196 Fred Wilbur Powbll
strengthen its appeal. Some of the materials thus presented do not appear in Kelley's other writings.
It is no easy task to characterize Kelle/s three f cmnal pam- phlets, tfie History Of The Colonization Of Oregon, the Nar- rative Of Events And Difficulties, and the History Of The Settlement Of Oregon. All were written after he had passed middle age, and after f^ysical and mental suffering had un-. manned him. They were addressed to that understanding and sympathetic public which Kelley's faith in humanity assured him would grant him the recognition and the material reward he craved. It was a generation which knew little of those early years in which he had attempted so much and accom- lushed so little; a generation that was witness of that great movement that so rapidly peopled the valleys of the West.
When the History Of The Colonization Of Or^;on ai^>eared, Oregon was a regfularly constituted territory and the "gold rush" was turning the minds of the whole country toward the Pacific Coast, which was better known because of Kelley and the men whom he had influenced. When the Narrative Of Events And Difficulties appeared, the tide of emigration to the Northwest was at its height, Or^on was looking forward to statehood, and Washington was at the beginning of its territorial stage. Both pamj^ets were exceedingly well timed. To Kelley all that was needed was to get the facts before the public. With the idea of presenting the truth as he saw it, he bared his very soul to the reader, telling of his great plans, his high hopes, and the obstacles that had been too much for his powers. In the History Of The Settlement Of Oregon, "he poured himself out on paper," as Bancroft has it,^^ in a final attempt to convince a generation to which the settled West had become an accepted fact "Quite half a century has elapsed since the ccmception of my Oregon enterprise" ; he said in the preface, "although thirty years have rolled away since its achievement, and yet my countrymen seem to know nothing abouit — ^andwhy? This question I shall shortly answer ....
17 Bancroft, Northwest Coast, II, ss6n.
