Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/230

 218 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE It is at this point that Hall J. Kelley, a Boston school teacher, appears actively in the Oregon agitation. He began writing on the subject of Oregon and the necessity of action by the United States as early as 1815, according to his own account, although there is now to be discovered nothing earlier than 1830. 6 He petitioned Congress for a grant of land in 1824 at the time when Dr. Floyd was the active worker for Oregon; in 1829 he was the major part of the American Society for encouraging a Settlement of the Oregon Territory, through which he besought Congress to grant twenty-five square miles of land in the Columbia valley. Acting in the name of this society he circulated widely his pamphlets descriptive of the attractions of Oregon, a region which he said was being stolen by the British through the instrumental- ity of the Hudson's Bay Company. He spent the winters of 1830 to 1833 in Washington where he tried to arouse the interest of members of Congress. But his efforts were inop- portune, since the crest of the Oregon flurry had passed. Nothing more was accomplished than a House resolution which called upon the President for information as to whether any part of the territory of the United States upon the Pacific Ocean had been taken possession of by the subjects of any foreign power. President Jackson in reply submitted brief reports from the Secretaries of War and Navy to the effect that there was no satisfactory information on the point in the possession of the Executive. Twice Kelley attempted and failed to organize parties to go with him to the Promised Land (1828 and 1832) and finally he set out with a few companions by the way of Mexico and California. He was deserted by his associates at New Orleans but persisted in his determination to reach Oregon. After much hardship he succeeded, but he arrived under the cloud of an accusation of horse-stealing in California, so that his reception by Dr. McLoughlin was not the cordial one usually extended to strangers. He remained in Oregon until 6 Bourne, Aspects of Oregon History before 1840, Quar. Ore. Hist. Soc., VI, 260 seq. 7 H. Doc. No. 191, 22d Cong, ist Ses. 17 Mar. 1832.