Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/236



208 Fred Wilbur Powell.

sons readily pick up and carry out without even thanks to the giver .... All these [educational and benevolent] efforts, requiring the confidence of the public, and of educated persons, show a mind of fine order, highly progressive and probably erratic; but still neither unsound nor impractical. That he gradually withdrew his efforts from these valuable and congenial labors to take up the study of Oregon, and pro- mulgate what proved to be the only practical way to-4naintain the interests of Americans here, is a work for which Oregon at this late day, and all the Union, should feel grateful, although in his actual movements he shows the more or less hesitating grasp of a man bom a thinker rather than an actor."*

"Of the character of Mr. Kelley it is not easy to form a satisfactory estimate. He was a many-sided man. In certain directions, he was a learned, but in whole, was not an edu- cated man. His mind was active, but appears not to have been well balanced. His sympathies were large, but liable to be misdirected for want of cool judgment. He $aw things in their individuality, not in their relations. What appeared to him to be desirable and philanthropic he pursued with en- thusiasm, and without counting the cost. The goodness of his motives were never called in question, but his zeal was often 'without knowledge.' In a word, he was the creature, not the creator of circumstances .... The incidents narrated, show a natural tendency to depend on dreams and impulses, rather than on sober judgment, and calm forethought. Perhaps his main defects were lack of knowledge of men, and lack of financial ability, which two lacks account for his ill-success in life."^

These appraisals of the man agree with his own statement that his head and heart were full of thoughts, great and good ; but they say nothing as to his originality. Frcrni the record of his whole life, it is difficult to single out an instance in which he exhibited originality. As a school teacher he developed not

6 H. S. Lyman, Ha*, of Oregon, III, 72-%.

7 Templ«, Hist, of tht Town of Palmer, 268-9.