this occurrence, to advise you against again returning Mr. Babbitt as
your Delegate. Until Deseret is admitted into the Union, I [p. 5] would
not be thought exacting as to the qualifications of her representative,
but he should at least be of correct deportment, discreet, and of good
report, that those who point to him and say, “there goes a Mormon,”
may find marked their approval of his religion. The Delegate, as a sort
of Ambassador, is commonly taken as the specimen man of his constitu-
ency; if he cannot do good, if he is either ashamed of his Religion or a
shame to it, he can do much harm. In politics, too, if he cannot pursue a
wise neutrality, (which at least during the present strange confusion of
party lines I strongly counsel) he should at all events be a man whose
instincts will teach him to be a trusty supporter of his single party and
nice in his choice of the associates that belong to it. Otherwise, he will
have personal influence with neither party, and gain not strength but
only dependency from the relations he cultivates. A particular reason for
the detention of Mr. Babbitt, you will find in the fact that his conduct has
lost for him the confidence of both parties. The Democrats joined with
the Whigs in the personal disrespect which was shown him in the House.
It pains me so much to speak upon this point, that you must let me
add that this is the first instance I have ever known of [p. 6] faithless-
ness or shortcoming on the part of your agents. I desire it to be recorded
to your honor, that throughout my entire course of action in your behalf,
I have ever only needed to call for the assistance of the authorized
members of your church, to be sure of engaging assistants conscien-
tiously prompt active and careful. Of the gentleman, for instance, you
fortunately sent to Washington before Mr. Babbitt I have had ample
opportunity to prove the worth. Without any previous preparation for
political life, and aided only by his own modest good sense and careful
purpose to do right, Dr. Bernhisel has shown himself the equal of every
occasion that has offered; while the uniformly upright deportment and
gentlemanly demeanour that earned for him his personal influence,
were an encomium upon the principles he on no occasion hesitated to
avow.23
23. The following J
uly, Young endorsed Bernhisel for Congress. See Young to Brethren, July
21, 1851, BYOF. For more on Babbitt’s actions, see Kane to Young, February 19, 1851.
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the prOphet and the refOrmer
I have to thank you heartily for your presents; so handsome, yet so
kindly selected to speak to me of your new home, so far away from my
own.24 The Gold, I had made upon into seal rings for the leading friends
who have assisted in your vindication, (Horace Greeley & others)25
reserving first, enough to make three, one for each of the first officers
of Deseret, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards,
to authenticate the signatures of these my immediate [p. 7] personal
friends, and avow with pride my association with them as such.26
Now let me tell you of my disposition of the grand sleigh robe.27
I am not sure that you have ever heard through the papers of my hand-
some brother, Surgeon Kane of the Navy, a sort of admirable Crichton,28
who, bearing the scars of five honorable wounds on his goodly person,
still spends his life doing the fine brave things that ladies love and men
envy. Having nearly recovered from a bad lance wound received in
Mexico, he volunteered, last May, to go upon the expedition in search of
Sir John Franklin the gallant Englishman imprisoned in the Polar Ice.29
24. S
ee Young to Kane, October 20, 1849.
25. In his campaign to improve Mormon public image, Kane particularly relied on Greeley and his New York Tribune. Their friendship had likely begun in 1845 when they both agitated for the abolition of the gallows. Kane occasionally wrote articles for Greeley’s paper, promoted Greeley’s books in the Philadelphia press, and often visited Greeley’s home.
Their friendship proved long-lasting. In the late 1860s, Greeley used his connections with government officials to aid Kane’s unsuccessful bid for a government post, and Kane in turn promoted Greeley’s 1872 presidential bid. In 1849, Greeley congratulated Kane “on the improved prospects of your Mormon friends, and trust your efforts in their behalf are being rewarded as they should be, by gratitude on their part and satisfaction on yours.” “Pray let me hear whenever you shall receive any letters from that quarter,” Greeley asked. Greeley to Kane, June 19, 1849, BYU. Kane’s papers at BYU contain 19 letters from Greeley.
26. On the rings to Young, Kimball, and Richards, see Kane to Young, February 19, 1851.
27. Young had given John Bernhisel “7 wolf skins & 10 fox skins” to take East to have made into a sleigh robe for Kane. Bernhisel reported that he had them “made into a robe by a fur-rier; the wolf skins forming the centre, and the fox-skins the border, all having the tails on . .
. and trimmed with the finest scarlet cloth. In short, I spared neither pains nor expense in getting it up; and it was by far the most splendid sleigh robe I have ever seen.” Kane was
“much pleased with the robe,” which Bernhisel presented to him in November 1849. Wilford Woodruff described it as “got up with great taste & splendor” and as “worth $40.” Bernhisel to Young, March 21, 1850, BYOF; Kenney, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, December 1, 1849, 3:497.
28. James Chrichton (1560–1582) was a famed Scottish Renaissance man, known both for his intellectual gifts and his adventuresome spirit. The term “Admirable Chrichton” referred to an ideal, multi-talented man.
