Hall Jackson Kelley 201
Slactun's name usually appears as Slocum/' and McLoughlin's as "McLaughlin,"— this is the text of a man who resented reference to himself as "Kelly." Again, the date of Kelley's transcontinental railroad project appears "as early as 1849," when it is obvious that 1829 was meant. As to their au- thenticity, it may be said that they compare favorably with much that has been written of Oregon and the Northwest. Of one thing we may be sure, Kelley based his writings upon materials which he believed authentic, and when he relied upon his memory he said so, as he also did when his memory failed him.
Everj^ing that he wrote, however, was encumbered with denunciations of the Hudson's Bay company and with religious phraseology ad nauseam. Eliminate these, and his writings have real value. But to Kelley, the infamy of the company was as real as the basis of his religious faith, and his denuncia- tion of the one was as fervent as his worship of the other. He did not consider it necessary to apologize for either. In- deed, upon the latter point, he naively said :
"Some of my skeptical friends, who never examined my works, nor the 'fruit of the Spirit,' say to me, — ^'you talk too much in your book about religion. You will expose yourself to public ridicule.' My reply to them is, You think too little about religion. 'I am not ashamed to own my Lord.' 'I glory in this, that I know God,' and 'know Christ Jesus and him crucified,' and am a 'servant of Christ according to the will of God.'"»
This was not the sort of statement with which to impress the authorities at Washington, but Kelle/s religion was a very real thing to him, a part of his very self. His whole life was based on faith, — faith in God, faith in Oregon, and faith in his fellow men.
99 Settl^meni of Oregon, 124.
CHAPTER TWELVE The Man Kelley and His Place in History
"How inexpressibly comfortable to know our fellow-crea- ture;" wrote Carlyle, "to see into him, understand his goings forth, decipher the whole heart of his mystery: nay, not only to see into him, but even to see out of him, to view the world altogether as he views it . . . !" If we cannot understand what manner of man Kelley was, it is through no fault of his, for in his voluminous writings his personality is reflected with all the clear outlines of reality. We see him first as a serious- minded boy of studious and pious habits of thought; then as a school teacher while still in his 'teens. The sports of boy- hood were not for him; instead, he read and studied, — even
