President Hyde leaves on return to Kanesville this week, accom-
panied by Friends Benson and Grant, for the purpose of gathering the
Saints to our peaceful home;13 and perchance one or more of them may
have occasion to pass through your pleasant City; we feel unwilling
they should do so without having occasion to call on our Friend; let the
occasion be ever so trifling, if no more than Post Boy, for we think you
too well acquainted with those friends to need any formal introduc-
tion; but will rather hint at things of greater moment, so far as time will
permit from other duties, before their departure.
We had anxiously been watching your pen for some time; fearing,
yet not without strong hope, that a day of renewed vigor and useful-
ness, would soon dawn; and our anxiety was releived by receipt of your
letter of July 11/50, many months after date, also of Sept 24 and Feb
19/5114 although your message to Doct Richards, with the inclosing let-
ter to W. W. Phelps [has not]15 been heard from. The exalted tone of
your testimonials, in favor of the Utah Judiciary, [missing word] espe-
cially the Hon: Mr Brocchus,16 are most perfectly understood, and most
highly appreciated; and at this point we will only remark that it is a
12. W
illard Richards to Kane, August 31, 1851, Thomas L. Kane Papers, Yale.
13. In September 1848, Brigham Young had appointed Orson Hyde to remain in Kanesville, Iowa to help coordinate the Saints’ migration west. Hyde’s duties included raising money for the poor Saints to come west. Young sent Jedediah M. Grant and Ezra T. Benson to assist Hyde. First Presidency to all the Saints in Pottowatamie, September 21, 1851, BYOF.
14. Kane to Young, July 11, 1850; Kane to Young, September 24, 1850; Kane to Young, February 19, 1851.
15. There is water damage at this place in the letter.
16. See Kane to Young, April 7, 1851.
128
the prOphet and the refOrmer
rumor of two days; among, or in the region of the Suburbs of the Upper
ten thousand;17 or, to say the least, among the Lobby members, that
the whole foreign delegation of Utah Authorities, are about to return to
their nativity, of which event, should it prove true, I trust we shall be
informed seasonably so as to give some reasons, pro and con, before we
close this; be this as it may, of one thing be assured, that the officers of
Utah were received with cordiality, and honored with all the respect,
which, as gentlemen, they were capable of appreciating; and if it is not
the overplus, unappreciated, which has caused the “toe of the shoe” to
be set where “the heel should be,” it will require some abler historian
to define the cause of its present position.
We rejoice, with you, that Providence spared, until you could right-
fully “esteem the battle for the Mormon reputation ended,”18 I. E for
the then time being, but to suppose for a moment, that the General War,
on “Mormon reputation,” or Saint’s Salvation, ended, or at its merid-
ian: would be as absurd and false, as to suppose that all that shines, is
pure Gold. When the earth is purified by fire, it will be known whose
works have been like Gold, Silver, and Precious Stone; and whose will
be like wood, hay, and stubble; and until that day, the War between the
Kingdom of God, and the Kingdoms [p. 2] of the world (of Satan) will
wax hotter and hotter, with occasional slight intervals of rest, in appear-
ance only, as you have seen, but as yet there is no time for burying the
dead. We drop this hint to a friend that he may not be found with his
armor off,19 while spies attack him when asleep or he be ambushed in
the rear. It is all skirmishing as yet, the great battle is by and bye, and
he that fights to the end will be proclaimed conqueror, and receive his
crown; but if he turns his back he falls, to be buried in the dark, or to be
eat by vultures.
We regret that you should have had any trouble with our friends real, or
pretended; but our net hauls in the fish of all kinds and they are all good for
something: If there were no kitchen maids and bottle washers, how could
there be Gentlemen? Mr B. [Babbitt] said that the Doctor [Bernhisel] was
too much of a Gentleman to go to Washington and do the dirty work, that
he could go into the kitchen and do the dirty work, and the Doct: could
17
. The “upper ten thousand” referred to the upper-class elite in the nineteenth century.
Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed., s.v. “Upper ten.”
18. Kane to Young, July 11, 1850.
19. Ephesians 6:11.
Young, Kimball, Richards to Kane, Sept 15, 1851
129
act the gentleman; and did they not perform their parts well and according
to anticipation? Clean dishes get hauled into dirty water some times; but
no matter, they wipe clean again. How those Gentlemen are esteemed in
Utah, let the Electoral vote answer. Dr B. [Bernhisel] received every vote
cast for Delegate; while Esqr B. [Babbitt] received not one. Comment is
useless, all is right, with us, and we hope with our friend K. also, at least
that he may no longer be troubled from the same source.20
We have hitherto observed a strict neutrality in politics, so far as
popular parties, of the day are concerned, as you may have learned by
the “News” which has been regularly mailed to you, but which is now
suspended for a little season, at least.21 All the cliques, parties, Divisions,
and subdivisions of the age, in politics, are easily cast in two grand
moulds Truth, and Falsehood; and so far as it may be possible that we
diverge from the first, or embrace the second, we are not Mormons. And
so far as we are Mormons, we embrace the first, and despise the second.
