the first to suggest the
9K«Iley, General Circular, 8-11.
102a cong. I aess. Register of Debates, VIII, 1433; Niles' Register, XLI, 285; Settlement of Oregon, 93*6.
II Kelley, A Geographical Sketch of That Part of North America Called Oregon: containing an account ot the Indian title; the nature of a right of sovereignty; the first discoveries; climate and seasons; face of the country and mountains, natural divisions, physical appearance and soil of each; forests and vegetable productions: rivers, bays, &c.; islands, &c.; animals: the disposition of the Indians, and the number and station of their tribes; together with an essay on the advantages result- ing from a settlement of the territory. To which is attached a new map of the
country. Boston, 1830. 80 pp. 
The nature of the contents of this pamphlet is sufficiently indicated by its sub-title. The geographical detail need not concern us, but there are two points which merit attention. As to the question of title, Kelley asserted' "The rights, which England set up to this country, are predicated on idle and arrogant pretentions; nor is the claim made by America, to a right of soil founded on better tenure." With the exception of the land bought in 1791 by Captain John Kendrick, the title to all lands was in the hands of the Indians, whose rights to own lands were the same as those of the whites. Therefore, adequate compensation must be tendered before the Indian title could be extinguished.[17] The advantages to result from settlement were presented under seven heads.
"First. The occupancy of it, by three thousand of the active sons of American freedom, would secure it from the possession of another nation, and from augmenting the power and physical resources of an enemy. . .
"It is not a doubtful hypothesis, that unless our legitimate rights on the waters and in the territory of Oregon, are protected by planting a colony in it, or by other means no less effectual; they will in a few years more, become entirely lost to our merchants, or to the benefits of our country.
"England is desirous of possessing the whole country, with all its invaluable privileges. She has evinced this, by that bold and lawless spirit of enterprise, by which she has acquired so great a monopoly in the Indian trade; by which, in the year 1812, she took from American citizens, the town of Astoria (now called Fort George), and still retains it. . . . In this presumptuous way; in defiance to treaties and obligations, to the paramount claims of this country, and by alliances with the Indians, she hopes to secure a hold upon it, which the physical power of the American Republic, exerted in the plenitude of its energies, cannot break. . .
"Second. A free and exclusive tradte with the Indians, and with a colony in Oregon, would very considerably increase the resources, and promote the commercial and manufacturing interests of our country.
"The fur trade has been and still is found vastly lucrative to those who pursue it. The contemplated colony would find it productive of great pecuniary advantage, and a fruitful source of their prosperity. . .English traders, at the present time possess the country. The will of the Hudson Bay Company, is the supreme law of the land. The natives are subservient to it, and American traders dare not resist it. Hence, the inland trade is fast on the wane, and has become disastrous, if not in most cases, ruinous. While it is so constantly exposed to the rapacity of treacherous Indians, and to the avarice of the English, it must remain utterly valueless. It might, however, be reclaimed, and forever protected by a colony occupying the shores of the Columbia. . .
"Third. The fisheries might be more extensively and profitably pursued. . .
"Fourth. A port of entry, and a naval station at the mouth of the Columbia, or in DeFuca straits, would be of immense importance to a protection of the whale and other fisheries, and of the fur trade; and to a general control over the Pacific ocean, where millions of our property, are constantly afloat. . .
"Fifth. It is an object, worthy the attention of government, to secure the friendship of the Indians, and prevent alliances between them and other nations. . . .
"Sixth, The settlement of the Oregon country, would conduce to a freer intercourse, and a more extensive and remunerative trade with the East Indies. . . . Such an extension and enjoyment of the East India Trade, would provoke the spirit of American enterprise, to open communications from the Mississippi valley, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific ocean, and thus open new channels, through which the products of America and the Eastern world, will pass in mutual exchange, saving in every voyage, a distance of ten thousand miles; new channels, which opening across the bosom of a widespread ocean; and intersecting islands, where health fills the breeze and comforts spread the shores, would conduct the full tide of a golden traffic into the reservoir of our national finance.
"Seventh. Many of our seaports would be considerably benefitted by taking emigrants from their redundant population. It is said, and truly so, that business of all kinds is overdone; that the whole population cannot derive a comfortable support from it; hence the times are called hard; which generally press the hardest upon those, who pursue the useful occupations of laborious industry. . . .
"The learned profession might spare some of their wise and erudite votaries who, in Oregon, could find meeds of immortal honours. Many of industrious habits and honest lives, whose reputations have been blasted by the foul breath of calumny; these, with the unfortunate and oppressed, but virtuous of all orders, could there find an asylum, and succeed to a better condition.
"These hastily written observations must be concluded by the remark, that all nations, who have planted colonies, have been enriched by them."[18]
The first date set for the starting of an expedition to the
34 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
Oregon country does not appear in any of Kelley's writings that have been preserved. For a long time his plans were con- tingent upon the action of congress. Had success followed the presentation of his memorial to congress in 1828, it is likely that he would have lost no time in declaring himself. This much is certain; two land expeditions were originally con- templated, one of men only and a later one to be made up of families. The time of departure of the first expedition was finally set for January 1, 1832.^*
Kelley's plans were formally presented in the Manual Of The Oregon Expedition, or General Circular,*' which begins with the announcement "OREGON SETTLEMENT, to be com- menced in the Spring of 1832, on the delightful and fertile banks of the Columbia River" In this pamphlet he again con- sidered the Indian title, and declared that since the British claim to jurisdiction over the territory south of the forty-ninth parallel was without foundation, and in view of the failure of congress to take positive action, there was no justly constituted jurisdiction in that country. Therefore, he argued, the emi- grants would violate no law or right of the United States by settling there. He laid particular emphasis upon the economic superiority of the Columbia valley over the Middle West.