29. John Hope Franklin was an English explorer who led a voyage to find the mysterious Northwest Passage to Asia. When he failed to return, the search for Franklin and his crew
Kane to Young, September 24, 1850
89
He was in the Gulf of Mexico when he received by telegraph from the
Naval Department intelligence of their eleventh hour acceptance of his
offer. Travelling on, night and day, on Eight days after, he was outside
Sandy Hook and upon the ocean on his northward way. He had not one
days daylight to buy and make up all the clothing and outfit needed for
his perilous errand. Furs, an indispensable requisite, he had particu-
lar difficulty in obtaining; and I gave him, the robe which had been all
winter the ornament of my office in old Independence Hall, with the
feeling that it carried a blessing with it. Yet I had compunctions, after
doing so, till the other day when a letter was received from him from
out of the [p. 8] Iceberg waters at the head of Baffin’s Bay, in which he
speaks of it as the greatest comfort of his frozen life. He is pledged to
return it, if Providence grants himself to return; and thus it may be only
the more honored by being the first missionary of Mormonism to the
North Pole.30
I have also to thank you for your kind hearted letters, though short,
always so fresh and racy and spirited in composition; and for your kind
invitation to me to visit the Salt Lake. But “the lines have fallen to me
in less pleasant places. My heritage” is among the mixed oppressors and
oppressed (equally unhappy) of an ancient and corrupt Society. I have
been born with the gold spoo
n in my mouth, to station and influence
and responsibility, here; and it is here that God means me to administer
to these and be holden to account for my stewardship. I shall hardly be
forced into conspicuous political life again; but, as I am a Democrat, in
fact as well as name, all my sympathies being with the People and their
cause, though I have not your Faith to spread, I shall aim to be an ear-
nest missionary of Truth and Progress and Reform. It is my fixed belief
that our Society must be reformed, or from natural causes perish. It may
became an international cause célèbre. S
ee Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail: The Quest for
the Northwest Passage and The North Pole, 1818–1909 (Toronto: McLelland & Stewart, 1988), 63–150.
30. Thomas’s older brother Elisha spent most of the 1840s traveling the globe, both as an assistant naval surgeon and as a freelance wanderer. In 1847, he traveled to Mexico as an official messenger from Polk; he was wounded in a battle in which he demonstrated his chivalry by saving the life of a young Mexican aristocrat. In May 1850, he accompanied the Henry Grinnell expedition in search of the missing Franklin. See George Washington Corner, Doctor Kane of the Arctic Seas (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1972); David Chapin, Exploring Other Worlds: Margaret Fox, Elisha Kent Kane, and the Antebellum Culture of Curiosity (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004); and Mark Metzler Sawin, Raising Kane: Elisha Kent Kane and the Culture of Fame in Antebellum America (New York: American Philosophical Society, 2008).
90
the prOphet and the refOrmer
be I may find, years hence, that to withstand is merely to imprecate and
share its ruin, or I may find that the manly pursuit of duty may come to
expose me to fruitless persecution or so far deprive me of my popularity
and influence with my community as to relieve me of the responsibility
which now attaches to me: in any of these cases, my friends, I promise
you, I shall seek the sure haven of peaceful Deseret and ask you for a
home where I can smile at the angry waves of crime and passion that
break in vain outside, against its rocky mountain ramparts.
Write to me, freely; and send me any one to whom I can render ser-
vice. Believe that you thus please me best, by showing you count upon
my affection and know you have a right to call me
Your friend
Thomas L. Kane
14
Kane to Young, February 19, 1851
having lOst the battle for Utah statehood in the Compromise of 1850, the
attention of Kane—now in somewhat better health—and Bernhisel turned
to securing a measure of Mormon self-government within the territorial sys-
tem by lobbying for the appointment of Mormon officials in Utah, particu-
larly Young as governor.1 As President Millard Fillmore (who had assumed
the office following Taylor’s death in July 1850) pondered his appointments,
he faced a changed public environment, which was both weary of sectional
wrangling, even with the Mormons in the west, and growing more sympa-
thetic to the Latter-day Saints as a result of Kane’s pamphlet. Following the
passage of the Compromise of 1850, Bernhisel’s dispatches began to brighten
and he reported that Fillmore seemed “favorably disposed” to the appoint-
ment of Young as governor.2 Bernhisel asked for Kane’s assistance in lobbying
Fillmore, forwarding him a list which included six Mormons for the seven
territorial positions.3
As Fillmore grappled with the question of appointments for Utah, Kane
returned to Washington to meet with him several times. The two had met
earlier during the Free Soil movement and had liked each other.4 Although
Kane did not make a full record of their discussions, he revealed several
important details. Seeking a deft compromise that might displease the
1.
