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.