"The natural advantages of the country, for trade and com- merce, foreign, internal and coastwise, are paramount to tlK>se fotmd in other parts of America. The confluence of the many navigable rivers, opening into, and beautifying every section of the country, forms the g^nd river Columbia, whose waters may be traversed by large vessels, two hundred miles from the sea; whose either bank affords inlets safe and commodious for harbors. Nature furnishes many clear indications that the mouth of this far spreading and noble river is soon to become the commercial port of that hemisphere, the great business
14 Young, Correspondence and Journals of Nathaniel J, Wyeth, 4^; McMaster, United States, VI, no, citing Boston Patriot, May a8, 1831, and United States GoMette, October 2a, 183 1.
1 5 Kelley, Manual of the Oregon Expedition. A general circular to all persona of good character, who wish to emigrate to the Oregon territory, embracing tome account of the character and advantages of the country; the right and the meana and operations bv which it is to be settled, and all neceasary directions for becoming an emigrant. Cnarlestown, 1831. a8 pp.
Hall Jackson Kslley 35
place of nations, interchanging the commodities and produc- tions of western America and the East Indies.
"Much of the country within two hundred miles of the Ocean, is favorable to cultivation. The valley of the Multnomah is particularly so, being extremely fertile. The advantages, gen- erally, for acquiring property are paramount to those on the prairies of the West, or in any other part of the world. . . . The Oregon is covered with heavy forests of timber. . . . The production of vegetables, grain, and cattle will require comparatively but little labor; these articles, together with the spontaneous growth of the soil, and the fruits of laborious industry, in general, will find a market, at home, and thereby comfort and enrich the settlers. Surplus staple articles may be shipped from their doors to distant ports, and return a vast profit in trade. Lumber, ship timber, &c. may be sent to the western coast of South America, the islands in the Pacific; bread stuffs, furs, salmon, and many other articles of domestic manufactures, to the East Indies.
"It is the circumstance of a good home market, that gives any country its greatest value, and must give the Oregon coun- try immense advantages for settlement; advantages unknown in the Western States, whose markets are as remote as the shores of the Atlantic. ...
"The want of value to the farmer's surplus produce, is his poverty ; and has made shipwreck of the fortunes of thousands, who have settled in Ohio, Indiana, &c."^*
Having thus described the resources of the country, he pro- ceeded to unfold his plans more in detail, taking up in order the survey and division of lands, the civil government, and provisions for the organization of churches and schools. Then came the direct appeal to emigrants and the terms on which they might be enrolled, the route to be taken, the expedition itself, and finally the question of funds. The order of presenta- tion is significant ; first a general picture of the economic ad- vantages, then a more detailed description designed to appeal to those who would shrink from the idea of "roughing it,"
s6Ppb 6-7.
36 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
next an appeal to the Puritan type of emigrants, and finally the practical questions of emigration and funds. Those who are interested in the psychology of prospectus literature wiU find the pamphlet worth reading.
Two towns were contemplated; a seaport town on Gray's Bay, eleven miles north of the mouth of the G)lumbia, and a trading town on the peninsula at the confluence of the Columbia and the Willamette. A five-mile square of territory was to be laid out as a site for the seaport town, according to the foltow- ing plan :
"Of the streets, one, 200 feet wide, will run from the water, in a N. W. direction, bisecting at the distance of six squares, an area of ten acres of parade or pleasure ground, which area is forever to remain open and unoccupied with buildings. The centre of this street, for the width of 100 feet, will be devoted to the purposes of a market. Streets crossing this, at right angles, are intended to be 100 feet wide; those parallel to it, 50 feet. The squares are to be 400 feet on a side, each includ- ing 18 [16] lots, 50 by 100 feet each. From the 100 ft. streets and the public lands, no plant or tree is to be removed or destroyed without consent of the municipal authority."*^
Similarly, the trading town was to be two miles square. A tract of land near this town was to be divided into parcels 40 by 160 rods or forty acres each, and the number of lots was to equal the number of emigrants over fourteen years of age, not including married women. Next to these lots would be others of 160 acres, making up the complement of two hundred acres to each emigrant.**
17 P. la.
i8P. 13. "Possibly our real estate men, who are now so vigorously adver- tizing 'peninsula' additions, will take note of the fact that Kelley was ahead of them with a map and plat and advertizement of that same ground by sixty-one years.** — 'Harvey W. Scolt. Address, Oregon Pioneer Association, Transactions, 1890: 34.
"One is reminded of Keller's instrumentality in the settlement of Oregon dv the improvements at present being made on 'the peninsula,* where stands the mill town of Saint John, the terminus of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Com- pany's road, and the Portland (Catholic) University, as well as bv the long line of warehouses between Saint John and East Portland proper. Kelley particularW honored the peninsula by adding to his writ]nfl[8 a line plan of the town which he designed for that point As a site for a city it has some excellent features, one of which is space to grow. Ultimately it will become a part of Greater Portland, but before it becomes absorbed in Portland, it would be a gracious sunestion to kt it come in tinder the name of its intending colonizer, Half J. Kelley.'^--Frances F. Victor, Hall J. Kelky, One of the Fathers of Oregon, Oregon Historical Society, Quarttrh, n, 39S (1901).
