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CHAPTER ELEVEN. The Writings of Kelley.^

Kelley's literary efforts began early and continued until a few years before his death. His output was therefore volumin- ous, though his longest single work was of but 128 pages. Of his school books enough has already been said. Had he written nothing else his name would now be known only to the anti- quarian. We are here concerned with what he wrote about Oregon and about himself.

Both the Geographical Sketch and the General Circular have been denounced as grossly inaccurate and poorly written, and both have been praised as remarkably accurate and well written statements of fact. As was shown in an earlier chapter, "W. J. S." outdid himself in an attempt to convince the readers of the New England Magazine that Kelley had nothing but sec- ond-hand information about Oregon to present, and that his .statements were unworthy of acceptance. Nor did he stop at that. "Some one ought to send Mr. Kelley a copy . . . of Guthrie's Grammar," he declared in one article,-^ and in another place he singled out for ridicule a sentence in which Kelley said that the proposed settlement would be ef- fected as soon "it has consummated their title to the Indian lands."* But no one was better aware of those defects than Kelley himself. In his History Of The Settlement Of Oregon, after giving a brief paraphrase of the General Circular, he con- tinued, "Here I leave the manual. This document is not given in the exact language in which it was couched. It would be mortifying to do it. It does not furnish a fair specimen of my composition. The productions of my pen in 1829 and several after years, were abundantly marked with faults. At times of mental excitement and nervous irritation, I almost lost the

1 Sec Pow€ll, Bibliography of Hall J. Kelley, Oregon Historical Society, QuarUHy, VIII, 375-86 0907).

2 W. J. S;^ Oregon territory. New England Magasine, II, 131.

3 W. J. S., Geographical sketch of Oregon territory. New England Mag- OMine, II, 334*