etition, January 14, 1848, BYOF.
4. Young to Post Master General (Cave Johnson), January 20, 1848, BYOF, CHL; Maurine Ward and Fred Woods, “The ‘Tabernacle Post Office’ Petition for the Saints of Kanesville, Iowa,” Mormon Historical Studies 5.1 (Spring 2004), 151.
5. Cave Johnson to George M. Dallas, February 11, 1848, Kane Collection, BYU. Surprised, Dallas noted that Johnson had likely found Secretary of State James Buchanan (a political opponent of both Dallas and the Kanes, though a fellow Pennsylvania Democrat) “quite indifferent about the Mormons.” See Dallas to Kane, February 12, 1848, on back of Johnson to Dallas, February 11, 1848, Kane Collection, BYU. Even so, Buchanan had personally donated to the fundraising for Mormon relief. See Richard Bennett, We’ll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009), 302–326.
6. Orson Hyde to Kane, March 29, 1848, Kane Collection, BYU.
58
the prOphet and the refOrmer
Should your time permit we wish you to dft a Petition for our territo-
rial Government in the Great Basin, affix a copy of the signatures from
the Po O Petition and give the subject all the Agitation in the house of
Congress the nature of the case will admit.
You will please to consider yourself our attorney in fact or if you
choose our special Agent to procure
Indian Affairs a permit for such of our ppl to remain in the Omaha
Country another year as cannot possibly go over the mountains this sea-
son & occupy the lands already broken in raising grain for their suste-
nance & if consistent communicate the result of your labor by telegraph
to Mr Hyde (care of Mr Nathl H Felt St Louis)7 previous to his passing
that place on his return to Camp8
We should have written Mr Hyde on the last subject had we
known his whereabouts should he be at Washington on your receipt
of this a line of introduction from yourself to the proper officers
would enable Mr Hyde to accomplish this item without giving you
further trouble.
Very few of the Bat have returned a lone Coy has re-enlisted &
many destitute families that cannot possibly remove West this sea-
son must be subject to great inconvenience & distress if they are
not permitted to tarry on Om lands & occupy their improvements
another year9
As a ppl we are very using all the means without our reach in prepar-
ing to “be off” with the opening spring but we shall add nothing to your
stock of knowledge when we tell you that our minds are not [illegible]
yet in the midst of all our privation & toils our ppl are cheerful & happy 7 . A Boston native, Nathaniel Felt had served in various leadership roles since joining the church in 1843. He left Massachusetts for Nauvoo in summer 1845 and began west with the Saints in February 1846. However, when he was stricken with the ague (likely malaria) after crossing the Mississippi, he went to St. Louis to recover until the next year. In the meantime, he served as the president of the St. Louis conference and arranged for the transportation of Mormon emigrants westward. Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, vol. 2 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1914), 380.
8. See Kane to Young, March 14, 1848.
9. The soldiers of the Mormon Battalion were discharged following their year of service in Los Angeles on July 16, 1847. Of the 317 men discharged at this time, 79 reenlisted, while others split into various groups; a small contingent reached Council Bluffs in September 1847, with more arriving in December. Other men remained in California or traveled to Utah directly. Norma Baldwin Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846–1848
(Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996), 168–183.
Young to Kane, February 9, 1848
59
the weather is very mild which is a great blessing to us With the highest
consideration we remain
Your undeviating friends
In behalf of the Council
P.S. The earliest news relative to the Omaha permit will be of the utmost
importance to us, therefore we further suggest [p. 2] that a telegraphic
line of the earliest date be connected to Mr Nathl H Felt St Louis
requesting him to forward the s which may be in advance of Mr Hyde10
Brigham Young
10. S
ee Kane to Young, March 14, 1848.
9
Kane to Young, March 14, 1848
in his letter on February 9, 1848, Young requested that Kane send a tele-
graph to Nathaniel H. Felt in St. Louis when he received any news regarding
the Mormon request to remain on lands belonging to Omaha Indians.1 In this
response, Kane stated that he expected the Saints’ request to be denied. Since
traveling to the Mormon camps in the summer of 1846, Kane had lobbied the
federal government to allow the Latter-day Saints to settle temporarily on tribal
lands of the Pottawatomie and the Omaha.2 By early 1848, federal officials in
the Office of Indian Affairs had ordered Mormons to “abandon their Omaha
homes, and to tarry no more on any Indian lands”; Kane had written that
the Mormons intended “scrupulously to obey” that order.3 Even so, they also
sought unsuccessfully to reverse it.
Source
Kane to Young, March 14, [1848], box 40, fd 9, BYOF.4
1. Y
oung to Kane, February 9, 1848.
2. For more information on Mormon efforts to stay on Indian lands, see Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri, 91–111, and Lawrence G. Coates, “Refugees, Friends, and Foes: Mormons and Indians in Iowa and Nebraska,” in James B. Allen and John W. Welch, eds., Coming to Zion (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1997), 75–85; Judith Boughter, Betraying the Omaha Nation (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), 49–52. For the lobbying of Thomas Kane and his father John Kane on this issue, see Thomas Kane to Polk, July 21, 1846; John Kane to Polk, August 29, 1846; Thomas Kane to William Medill, January 20, 1847, April 20, 1847, April 21, 1847, and April 24, 1847; Thomas Kane to William Marcy, June 21, 1847, May 27, 1847, January 22, 1848; Medill to Marcy, April 24, 1847, all in Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letters Received, 1846–1872.