Plan of Trading Town. In discussing the question of civil government Kelley knew that he was on uncertain ground. As the Oregon country lay beyond the jurisdiction of the United States, the relation which the settlers would bear to that government involved perplexing questions. The form of government was also recognized as a matter worthy of serious thought. He looked to congress for action which would solve these problems, but in default of such action he was prepared to set up a provisional government. On this point he said:
"Whatever may be the frame of government, it should be built upon the most finished improvements of others. Whether the settlers are to be considered children of mature age, made free, and setting up for themselves, constituting in some degree, an independent Province, the friend and ally of the mother country; sharing in her generous and maternal solicitude; or whether they are to be a Colony, planted, cherished, and protected by her, depends entirely on Congress. That the latter should be the case, is the prayer of a memorial, at the present time, before that august assemblage of talents, virtue and wisdom.
"Should the emigrants fail of that Charter, which reason and justice dictate, and humanity calls for, they will attempt to make for themselves, just and equal laws, under the provisions of a form of government, so far made a free democratic representative, as will be consistent with an unequivocal recognition of the sovereignty of the American Republic. It will be in most respects, a transcript of the government of the Michigan Territory. The Governor, Secretary, Treasurer, and Board of Land Commissioners, being the Appointments of the Society. It will continue two years, unless Congress, before the expiration of this time prescribes a substitute. . . ."[19]
Religious himself, he took care to emphasize the religious aspects of his plan. "The settlers will lose none of their religious privileges and comforts," he promised. "Churches of different denominations will be organized before emigration."
38 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
'He also sought to encourage "pious and well educated young men ... to engage in the great work of imparting moral and religious instruction to the Indians." Upon the subject of education Kelley's plans were broad in scope but limited* as to details. "Some efficient and appropriate system" was to be adopted, and in it would be included "whatever will best civil- ize the manners, reform the morals, enlighten, and free it from the g^sp of superstition;" certainly an ambitious program. Schools of every grade were to be opened. "Agricultural and classical institutions, and colleges succeeding common and pri- mary schools . . . will l>e established; and in them, red as well as white children taught the rudiments of learning." A special appeal was made to persons of good education to emigrate in order that there might be properly qualified can- didates for positions in the schools and in the offices of gov- ernment.*^
As emigrants Kelley wanted only "men of steady habits," and it was provided that all who proposed to emigrate should be required to give satisfactory evidence as to their "good moral character and industrious habits." He wanted particu- larly "properly educated persons, to fill the civil, military and literary roles," clergymen and physicians, men "possessing a scientific knowledge of the diflFerent branches of mathematics and natural philosophy, to constitute corps on engineering, surveying, astronomy, geology and botany," farmers, and me- chanics. His appeal was also directed to capitalists who would take with them vessels suitable for the lumber trade and the whale and salmon fisheries, and the iron parts of grist mills, saw mills, and nail-making machinery, and establish a paper mill, a printing press, a windpw-glass factory, and an iron foundry.
To such men his inducement was "most of the expenses of emigration and a landed estate, valued from $2,000 to 10,000, situated, where the healthfulness of climate, the good market for every product of the earth or of labor, and the enjoyment
20 Pp> I5-6*
Hall Jackson Kelley 39
of a free and liberal government will conspire to make life easy." More concretely, "each anigrant, over fourteep years of age, not including married women ; and each child that is an orphan, or without parent in that country, will receive a lot of seaport land ... or two farming lots in the valley." Poor children and children in charitable institutions were eligible.
On the other hand the requirements- were not burdensome. Each prospective emigrant was to pay twenty dollars as a pledge of faithful performance of obligations to be stipulated by covenant between him and the Society ; namely, to give oath to obey the laws of the Society and to be a peaceable and worthy member, and to agree that all common property should be liable for debts on account of the settlement; the Society in turn to agfree to defray all expenses of the first expedition from St. Louis except for clothing, gtms, and knapsacks, to give each settler a parcel of seaport land or two hundred acres of farm land chosen by lot, title to pass after two years' occu- pation, and to guarantee religious and civil freedom.^^
At this point Kelley interpolated answers to objections which had been made to his project, reafHrming the healthfulness of the Oregon country, and declaring that there was no ground for fear of violence from the Indians. "The Agent of the Society has given these subjects many years of patient investi- gation," said he, "and does not hesitate to avow a greater con- fidence in the faith and friendship of those red men, than of the white savages who infest our communities ;" confidence which subsequent events in the Northwest showed to have been un- warranted. Nor did he anticipate trouble with the Indians along the proposed route, which was from St. Louis up the Platte, throu^ the South Pass and down the Willamette. That the South Pass was feasible he affirmed upon the author- ity of Major Joshua Pilcher, Indian agent of the war depart- ment**
31 P^ s6-9.
22 pp. 19-22. It is ngnificant that he made no 'reference to the ttatemtnta of Braclcenridfe and Benton on this point.
40 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
Kelley looked to congress to pay a part or the whole of the expenses of the expedition in view of the national benefits to accrue from the settlement ; but he declared it will not concern the settlers, whence comes protection, or the means of accom- plishing the objects of the enterprise, whether from omgress or private munificence." As to the detailed preparations for the expedition, he said:
"Emigrants are required to defray their own expenses to St. Louis; and after that, to provide with all necessary arms, knapsacks, blankets, and private carriages. Females and chil- dren must be provided, at the time of starting, with covered horse wagons, containing each a bed and two or more blankets. From St. Louis they will be subject to no other expense than the above named, and in Oregon will receive gratuitously, a landed estate of great value.
"Orders will be given in due time for assembling in Port- land, Me. ; Portsmouth, and Concord, N. H. ; Boston, Worces- ter, and Springfield, Mass. ; Bennington, Vt. ; Albany, Buffalo, Detroit [I] and New York, N. Y.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Balti- more, Md. ; Washington City, &c. . . . At these, and other places, companies will be formed; Captains being appointed to the command of every fifty male adult persons, the emigfra- tion will then commence, by the most practicable route to the aforesaid place of general rendezvous. . . . The cost, from Boston . . . will, probably, not exceed fifteen dollars."