For Mormon attempts to secure a territorial or state government, see Ronald W. Walker,
“The Affair of the ‘Runaways’: Utah’s First Encounter with the Federal Officers, Part 1,”
Journal of Mormon History 39.4 (2013), 1–15.
2. Bernhisel to Young, September 12, 1850, BYOF; Bernhisel to Millard Fillmore, September 16, 1850, BYOF.
3. Bernhisel to Kane, September 11, 1850, Kane Collection, BYU.
4. Kane to Young, Kimball, and Richards, July 29, 1851.
92
the prOphet and the refOrmer
fewest people, Fillmore asked Kane to accept the Utah governorship. Kane
refused.5
At another point in their discussion, Fillmore invited Kane to speak, “not
as a politician” but “as a gentleman,” about Young’s qualifications for office.
In an age of formal honor, the request was designed to lay aside partisanship.
Kane responded by vouching for Young’s “excellent capacity, energy and integ-
rity” and his “irreproachable moral character,” a judgment based on Kane’s
“intimate personal knowledge.” In response, Fillmore claimed to be “fully sat-
isfied” with Kane’s assurances and nominated Young as Utah’s first governor
in late September 1850.6 Fillmore had “relied much” on Kane’s witness, he
later said.7
As part of his decision, Fillmore agreed to appoint a broad slate of
Mormon officers to Utah’s new territorial government, along with a patron-
age appointment or two to outside officials. The machinations of Almon
Babbitt, however, undermined Fillmore’s plans. Babbitt tried to change the
proposed list of Mormon-favored officials by nominating some of his friends.
We “nearly lost the whole,” said Kane in the featured letter. Although Kane
moved quickly to staunch the harm, the incident probably cost the Mormons
one or two appointments. When Fillmore announced his nominations in
late September 1850, they included four of the appointees from the original
list circulated between Bernhisel and Kane: Young as governor; Zerubbabel
Snow (a non-practicing but recently rebaptized Mormon) as associate justice;
Seth M. Blair as U.S. Attorney; and Joseph L. Heywood as marshal. Fillmore
rounded out the nominations with three choices of his own: Broughton
D. Harris, secretary; Joseph Buffington, chief justice (later replaced by Lemuel
G. Brandebury); and Perry C. Brocchus, associate justice. “The appointing
power has been far more liberal to us, than it has ever been to any other
Territory,” Bernhisel told Young.8
Kane’s role in the political maneuvering had been decisive. The suc-
cess of his pamphlet and his lobbying proved deeply satisfying to Kane.
5. When the T
aylor proposal to admit a unified California–Utah was being discussed, Kane
had also rejected an offer to become a U.S. Senator from the new state. See Bernhisel to Robert Patterson Kane, July 29, 1859, Kane Collection, BYU.
6. Kane to Young, Kimball, and Richards, February 19, 1851. For Kane’s written assurances, see Kane to Fillmore, July 11, 1851.
7. Millard Fillmore to Kane, July 4, 1851, BYOF; also at Gilder Lehrman Collection, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
8. Bernhisel to Young, November 9, 1850, BYOF.
Kane to Young, February 19, 1851
93
During the negotiations over the Utah officials, he wrote his father, “I
shall probably get my Governor, Brigham Young, if not more.” And then
he added, “L
ike yourself, I can manage well for others.”9 Recognizing
Kane’s achievement, Bernhisel presented the Mormons’ friend with an
elegant robe of wolf and fox skins—“the most splendid sleigh robe ever
seen,” Bernhisel thought.10 After receiving the robe, Kane displayed it as
an “ornament” in his Independence Hall office. Later, he loaned it to his
brother Elisha, who used it on his Arctic expeditions. Informing Young
of its transfer, Thomas called it the “first missionary of Mormonism
to the North Pole.”11 Kane also had professional debts to pay, and he,
too, used a token to express his thanks. Taking a set of Deseret-minted
gold coins that Young had sent him, Kane commissioned the manufac-
ture of signet rings, which he then sent to “leading friends,” including
New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, who had helped in his campaign
to mold public image.12 Kane also commissioned three gold rings for the
Mormon First Presidency, inscribing on them words and phrases from
the Book of Mormon, demonstrating his familiarity with that book of
scripture. In this letter, he explained the phrases and symbols he placed
on the rings; his choices succinctly described the values he admired
in the Saints: industry, a manly standing against the crowd on behalf
of fervent belief, creation of an idealistic community, and the pursuit
of peace.
In the following introspective and lengthy letter, Kane reflected on
these events, the shifting national political landscape, territorial policy,
and on how his relationship with the Mormons had transformed his
own life.
Source
Kane to Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards, February 19,
1851, box 40, fd 10, BYOF.
9. Kane to J
ohn K. Kane, undated, APS.
10. Bernhisel, remarks, August 3, 1851, General Church Minutes, CHL.
11. Kane to Young, September 24, 1850; Kane to Young, Kimball, and Richards, February 19, 1851.
12. Young to Kane, October 20, 1849; Kane to Young, September 24, 1850.
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