3. Thomas Kane to William Marcy, January 22, 1848.
4. Kane addressed the envelope to “Brigham Young Esqr. Care Nathaniel H. Felt 93 S. 3rd St.”
Kane to Young, March 14, 1848
61
Letter
Phil: Mar: 14,
Brigham Young: Esqr.
Care Nathaniel H. Fell [Felt]:—
Letter now received, Expect refusal but wait news from me.
Thomas L. Kane
10
Young to Kane, May 9, 1848
in 1848, yOung dispatched apostle Orson Pratt to Liverpool, England, to
serve as European mission president and “to solicit and receive donations in
money, books, and apparatus for establishing an endowment of an [astronom-
ical] observatory of the first order, at the Great Salt Lake City.”1 Young hoped
that Kane, who had met Pratt in the Mormon camps in 1846,2 would introduce
Pratt to “officers of the American Institute” and other “Gentlemen” who might
give Pratt letters of recommendation to European scholars. Kane’s father, John
Kane, was an officer of the American Philosophical Society, one of the nation’s
leading scientific and literary institutions.3
Source
Young to Kane, May 9, 1848, Kane Collection, box 15, fd 1, BYU. A draft
exists in box 14, fd 16, BYOF.
Letter
Colonel Kane will permit us to introduce to his notice our much
esteemed friend Elder Orson Pratt, A. M. who is on a tour to Europe.
1. Breck England,
The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt (Salt Lake City: University of Utah
Press, 1985), 142–158; Journal History, April 26, 1848.
2. Thomas L. Kane to John K. Kane and Jane D. Kane, July 20–23, 1846, APS.
3. Thomas Kane was also a member of the American Philosophical Society. See Grow, Liberty to the Downtrodden, 6, 19, 21.
Young to Kane, May 9, 1848
63
Mr Pratt is Professor of Mathematics in the Nauvoo College,4 he is a
Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a Gentleman of hand-
some literary attainments, and unblemished character; and we solicit
your kind attention to introduce him to officers of the American
Institute, and any other Gentlemen who may have the opportunity of
introducing him to literary Gentm in Europe,
and you will much oblige
Your undeviating friends
In behalf of the Council
Brigham Young President
Willard Richards Clerk
Camp of Israel, Winter Quarters,
May 9. 1848.
P.S. Mr Benson returned in safety about a week since, Elder Lyman
this morning, most of our Elders are returned, we expect to remove in
a few days, but hope to have a few moments to write you more fully
before we leave.5
4.
Nauvoo College, also known as the University of the City of Nauvoo, was founded in 1841.
Pratt, largely self-taught, was the chair of the “Department of English literature and math-ematics.” England, Orson Pratt, 72–74.
5. Young referred to the Saints’ plans to leave for the Salt Lake Valley in the mass migration of 1848. Earlier, Young had sent apostles Ezra Taft Benson and Amasa Lyman (along with apostle Erastus Snow and between 100 and 150 other missionaries) to assist Kane in raising funds in eastern cities for the Latter-day Saints in early 1848. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place, 207.
11
Young to Kane, October 20, 1849
in the fOllOWing letter, which exists only as a draft, Young informed Kane
on several aspects of early Utah society, including the Latter-day Saints’ mint-
ing of their own gold coins, the departure of several leading Mormons for mis-
sionary activities in Europe, and the establishment of the Perpetual Emigration
Fund (PEF). Using donations, the PEF paid for the travel of impoverished
emigrants to Utah. Once they had arrived, these Saints were asked to “refund
to the amount of what they have received, as soon as their circumstances will
permit” to help other Saints immigrate.1
Source
Young to Kane, October 20, 1849, draft letter, box 16, fd 18, BYOF.
Letter
Gr. Salt Lake City, Oct 20 1849.
My Dear Sir,
The United States mail left from here for the states Two days since,
accompanied by several of the brethren, going abroad on various mis-
sions, & I send two more in the morning as an express, to overtake, and
close some unfinished business—by whom
piece of pure gold coined in this valley, also a ten, five, & two ½ of
1. Y
oung to Orson Hyde, October 16, 1849, BYOF.
Young to Kane, October 20, 1849
65
the same material, and a small pocket piece of the native form, worth
near $60 dollars,2 but I send it not which you will please accept, not on
account of its intrinsic value, but as a curiosity, & token of remembrance
from a friend.
Please receive Bishop Heywood3 as my friend, and a Gentleman,
worthy of the highest consideration.
