Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/369

Rh unoccupied portions of the earth, and designed by Providenee to be the resilience of a people whose singular advantages will give them unexampled power and prosperity. * * * That these things have settled in the policy of the British nation the determined purpose of possessing and enjoying the country as their own, and which has induced their parliament to confer on the Hudson's Bay Company authority to settle and occupy the fertile banks of the Columbia."

Hero was an appeal for settlers a long ways ahead of the boom literature to sell sage brush and town lots in Oregon, Washington or Idaho in the year 1912; — ahead, because the promoters are not planning to make money for themselves, but to save Oregon to the United States.

Kelley followed up this appeal to Congress with circulars and pamphlets circulated all over the New England states to create a public sentiment that might influence the action of Congress. But nothing was effected in that direction beyond filling senators and congressmen up with material to make buncombe speeches on the Oregon question. One of Kelley 's circulars was entitled "A general circular to all persons of good character who wish to emigrate to the Oregon Territory, enbracing some account of the character and advantages of the country; the right and the means and operations by which it is to be settled, and all necessary directions for becoming an emigrant. Hall J. Kelley, general agent." That this work did start the first commercial expedition to Oregon, after the disastrous failures of Winship and Astor, there can be no doubt. Nathaniel J. Wyeth's expedition overland to Oregon in 1832, was, as "Wyeth says in his account of it, '"roused to it by the writings of Hall J. Kelley." In addition to this, the information that Kelley had gathered up was the basis on which Methodist and American Board churches acted when they decided to send missionaries to Oregon to convert the heathen. Kelley's information about Oregon, and his appeal for settlers to come here had been before the churches, and before everybody in the New England states for ten years before the churches took steps to send missionaries to Oregon. But when the four Indian chiefs went from Oregon to St. Louis to find the "White Man's Book of Heaven" in 1831, it was such a pathetic appeal and dramatic incident that it caught the attention and inspired the action of the churches immediately. And although Kelley was then on his way to Oregon across Mexico, his old pamphlets and circulars were hunted up for information about Oregon and as a result the first missionary party to Oregon (The Methodist) composed of Jason Lee, his cousin, Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepard and P. L. Edwards came out with Wyeth on his second expedition in 1834. he (Wyeth) having been made a convert to Oregon colonization by Hall J. Kelley. Along with Wyeth came a large party of employees, and some of them settled in the country. Hall J. Kelley came himself in 1834, coming through Mexico and California. The Rev. Samuel Parker as advance agent of the American Board missions came out in 1835. Dr. Marcus Whitman and wife, Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, and W. H. Gray came out as American Board missionaries in 1836. Stragglers came in after this from time to time. The Catholic missionaries Blanchet and Demers came in 1838. Employees of the Hudson's Bay Co., and independent trappers came in annually, but none of these could be considered a part of the emigration to Oregon that settled the status of the country.