Hall Jackson Kelley 221
accomplished as results have shown. He alone was stirring the cauldron of Fate, and did and said what had momentous re- sults. It is more kindly to place a stone upon his cairn than to throw any slur on one who suffered and lost so much.
"Hall J. Kelley had wonderful prescience and judgment in discerning facts and drawing conclusions .... This vis- ionary, whose life was a disappointment, because he attempted too much« laid the foundation for all that as finally accom- plished. It was surprising that he accomplished so much and was so reliable.
"Kelley's work was far reaching. His life work was as the finger of fate pointing the way, and his labors reached fruition while he was neglected and his services forgotten ....
"I have been struck with the fact that Kelley was the special providence inspired at the earliest time to appreciate the value of this region^ when Congress ignored it and the nation was ignorant of its value. Eliminate from that period this single feature and it is doubtful when American occupancy could have been eflFectiye. The very man, who discovered gold in California was one who came from Oregon, drawn there by the facts stated. Before the century shall have passed, through which he so ardently labored and so bitterly suffered, it will not be too late to accord to him the merit he deserved and plant this modest laurel on his forgotten grave.'*®
"To him, more than any other one person, in my judgment, may be justly attributed the subsequent occupatkm of the country by emigrants from the United States — ^and Oregon should in some way worthy of the subject and herself yet acknowledge and commemorate that fact.**"
"To him, without doubt, is to be attributed much of the subsequent wave of interest which swept on toward American immigratbn. At first, a New England college man, educator, and social theorizer, and then a leader of the pioneer movement
3a Ckrke, I, 274-6. , .
33 Dcady» Annual adilreat, Oregon Pioneer Association, Transactions, x^yy-^A-