Among the company with the mail are Elders John Taylor, Lorenzo
Snow, Erastus Snow & Franklin D. Richards of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, who will esteem it a pleasure to call on Col. Kane,—
while en-route for various nations of Europe, to preach the Gospel,4 &
several other Elders are travelling with them on similar errands.—
Bishop Hunter goes to Kanesville, to gather up the poor & bring
to this place
the gathering of the poor and gathered in this place, in a few weeks
about 5 600 dollars> while others are preparing to establish a Carrying
Company, between this & the states.5
2. F
rom January 1848 to early 1851, Mormons minted gold coins. The gold had been secured by Mormons who were involved in the California Gold Rush. See Leonard J. Arrington,
“Coin and Currency in Early Utah,” Utah Historical Quarterly vol. 20 (1952): 56–76.
3. Joseph L. Heywood (1815–1910) served as one of the church’s trustees to care for and sell its properties in Nauvoo between 1846 and 1848. In 1849, he was appointed as a bishop, as Salt Lake City’s postmaster, and as supervisor of roads in the provisional State of Deseret (Harwell, ed., Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1847–1850, 160, 163, 173). According to a biographical sketch, Heywood was appointed by the Church during fall 1849 to travel to the eastern states as a merchant and to counsel with John Bernhisel about obtaining a territorial government. Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, vol. 1, 647.
4. At the time of this letter, Young had only begun to learn of the Revolutions of 1848 that were then rocking Europe. (See Craig Livingston, “Eyes on ‘the Whole European World’: Mormon Observers of the 1848 Revolutions,” Journal of Mormon History 31.3 (2005): 78–112.) In late 1849, the First Presidency instructed Amasa Lyman to “hold [him]self in all readiness to lead the Saints to” Salt Lake City “without delay.” (First Presidency to Lyman, November 2, 1849, BYOF.) These fears were unrealized. John Taylor served in France, Erastus Snow in the Netherlands, Lorenzo Snow in Italy, and Franklin D. Richards in Great Britain. (See Curtis Bolton to John Taylor, July 5, 1851, John Taylor collection, CHL; Erastus Snow, One Year in Scandinavia (Liverpool: F.D. Richards, 1851); Lorenzo Snow, The Italian Mission (London: W. Aubrey, 1851); Franklin D. Richards, journal, October 6, 1849, CHL.) Thomas’s father provided Taylor with a letter of recommendation to carry with him to Europe. (John K. Kane, letter of introduction for Taylor, August 2, 1850, Taylor Collection, CHL.) Taylor’s mission companion, Curtis Bolton, considered acquiring a letter of recommendation from Thomas Kane upon his return from the French mission. See Bolton to Taylor, January 14, 1852, Taylor Collection, CHL.
5. Edward Hunter, the bishop of Salt Lake City’s 13th Ward, was called to direct fundraising efforts in Kanesville for the PEF. Young to Orson Hyde, October 16, 1849, BYOF.
66
the prOphet and the refOrmer
I would gladly communicate many things, but from the lateness of
the hour, & weariness I take the liberty to send you some of our latest
public communications, for the first time printing in the valley, which
will give all general intrigue, & Bro Heywood will fill all interstices.—
while I remain, most truly your friend & well wisher
B. Young
W R. clerk [2]
In Less than four weeks,
Emigrating Fund for the Gathering of the Poor Saints, & by voluntary
Donation, since that time, we have gathered and sent on by Bishop
Hunter, 5 600 dollars, Knowing your philanthropy which will be greatly
increased by the Saints and friends in the east, and a source of great joy
to every Philanthropist
12
Kane to Young, July 11,
1850
the mOrmOn gOal of self-government proved elusive. In August 1846,
Brigham Young wrote President Polk that the Saints desired a democratic gov-
ernment in the sense that its officers should be local citizens, not office-seekers selected by politicians in Washington.1 This request reflected the Mormons’
clashes with neighboring communities and political leaders in Missouri and
Illinois as well as the emphasis on local self-government in American political
philosophy. Utah popular sovereignty met resistance in Washington for the
same reasons that the Mormons wished it. At issue was the question of local
control as well as its corollary: What kind of social and political conditions
would be permitted in Utah? Government officials were hearing rumors of the
Mormon practice of plural marriage. Was the U.S. government willing to give
de facto recognition to this practice?
Following Young’s instructions in his letter of February 9, 1848, Kane
applied for a territorial government which covered much of the west, but dis-
covered that Polk was growing more cautious about his Mormon policy and
wanted to appoint his own territorial officers. For Kane, this opened the alarm-
ing prospect of “military Politicians” who might injure the Mormons while
filling their own pockets with graft. Thoroughly upset with Polk and without
consulting Young, Kane withdrew the request for a territorial government. It
was his “last sad & painful interview” with Polk. He realized that only state-
hood, not territorial status, would ensure self-government.2
Unaware of Kane’s actions, Young and other Mormon leaders had con-
tinued preparations for a territorial government, collecting 2,270 signatures
1. Y
oung to Polk, August 9, 1846, BYOF.
2. Kenney, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, November 26, 1849, 3:513.
68
the prOphet and the refOrmer
during the winter of 1848–1849 on a petition that ran to 22 feet.3 The proposed
The Prophet and the Reformer Page 10