Hall Jackson Kelley 215
ley's suggestion, but Kelley 's Mount Adams was south of the Columbia.
Internal Improvements Proposed. — That Kelley had little if any influence in the movement for a transcontinental rail- road, is the conclusion to which one is forced after an exami- nation of all available materials. When we consider the diffi- culties that attended the accomplishment of that great work, the words of Kelley, as quoted below, are interesting only as they tend to show how little he appreciated the magnitude of the task and the sort of men needed to engage in it :
"Had enemies let me alone, the road would have been graded from one end to the other before this [1854] ; and Oregon be- fore the year 1840, would have teemed with a population from our own blest country ; and Alta California would have become the possession of the United States earlier than it did ; and have cost less money and no blood ; and that whole country, dark as it was, ere this day, would have been changed to shining fields and flowery gardens; and society there, would have been dressed in lovely attire, and robed in charms of moral beauty. . .
"My thoughts are still on the execution of these desirable and heaven-suggested improvements, and on the resources which the road would open to the people of this country for wealth and knowledge and national superiority. Should health and strength ever again be equal to so great a labor, and my enemies lessen the cords that bind me hand and foot, the two projects, Indian and railroad, remaining unaccomplished, I shall engage in them with what science and skill I possess, and with my accustomed zeal and perseverance, hoping to add them to the list of my achievements."^
This is Kelley at his worst. Nor was his claim on this ac- count limited to railroads. "I planned for Internal Improve- ments — a canal from Charles River (Boston), to the Connecti- cut River, as surveyed by L. Baldwin, and a ship-canal from Barnstable to Buzzard's Bay."^ The Massachusetts canal was
J I Narrative of Events and Difficulties, 70-72'
22 Settlement of Oregon, j. As to the former Kelley said that he "Made a cursory survey of eight or ten miles of the route, this ... at my own ex- pense, and that he presented a petition to the legislature. As to the latter he declared that "about the year 1825^' he made a cursory survy of the route for the ship canal, also at his own expense. — Kelley, "Beloved Brethren," Nov. 14, 1869,