Captains and other officers were to be chosen by elections to be held after general orders had been given for assembling. Shareholders of merit and of good education only were to be el^ble to offices of rank. At St. Louis a drove of cattle was to be purchased, and fly tents each large enough to cover six wagons were to be provided. No private property other than wearing apparel, military equipment, and provisions was to be taken in the public baggage wagons. All merchandise, machinery, and other property was to go by sea. From St Louis the expedition was to be under a military form of gov- ernment*'
23 pp. t2-4. The sea expedition was alto "for persons who might be unwilliac or unable to sustain the fatigue of the land."— Co/onitaffon of Oregon, so.
Hall Jackson Kelley 41
As to the financial arrangements, the Circular set forth that the funds of the Society should be made up of $200,000 of stock and certificate money and all such donations as benevo- lent and public spirited individuals might make. It presented an extract from the report of a committee charged with devis- ing a plan of financing the enterprise, which contained the fol- lowing suggestions :
Let a portion of the funds of the society constitute a capital stock of Two Hundred Thousand DoUars, to be divided into shares of $100 each, and to be raised by loans. Each share entitling the owner thereof to 160 acres of land, as set forth in the certificate of stock, — ^the lots are to be numbered and determined according to the rules and plan of division ex- pressed by the By-Laws of the Society. This stock shall be secured on the pledge of all the public and common property and revenues of the settlement — ^the emigrants covenanting with the Society before embarkation, that all debts incurred directly or indirectly, for the l)enefit of the settlement, to the full amount of said stock, shall be paid in the manner aforesaid.
"Your G)mmittee would also suggest the propriety of rais- ing funds by donations and subscriptions, to meet more specific purposes in the Oregon Country. Let one be called the Edu- cation or Indian Fund; and another called the Religious Fund, . . .
"[The] par value [of the stock] cannot be depreciated by the contingency of ill success of the enterprise ; for, in that possible event, every dollar of the stock will be refunded, the same being on hand either in money, or in public property. . . ."^
The details of the financial plan were also presented in an- odier pamphlet which was also issued in 1831. This was a stock book which bore the legend "This book of stock, sub- scriptions, &c., in which shall be enrolled, the names of all persons contributing to the success of founding a settlement in Or^on, either by subscriptions, donations or investments in the Societ/s stock, shall be preserved, in perpetuum, by the
24 Pp. 2S-6.
42 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
settlement; and a true copy of the same shall be deposited in the archives of the government of the United States of Amer- ica." In the four pages of this pamphlet there is nothing of interest that was not included in the General Circular except a facsimile of a share of "Oregcm. Settlement Stock." This "stock" was really a short term bond, secured by a pledge of the common property of the Society. It was to bear interest at the rate of six per cent after May 1, 1832, and the principal was to be payable in either five or ten years, at the option of the holder. The right to 160 acres of farming land on the Columbia was to be given to the holder of each "share," or bond, as a bonus.
Kelley took care that his pamphlets should be put into the hands of men of influence at Washington. He sent copies of both the Geographical Sketch and the General Circular to the heads of departments and to members of congress. A seccmd edition of the Geographical Sketch appeared in 1831, with the General Circular as an appendix. Scattered about the country were agents of the Society, thirty-seven in number, whose duty it was to distribute literature, give information, and enroll members. Some of these agents were booksellers, how- ever, who obviously had only a qualified interest in the pro- posed expedition. Two names are significant. One is James M. Bradford of St. Francisville, Louisiana, leader of the pro- posed New Orleans company of 1828 ; the other is Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth of Cambridge, Massachusetts, of whom more will be said in the chapters that follow.^
as SetfUmtnt cf Oregon, 77-8.
CHAPTER FOUR The American Society — Delay and Failure
As stated on the first page of the General Grcular, the expedition was to start in the spring of 1832, or three months after the time originally set. Furthermore it appears that Kelley's original plans had undergone a change,^ for he now proposed to take women and children on the first land expedi- tion. There is no evidence in the General Circular that more than a single expedition had ever been contemplated.
Kelley spent the winters of 1830 and 1831 in Washington attempting to influence congress to take positive action,* and his necessary absence from his headquarters at Boston and the tendency of congress to delay easily accounts for the postpcmc- ment of the date set for departure.
The number of persons enrolled upon the books of the Society is nowhere stated except in general terms. It is cer- tain, however, that the statement of Kelley in his first memorial to congress in 1828 that three thousand men stood willing to emigrate was based largely on anticipations. His highest claim was to the effect that he had "enlisted four or five hun- dred emigrants" by 1832.' Speaking of the prospective emi- grants he said:
"Many were those in all parts of the Union, and in some parts of Europe, who would engage in it. Companies were formed, in different parts of the States, and many men of dis- tinction and of high standing in society, all desiring their names to be enrolled in the expedition. The Hon. Samuel Houston, in conversation said: 'I have almost made up my mind to go with you to Oregon, and engage in the East India trade/ A company in Paris was formed, and another, a more numer-
I Young; Correspondence and Journals of Nathaniel J, Wyeth, «*3, t'9.