Our “Ancient Friend, Patriarch Smith” coming in at this moment,
I read to him your request, where you wish to know “if he would
be willing to reiterate his blessing now”! and ask “Does he say it is
still to hold?”22 and when I closed the venerable man, exclaimed, “It
shall hold!!” “Please say to Col Kane for me, I have not written him,
but am ever ready to acknowledge his favors: and he may rely on the
blessing I gave him. I have lived all the days appointed unto man on
the Earth, but I still hope to live to see him in the Valley; I believe
it will be for his health to take a journey to this Valley” Thus much
for the good Old Patriarch and you may believe his words.23 Doct.
Sprague24 your old nurse at Omaha Camp, coming in at the moment,
says, “Remember me kindly to Col Kane,” and thousands more would
gladly say the same.
20. Y
oung referenced Kane’s complaints about Babbitt and his praise of Bernhisel, also noting Bernhisel’s recent unanimous election as Utah territorial delegate to Congress. Kane to Young, September 24, 1850, and Kane to Young, February 19, 1851.
21. The first issue of the Deseret News was published June 15, 1850. The paper suspended publication from August to November 1851 due to financial concerns.
22. Kane to Young, February 19, 1851. On Kane’s patriarchal blessing, see Kane to Young, September 10, 1846.
23. The following September, Smith wrote Kane with his “blessing and prayers for your poste
rity and eternal happiness.” John Smith to Kane, 13 September 1852, Kane Collection, BYU.
24. Samuel Lindsay Sprague, Sr. (1807–1886) was an early Latter-day Saint physician, likely an herbal or Thomsonian doctor, who often treated Young. Barney, Mormon Vanguard Brigade, 364; Female Council of Health Minutes, August 14, 1852, CHL.
130
the prOphet and the refOrmer
We received the Pamphlets “The Mormons” and perused them
with pleasure, They speak for themselves, to lovers of truth; to others,
praise would be useless.25 The pleasure of doing good, is the [p. 3] great-
est consolation of a righteous man. The time when they were written,
the attendent circumstances, the motive for writing; the object to be
accomplished; and the perseverance under the opposing intreaties of
friends, and commands of Doctors: all these God had regard unto, and
when he saw you determined to sustain the cause you had espoused, at
risk of life, friendship, and all: he said, or seemed to say, it is enough,
I am satisfied with the integrity of my servant Thomas, and I will heal
him, so that he shall still live, and be a blessing unto my people; and
from hence you may date health, life renewed, and all its enjoyments.
The motives which influenced your pen on the eve of your departure
eastward; and your determinations and conclusions, while life was fast
flitting from the Camp of hope concerning future schemes, are worthy
of memorial, and I here take the liberty to suggest that the M. S. history,
referred to by you in said letter, can find no safer deposit, than in the
Temple archives.26 Let me explain. As historian of the Church of Jesus
Christ L. D. S.27 which will combine the General history of the age,
I feel anxious to embody all facts, under their appropriate dates, which
are worthy of remembrance, by future generations. In the course of my
writings, I have found many things, which are not desirable for immedi-
ate publication, as they might effect individual feeling, &c, but the facts
themselves are indispensable to a perfect history. What then should I do
but arrange those items, under their own dates, and in order, ready to be
added to future Editions, when the reasons which had suppressed them
shall have passed bye. Until then let them remained sealed, after I have
assigned them place, which I prefer to do myself, [missing word]28 rela-
tion to all things transpiring during my writing; possessing, as I do, the
folly to belie[ve] that I can assign appropriate places to all records under
my observation, better than the future historian who must be ignorant
of attendent circumstances, Could I believe for a moment that you
would have any fear for the safety of the papers, I would not have made
these suggestions, but, I feel that I am writing to a friend who can and
25. S
ee Kane to Young, September 24, 1850.
26. Kane to Young, 11 July 1850.
27. Richards served as church historian from December 1842 to his death in 1854.
28. Letter damaged at this point.
Young, Kimball, Richards to Kane, Sept 15, 1851
131
will appreciate my motives, let your decision be what it may, concerning
the matter.29
Expecting to write again before the bearer leaves, We subscribe
ourselves
Your friends, unchangeable as truth
Brigham Young
Heber C. Kimball
Willard Richards
29. Kane
’s manuscript history of his involvement with the Saints is apparently not extant.