4 Kelley, Petition, t866: 3.
3 Kelley, Hist, of the Settlement of Oregon, 80.
44 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
ous one, in Germany. The former corresponded with me through Mr. Everett ; the latter through a German gentleman in the government service at Washington."*
From the point of view of results, Nathaniel J. Wyeth was the most important person who came under Kelley's influence. Of him Kelley said : "Some time in the year 1829, he came to me for the loan of my books, and documents concerning the far west, and the programme of the expedition in which he would enlist, and he enrolled his name among the names of several hundred others in the emigrants' book."*^ Wyeth, who was engaged in the ice business on Fresh Pond near Charles- town, was "surrounded with apparent advantages, and even enviable circumstances," according to the statement of his cousin ; yet "Mr. Hall J. Kelly's writings operated like a match applied to the combustible matter accumulated in the mind of the energetic Nathaniel J. Wyeth, which reflected and multi- plied the flattering glass held up to view by the ingenious and well-disposed school master. Mr. Nathaniel J. Wyeth had listened with peculiar delight to all the flattering accounts from the Western regions."* But while Kelley was actuated by motives of patriotism and philanthropy, the practical-minded Wyeth was moved by considerations of personal gain. Ac- cording to his own statement, he "had no view farther than trade at any time."^ To his mind the settlement of the Oregon country was a matter that could be left to follow its natural course.
From contemporary accounts we may learn something as
4 Ibid., 1 1 2-3. "Nathaniel W^eth, of Cambridge, and Captain Bonneville, of the U. S. Army, were both, I believe, enrolled in the emigration books, and were both to have command in the expedition." — ^Affidavit of Washington P. Gregg (1843) in Ibid., 116. Thornton (.Oregon and California, II, i6.) also declared that Captain Bonneville was among those enrolled. Lyman {Htst, of Oregon, III, 73) said that Bonneville's expedition was "perhaps but remotely connected wi^ Kelley's effort"; but it does not appear that Kelley made any such claim. He did claim that Thomas Shaw, supercargo on the shi|> Lagoda ot Boston, met Cap- tain John A. Sutter in San Francisco and told him of his exploration of the interior of California and of his plan to extend his colonizing activities into that region, and that it was upon Shaw's advice that Sutter settled H Sacramento. — Setttemmt of Oregon, 53, 69; Petition, 1866: 7.
5 Settlement of Oregon, 64.
6 John B. Wyeth, Oregon. 4-5.
7 Young, 90.
VjOOQIC
Hall Jackson Kelley 45
to the eflFect of Kelley's writings upon the popular mind, John B, Wyeth said that "there were circles of people, chiefly among young farmers and joume)mien mechanics, who were so thor- oughly imbued with these extravagant notions of making a fortime by only going over land to the other side of the globe, to the Pacific Ocean, that a person who expressed a doubt of it was in danger of being either afifronted, or, at least, accused of being moved by envious feelings. After a score of people had been enlisted in this Oregon expedition, they met together to feed and to magnify each other's hopes and visionary no- tions, which were brought up to a high degree of extravagance, so that it was hardly safe to advise or give an opinion adverse to the scheme."® And Mr. John Bach McMaster tells us that in the debate in the Massachusetts legislature in 1830 on the question of building a railroad from Boston to Albany, "a member declared that the road ought to be constructed in order to keep the people from going to Oregon ; that an association of active, enterprising men had been formed to colonize that coimtry, and that four thousand [ !] families had engaged to go."* Nevertheless, he expresses the belief that "the circulars and notices of Kelley and the overland journey of Wyeth aroused but little public interest in the Oregon country."*®
As already stated, Kelley's plans, as set forth in the General Circular, included provisions for schools to which Indian chil- dren would be admitted, and for an "education or Indian fimd" and a "religious fund." In 1831 he published in Zion's Her- ald, "a series of letters addressed to a member of congress," presenting his plans for the settlement of Oregon. These were followed by other articles in 1832 calling for missionaries to accompany the expedition. The New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church thereupon appointed "two pious men," Spalding and Wilson, as missionaries to the
8WyetJi, s8.
9 McMaster, United States, VI, 109.
10 Ibid., 112. Sec Niles' Register, XL, 407 (»83i), quoting from the St. Louis Republican as to the proposed expedition.
46 Fred Wilbur Powell^ A. M.
Indians of Oregon.^^ It is possible, however, that Lyman was right when he said of Kelley :
"He expressed himself in a manner not easily understood by the religious people of America. His colony schemes and bills for appropriations of land, and numerous secular arrange- ments ; and his incessant political agitations struck the churches as the main object held in his view, and that his call upon the churches was rather a second thought. The religion of that period was intensely unworldly and sought a most conven- tional, or traditional, expression. Reformation, with demands for which the country was being belabored, was not recognized as of a religious nature."^
To Kelley there was little difiference between honest doubt and active opposition, and the stupendous nature of his plans and his earnest manner of presenting them alike put obstacles in his way. The very nature of the man aroused antagonism on the part of the indifferent, and led those who would have listened to a less vehement prophet to withhold their confidence. Platform presentation by a man of convincing manner is an effective sort of propaganda. But Kelley was not the man for such a task, for he was temperamentally incapable of de- scribing his plans without vigorous and general denunciation of all who disagreed with him. At times his manner became hysterical, and in after years he admitted that his mental con- dition had been a "near approximation to insanity."*' Of his ex- periences while on lecture tour, he said: "My adversaries were everywhere on the alert. They watched every move- ment of mine, pursuing me from city to city, la)ring every plan to vex and worry me, to alienate friends and turn them from and against me, and to discourage those who had enlisted for Oregon . . . and to turn them from their purpose.*^*
Why was the enterprise opposed, and who opposed it?
XI Affidavit of William C. Brown» former editor of Zion's Htrald (1843), in Kelley, Memorial, 1848: 8; Settlement of Oregon, 63-4- 12 hyraan. III, 13^. I $ Settlement of Oregon, 15. 14 Ibid., 24.
Hall Jackson Kelley 47
Kelley supplied the answer, which to his mind at least was convincing. "Its interest conflicted with those of certain fur companies, British and American, and of persons concerned in the commerce of the N. Pacific."*' Then there was "the hire- ling press."
"It was represented in the leading newspapers and periodi- cals that Kelley was deceiving the people — ^his plans were chimerical — was an idle schemer — a mad man; that hardship and privations would attend at every step the expedition; and that perpetual suffering would be the lot of young and old through the first generation. By such falsehoods and calumnies as these, I was made the object of scorn and con- tempt of persons of every age and rank — ^the derision of youth whose fathers I would have 'disdained to have sit with the dogs of my flocks.' "*•
This abuse was not confined to the ephemeral newspapers. It extended even to the dignified New England Magazine, which in February and April, 1832, published two articles*^ from the pen of a writer who chose to hide behind the initials "W. J. S." To find the equal of this writer in bitter denuncia- tion coupled with smug confidence in his own point of view, we must go back to JeflFrey and the Edinburgh Review. In one particular, however, the caustic Scot differed from his Yankee contemporary; he had vision. To the mind of our new-world tory, civilization had arrived at its apogee about 1832. It remained for all comfortable New Englanders to be content with their lot, and for all others to rest assured that whatever they might lack at home among their own people, they were unlikely to find elsewhere. There have been such
I $ Petition, 1866: a. '*Tb« literary bureau of the Hudson's Bay Company, moreover, took especial pains to collect and i-epublith everything derogatory to Oregon which was said on either side of the Atlantic, but parncularly on the American side. From 1800 to 1846 it pursued the same policy in Oregon which it had practiced in Canada for two centuries. For the protection of the beaver it used all its power to keep settlers out'* — Harvey, On the Road to Oregon, Atlantic Monthly, C V, 634.
16 Kelley, Hist, of the Colonisation of Oregon, 20; Wyeth, \2.
17 Kelley also referred to an article published in February. 1831. — Settlement of Oregon, 24. But the first number of the magatine was not ittiied until July, it3«.
48 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
preachers since the beginning of time, and yet man has con- tinued to migrate and to benefit thereby.
In the first of these articles, it was questioned whether the Oregon emigrants would ever get as far as St. Louis; for they must first pass through a much finer country than Ore- gon, where they could buy two hundred acres of fertile land and establish themselves among a kindred people for less than the further expenses of their journey. From St. Louis to the Columbia the proposed route was traced in detail, and if any- thing was omitted from the list of horrible contingencies, it has escaped notice. Starvation, torrential rivers, hostile In- dians, wild animals, and winter in the mountains were to con- tribute to the hazards and hardships of the expedition. Doubt was expressed as to the existence of the South Pass as stated upon the authority of Major Pilcher. Should any of the emi- grants finally reach their destination, how were they to dis- possess the Indians, how would they be governed, how would they sustain themselves until the harvest of their first crop? Should they succeed in raising a surplus of grain, where would they find a market? In Japan? "j2Lpan, quotha." Did they not know that there was only one Japanese port open, and that to the Dutch? In India? No; in India the lower classes lived on about a penny a day, and the soil was unexcelled. As to the market for limiber in the Spanish-American countries, was there not lumber in Peru and Chili? On the other hand there was New England. Said the oracle :
"We had thought that in New England, especially, sickness and unavoidable accidents were the only causes for fear. Here education is more encouraged than an)rwhere else. The help- less poor, even those whom vice has rendered so, are not suf- fered to starve. All this is well ; very well ; but it seems we can do better. At least, so say, and perhaps think, the pro- jectors of the intended expedition to the mouth of the Columbia river.
"A gentleman, for whose talents and ambition his native land does not afford sufficient scope, has been employing his
Hall Jackson Kelley 49
leisure in devising schemes to better the condition of his fellow countrymen. His studies have not been in vain; if his plans should prove practicable, nations yet to be will bless him as their father and benefactor. . . .
"We can see no advantage in Oregon which the emigrant may not secure in the state of Maine. The sea washes the shore of both. The soil is good in both. There are fisheries pertaining to both. H the climate of Oregon is milder, it is not proved that it is better. There is waste land in both. There is plenty of timber in both. Maine has these advantages. Her inhabitants are under the protection of the laws. They are numerous enough to protect each other. They have free com- munication with every part of the world. There is no art or science of which she does not possess at least the rudiments. All that can be done in Oregon, within a htmdred years, is already done in Maine. . . }^ We do not know that the prime mover of this folly is actuated by any evil motive ; wc do not believe it. We look upon him as an unfortunate man, who, deluded himself, is deluding others, and conceive it our duty to warn those who are about to follow him on the road to ruin." *
Nor was log^c the only means adopted to convince the pros- pective emigrant of his folly. There was the appeal to au- thority, so convincing to those who are already convinced. "The project of a settlement on the Columbia river has been repeatedly before Congress, and has been pronounced visionary by the wisdom of the nation. At this present sessibn, such an opinion has been expressed by one of the best and greatest men in the country."**
In the second article the critic devoted his attention to the Geographical Sketch and the General Circular, which it would
i8 — ^Twelve years iftcr this was written, two New Englanders. one from Boston and the other from Portland, Maine, established themselves on the west bank of the Willamette. Each wanted to name the new town after his old home, and the dispute was settled by flipping a coin. One can only wonder if "W. J. S." lived long enough to learn of this fact
19 W. J. S., Oregon Territory, Ntw England MagoMme, 123-39 ; StttUmtM of Oregon, 103-6.
50 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
seem he had not read before writing the first one. There is a running comment on the text, with sweeping denials of state- ments of fact and sarcastic flings at Kelley as one whose hallucination was "so strong as totally to obnubiate his facul- ties/'
"Mr. Kelley assures us that hfe is not mad, as has generally been supposed, and that he speaks what he believes to be the truth. Our opinion is hereby improved in two particulars, though we can only reconcile them by two suppositions, — that a man may repeat a tale of his own invention till he believes it to be true, — and that what is not truth to one man, may be truth to another. . . .