20
Young to Kane, May 29, 1852
since the arrival of the Latter-day Saints in Utah, Brigham Young had
envisioned the expansion of Mormon settlements southward and westward
to link the Great Basin with southern California. In March 1849, members
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Salt Lake Valley wrote to Orson
Pratt in England, “We hope soon to explore the valleys three hundred miles
south and also the country as far as the Gulf of California with a view to set-
tlement and to acquiring a seaport.”1 The Legislative Assembly in November
1849 commissioned Parley P. Pratt to raise fifty men to explore southern Utah
to the site of present-day Las Vegas. Pratt’s Southern Utah Expedition iden-
tified at least twenty-six sites of eventual Mormon settlements and spurred
Mormon interest in the natural resources of the region, including iron ore
and coal.2 Within a year of the expedition, the first waves of pioneers began to
fan out through central and southern Utah. A large group of about 450 settled
in Parowan, and many moved the next year nearer the iron ore at Cedar City.
Settlers soon arrived as well in Fillmore, which would briefly serve as territo-
rial capital because of its central location. The Southern Utah Expedition also
led to the establishment of missions among the American Indians of southern
Utah in 1852.3
1. P
arley P. Pratt and Franklin D. Richards, “An Epistle of the Twelve to President Orson Pratt, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the British Isles—Greeting,”
March 9, 1849, Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star 11 (August 15, 1849), 246.
2. Terry L. Givens and Matthew J. Grow, Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 281–289; William B. Smart and Donna T. Smart, eds., Over the Rim: The Parley P. Pratt Exploring Expedition to Southern Utah, 1849–1850
(Logan: Utah State University Press, 1999).
3. Smart and Smart, Over the Rim, 84; Morris A. Shirts and Kathryn H. Shirts, A Trial Furnace: Southern Utah’s Iron Mission (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2001).
Young to Kane, May 29, 1852
133
In this letter to Kane, Young spoke of his tour, along with other church
leaders, through the Latter-day Saint settlements in central and southern Utah
from April 23 through May 11, 1852. Young expressed pleasure with the rapid
progress of settlement and discussed the Saints’ continuing exploration of the
region to find settlement sites and natural resources.
Source
Young to Kane, May 29, 1852, box 17, fd 2, BYOF. A draft of this letter
also exists in box 17, fd 2, BYOF.
Letter
Great Salt Lake City
May 29, 1852.
Dear Sir,
Sensibly appreciating the efforts of a faithful and warm hearted
friend, I cannot let this opportunity pass without rendering you my kind
regards and assurances of, the blessings of your friends, who are located
in these far distant and peaceful vales, where the jarring and discordant
sounds of worldly strife and oppression do but seldom salute our ears.
Our hearts abound with grateful emotions to our father, who is also
our God for the blessings of peace and quietness which we enjoy, and
for the blest privilege of occupying that portion of the earth’s surface
where measurably secluded, and isolated from the demoralizing influ-
ence of the society of the world in this corrupt age, leaves us free to
pursue the path of progress and reform indicated by the gentle whisper-
ings of the spirit.4
The superstitions, prejudices, and traditions so easily incul-
cated in early life, and common
to human existence form the
principal barriers with which we have to contend in these vallies,
while earnest and untiring exertion, persevering and never ending
effort, are required to promote the salvation and redemption of the
chosen race.
4. Kane
had written to Young, “I shall aim to be an earnest missionary of Truth and Progress and Reform. It is my fixed belief that our Society must be reformed, or from natural causes perish.” Kane to Young, September 24, 1850.
134
the prOphet and the refOrmer
I am just returned from an excursion to the southern part of the
Territory during which I took occasion to visit the principal settle-
ments in that direction as also many bands and tribes of the Indians.5
The settlements are in a flourishing condition, and bid fair soon to fur-
nish themselves with all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of
life. An excellent influence seems to be exerted with the native tribes,
many of whom have been induced to abandon their indolence, and
acquire a more liberal supply of food for themselves by using the nec-
essary exertion: some have sown wheat, planted also Corn, Beans, and
Potatoes while others are employed by the citizens, and receive remu-
neration for their daily labor: a continuance in this course uniformly
carried out, cannot but produce the happiest results, in effecting a
salutary change, not only in their temporal, but moral condition.6 We
found many fine vallies, susceptible of sustaining a large and dense
population. So far as my observation extends the natural wealth of this
country consists of its rich pasturage; although its natural resources as
yet are scantily developed. There are many hundred and thousands of
acres of good land which cannot be made available owing to a scarcity
of water for irrigation, nevertheless ourselves and our friends can find a
place for [p. 2] many years to come amid these wild mountain regions,
where surrounds the health inspiring atmosphere
cool mountain rivulet winds its way from lofty and rugged eminences,
presenting a scenery bold, grand, and beautiful to some sequestered
vale, where down trodden liberty shall feel exalting aspirations, and
The Prophet and the Reformer Page 20