"We suppose that Mr. Kelley is to be governor of the new territory, or one of the head chiefs and beloved men, or at least, that he will be allowed to pocket as much of the before- mentioned stock as will remunerate him for his disinterested efforts in favor of the good people of New England, and natives of Oregon. . . . 'Falsehood flies half round the globe, while Truth is putting on her sandals.' The fallacies of Mr. Kelley have been received as truth, by the whole country, and there is reason to fear that interference may come too late."*^
The interference not only did not come too late ; it was not even necessary, for Kelley's project never had in it the germ of life. The date of departure was again postponed; this time to June 1, for congress still deferred action. Hostile criticism in the press continued and increased in bitterness.
"Such vile sayings as these, arid the reports of my wicked adversaries in high places, whose influence in the way of whisper spread like contagion over the length and breadth of the land, panic-struck my followers and turned them back, every one of them, and turned the few who had promised
20 W. J. S., Geographical Sketch of Oregon, New England Magasine, II, 320-6. Cf. memoirs of Wyeth and Kelley and the report of Slacum, all based upon per- sonal observation, in Committee on Foreign AfFairs, supplemental report, 6*22, 29*6 1. 25 cong. 3 sess. H. rep. loi.
Hall Jackson Kelley 51
contributions to my funds, from their benevolent purpose ; but not the projector of the Oregon enterprise from his."^
The underlying cause for the failure has been well stated by Mr. Frederic G. Young, who says "Kelley . . . wished to transplant a Massachusetts town to Oregon and make it the nucleus of a new state. He hoped to repeat with appropriate variations the history of the Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay. The New Englander of the nineteenth century, however, was not so ready to sacrifice himself for an idea as had been his progenitors of the seventeenth. Unless Kelley could or- ganize conditions so that success seemed certain, he could not expect the enthusiasm of his followers to bear them on. Such conditions he could not organize."^
As early as November 12, 1831, Wyeth began to doubt the success of the expedition, for in a letter to his brother he said, "In case the contemplated colonizatipn project should fail it is still our intention to go to the new country, in which case we shall form ourselves into a Trading Company in furs."^ Again on December 5, 1831, he declared that the plan to join the two expeditions was ill-advised, for with women and children in the party, progress would be slower, and winter would come on before the mountains could be crossed. He accordingly decided to cut loose from Kelley and with a party of fifty men leave St. Louis in the spring. By December 19, he had en- rolled thirty-one men for his expedition. In a ietter of Feb- ruary 10, 1832, to John Ball, he declared, "I see no probability that Mr. Kelley's party will move at present. They have made no preparation as yet, nor do I believe they can ever make provision for moving such a mass as they propose.'*^* In the meantime Kelley, under date of February 7, had written telling
21 SettUment of Oregon, io6. "The benevolent purposes of the munificent were changed. The persons enlisted and most of my friends and patrons were panic-struck, and deserted the cause," — ColontMation of Oregon, 20. Kelley had al- ready invested $300 in the brig John Q. Adams in connection with the sea expedi- tion, an amount which he never recovered. — Ibid., 21; Narrative of Events and Difficulties, 7; Petition, 1866: 3.
2z Young, xvii-xviii.
23 Ibid. 5.
24 Ibid., 8-9, 12, 36.
52 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
him of his hopes of congressional action. Wyeth's reply, dated February 13, was:
"However well affairs are going at Washington matters little to me. Anything they can do will come too late for my purposes. My arrangements are made to leave here 1st March and I shall not alter them, neither can I delay on my route.
"I wish you well in your undertaking but regret that you could not have moved at the time and in the manner first proposed. When you adopted the plan of taking across the continent in the 1st expedition women and children I gave up all hope that you would go at all and all intention of going with you if you did. The delays inseparable from a convoy of this kind are so great that you could not keep the mass together and if you could the delay would ruin my projects.***
To this Kelley responded on February 24, and Wyeth replied under date of March 3 :
"I am perfectly well aware of the importance of cooperation of all the Americans who may go to that country but I am well convinced that this thing has been delayed too long already and that further delay will defeat my enterprise besides not being in the habit of setting two times to do one thing. I am quite willing to join your emigration but will not delay here or at St. Louis. You very much mistake if you think I wish to desert your party, but you must recollect that last 1st Jany was set at first as the time of starting."^
Here was a man of decision and force of character; one who had the qualities of leadership which Kelley lacked. Had Kelley possessed flexibility enough and judgment enough to put Wyeth at the head of his expedition and to follow his advice, the result would not have been different as far as the settlement of Oregon was concerned, but it would have been far diflFerent as to Kelley's acknowledged place in that move- ment. On March 29 Kelley wrote to ask Wyeth to take with
2$ niid., 39. 26 Ibid., 43*
Hall Jackson Kelley 53
him some of the men enrolled on the books of the Society. To this Wyeth answered on April 8 :
"I will in conformity with my first assurance given in my letter of the 23rd ulto. take charge of ten of your emigrants. Any further arrangement must be with the persons who are disposed to go out. My reason for this is that I am bound by my engagements to my Company and must consult them in regard to any arrangements on the subject but you need not by this understand me positively to refuse it as I do not know how the Co. will be disposed to act.
I shall at all times be disposed to further an emigration to the Columbia as far as I deem, in actual knowledge of the country, that it will be for the advantage of the emigrants, but before I am better acquainted with the facts I will not lend my aid in inducing ignorant persons to render their situ- ation worse rather than better."^
Wyeth set out for Oregon in the spring of 1832. With him went his brother Dr. Jacob Wyeth, of Howell Furnace, New Jersey ; John Ball, a native of New Hampshire and a practic- ing lawyer of New York ; Calvin Tibbetts, a native of Maine and a stone-cutter, and J. Sinclair, of New York, all of whom had planned to go with Kelley. Sinclair left the party at Inde- pendence, Missouri, and Dr. Wyeth turned back at Pierre's Hole.*® Wyeth returned late in 1833, and led a second ex- pedition to Oregon in 1834. With him went a party of mis- sionaries led by Rev. Jason Lee and his nephew, Rev. Daniel Lee, who had been induced by the principal of Wesle3ran academy, at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, to respond to the call made by the Methodists for missionaries to the Indians in
2j Ibid., 51. It would seem that Kelley did not acknowled^ failure until the very fait; for while this correspondence was going on, he continued to advertise. As late M March 19 he announced in the National Intelligencer: "Those persons desirous of emigrating to Oregon in the first expedition* are notified that the com* mittee appointed for the purpose of making arrangements, have determined upon leaving on Monday, 2nd of April, for St. Louis. The expedition will leave St. Louis on the loth of May."
aSWveth, 51, sji Settlement of Oregon, 64-5; Colonization of Oregon, 6-7. Upon their arrival at Fort Vancouver, Ball opened the first school in that countrr. Later he and Tibbetts engaged in farming on a tract above the falls of the Wil- lamette, but gave up the attempt after the first yvar. Ball then returned to the East, but Tibbetts remained and taught school in the Canadian settlement.
54 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
Oregon.** This was the whole measurable result of Kelley's efforts through the American Society For Encouraging A Set- tlement Of The Oregon Territory.
29 Thornton, II, 21 -2. The immediate cause of this call was the report, widely circulated in the religious press, of the Nez Perce and Flathead Indians who visited St. Louis in 1831, ostensibly to learn of the white men's religion. — McMaster, VI, 1 1 2-3. Kellcy's version of this incident was: *The late Major Pifcher, an Indian agent in the Platte country, S^ve, while at Washington, in 1839, the follow- ing version of the story of the Nez Perce Indian delegation. Four thoughtless and sottish Indians, accompanied Capt. Sublette's party of himters to his (Pilcher*s) agency. They seemed to have no particular object in traveling. Sublette refused to let them proceed further in his company unless they would there obtain a passport, showing a good reason for a visit into the States. Such a passport would he of prevailing advantage to him. Mr. Pilchcr, wishing to favor the CaptaSn's interest, furnished the Indians with a reason and excuse for their visit to St. Louis.** — Settlement of Oregon, 63; Narrative of Events and Difficulties, sup. appx. A. But whether true or false, this story had in it the element of dramatic appeal that was necessary to make effective the movement started by Kellcy for the betterment and Christianizing of the Indians of the Northwest. The two missionaries who had been chosen to accompany Kelley went instead to Liberia. — Settlement of Oregon, 112. See also Marshall, Acquisition of Oregon, II, 8- 10.
{To Be Continued.)
- ↑ Lancaster, Hist. of Gilmanton, 229, 350, 274; Cogswell, Hist. of Nottingham, Deerfield and Northwood, 584; Temple, Hist. of the Town of Palmer, 265.
- ↑ The nature of his college environment is indicated by the fact that thirteen out of twenty-nine members of his class entered the ministry.
- ↑ Kelley, Hist. of the Settlement of Oregon, 6.
- ↑ Kelley, Hist. of the Colonization of Oregon, 5.
- ↑ Settlement of Oregon, 6, 13-4.
- ↑ Ibid., 124.
- ↑ Ibid., 10.
- ↑ Ibid., 9-10.
- ↑ Ibid., 51-2.
- ↑ Middlebury College, General Catalogues,1800–1900, 46; Temple, 265.
- ↑ Settlement of Oregon, 8–9.
- ↑ Ibid., 4.
- ↑ Kelley, Geographical Sketch of Oregon, 5.
- ↑ Settlement of Oregon, 74.
- ↑ In 1825 the legislature received a memorial from the town of Stockbridge praying for the endowment of "an institution best calculated to afford instruction to laborious classes in practical arts and sciences." A brief report was made by a committee of the house of representatives within the ]rear. and a joint committee was appointed to "prepare and digest a system" for such an institution. — Mass, Resolves, 1825, c. 8)B. This committee presented two reports in i8a6 and a third in 1827 and also a bill 'To establish the Mass. Seminary of Arts and Sciences." This bill provided for an appropriation of $20,000, not $10,000 as stated by Kelley, the grant being contingent upon the raisiog of $10,000 by subscriptions and doatXiOD.%,—<»ovemor^s Messages in Mass, Resolves, VI, 381, 570; also H, Doc. 5 and 5. Doc. 23 of 2 sess. 1826-7. While this matter was under discussion, the legislature was also considering the needs of the elemenUry schools, the result being a reviaed education law, passed in 1827. It was undoubtedly this act that Kelley had in mind when referring to the results of the labors of "oUiers of abler talents."
- ↑ Settlement of Oregon, 20. This was also the year in which Dr. John McLoughlin was commissioned Chief factor of the Hudson's Bay company in the territory west of the Rocky mountains.
- ↑ Map of Oregon, 1830. Copy from Geographical Sketch (2 ed). 12 Pp. 7-9.
- ↑ Pp. 75–80.
- ↑ P. 14.