To insure this letter’s reaching you, I shall forward one copy to you,
one enclosed to Dr Bernhisel for him to peruse and forward to you, and
one by The next mail.
In a letter [to] The Doctor by This mail, I [p. 7] have requested him
to keep the subject of this my letter to you strictly confidential between
you two.19
Hoping That your answer will be favorable, and my frankness be
understood and reciprocated.
I Remain with high esteem
Most Truly your Friend
Brigham Young
19.
Bernhisel was to have “no communications nor correspondence upon the subject of
[Young’s] letter to him . . . lest he might take exceptions.” Young to Bernhisel, October 31, 1854, BYOF.
28
Kane to Young, January 5, 1855
BefOre receiving yOung’s October 30, 1854 invitation to become Utah’s
territorial delegate to Congress, Kane continued to work with Bernhisel to
persuade President Pierce to reappoint Young. Rumors abounded that Pierce
would select a non-Mormon, most probably Lieutenant Colonel Edward Jenner
Steptoe. Sent to California by way of Utah in 1854 with 300 soldiers and civil-
ians, Steptoe had been ordered to deliver recruits and mules to California, to
investigate the massacre by Pahvant Indians of a federal surveying party led
by Captain John Williams Gunnison in Utah the previous year, and to examine
the practicality of building a road from Salt Lake City to California. Steptoe’s
command remained in Utah during the winter of 1854–1855.1
In mid-December, Bernhisel explained to Young that continuing press cov-
erage of polygamy threatened his reappointment. He asked Young to direct
the “brethren who indulge in the thoughtless practice of writing letters on
the subject of poligamy to their friends in the States” to stop. “These letters
find their way in to the newspapers,” Bernhisel continued, “and aggravate and
perpetuate that deep rooted and bitter prejudice which is operating so much
to our injury.” He also related a “long and pleasant” meeting with Pierce,
who was “very kind and his mind seems to have undergone quite a favorable
change in regard to the people of Utah.” Pierce indicated that he had “received
letters from Col Steptoe and Chief Justice Kinney, and that both of them spoke
highly of you and the people.” The president pledged to “appoint none but a
man of the highest character, and seemed inclined to think that it would be
better for the people of Utah to appoint such a one, than to appoint you, for
1. G
row, Liberty to the Downtrodden, 153; MacKinnon, At Sword’s Point, 48. For reports on Steptoe and Utah, see “Religious Freedom in Utah,” National Era, January 4, 1855, 4;
“Governor of Utah,” Daily Placer and Times [California], February 6, 1855, 2.
Kane to Young, January 5, 1855
179
he would do us justice and speak well of us which would remove much of the
prejudice against us.”2
A few days later, on December 18, Bernhisel wrote Young that Steptoe had
been appointed as governor. Pierce had spoken “in the most exalted terms of
Col Steptoe” and Bernhisel expressed hopes that Steptoe’s positive statements
about the Saints would “nail to the wall the libelous predictions of the news-
papers, that if any other gentleman should be appointed Governor, you and
the people would rebel against the Government.”3 Upon learning of Steptoe’s
nomination, Kane asked Bernhisel to emphasize to Young “the danger he
was in. I would like him also to know, and not from myself, what exertions
I made in his favor, and why they were unavailing.” He also expressed some
hope, based upon information received from a “friend of the President’s,” that
Steptoe perhaps would not be able to “keep his office.”4
In the featured letter, written on January 5, 1855 and received by Young
on March 25, Kane declined Young’s offer to engineer his election as Utah’s
delegate to Congress.5 Kane understood that much of his influence on behalf
of the Latter-day Saints came from his status as an outsider with no official
connections to the Mormons. Far from increasing his usefulness to the Saints,
election as their delegate would decrease his influence. Kane reiterated his
praise of Bernhisel, whose patient tenacity had proved effective for the Saints.
He further promised to keep a visit to Utah as a “pet day dream” so he would
have “to date my stories no longer of old ’46.”6 The following summer, Kane
seriously considered the possibility of accepting Young’s invitation to visit
Utah. He and his wife Elizabeth determined “to let Tom’s journey be decided
by the state of his health next spring.” Kane thought he might stay in Utah
between June and September 1856, though this did not occur.7
Kane also sent Bernhisel a copy of this January 5, 1855 letter. Bernhisel
responded, “I regret that you have declined to accede to the proposals made to
you from our distant and sequestered territory. It would be perfectly agreeable
to me to resign my place in your behalf knowing that you would fill it much
more ably than I do.” He added that Steptoe’s friends believed he would resign
2. Bernhisel to Y
oung, December 14, 1854, BYOF.
3. Bernhisel to Young, December 18, 1854, BYOF.
4. Kane to Bernhisel, January 5, 1855, transcript, Lyndon W. Cook Papers, BYU.
5. General Church Minutes, March 26, 1855, CHL.
6. Kane to Young, January 5, 1855.
7. Elizabeth W. Kane, journal, July 29, 1855, Kane Collection, BYU.
180
the prOphet And the refOrmer
his army commission and accept the position of Utah’s governor, though his
reply to Washington would not be received until spring.8
News of Steptoe’s rumored appointment reached Utah by February, though
Steptoe refused to comment as he considered whether or not to accept the position.
Meanwhile, tensions between Steptoe’s soldiers and the Latter-day Saints rapidly
increased, revolving around charges of the soldiers’ behavior (including a “drunken riot” on Christmas Day in Salt Lake City) and socializing with Mormon women.
Young became particularly enraged at soldiers’ interactions with Latter-day Saint
women, including attempts by two separate soldiers (including Steptoe’s first lieutenant) to woo a daughter and a daughter-in-law (whose husband, Joseph A. Young,
was then on a mission). For his part, Steptoe denounced a Mormon jury that con-
victed three Pahvant Indians for manslaughter rather than murder in the deaths of
Gunnison’s surveying expedition. By May, when Steptoe and his men left Utah, he
still had not arrived at a decision. Steptoe ultimately decided against the nomination; Pierce opted against making another nomination and Young thus continued in his
gubernatorial office, though without an official reappointment.9 For Young and the Saints, the experience of living in close quarters with Steptoe’s soldiers—and particularly the perceived social and cultural dangers an army command posed to the
Mormons—shaped their reaction when two years later President James Buchanan
sent a much larger army to accompany Young’s replacement as governor to Utah.
Source
[Kane] to [Young], undated, box 15, fd 3, Kane Collection, BYU.
Letter
Philadelphia, Jan. 5. 1855
My dear friend,10
I have about time enough, I take it, to despatch an answer to yr. let-
ter of Octo. 30. by the California Steamer of the Sixth instant.11 Although
8. Bernhisel to Kane, J
anuary 6, 1855, Kane Collection, BYU.
9. William MacKinnon, “Sex, Subalterns, and Steptoe: Army Behavior, Mormon Rage, and Utah War Anxieties,” Utah Historical Quarterly 76 (Summer 2008): 227–246.
10. At the bottom of the page, Kane wrote “Governor Young.” to indicate the recipient.
11. Young to Kane, October 30, 1854.
Kane to Young, January 5, 1855
181
therefore my stronger impulse is to indulge in the language of senti-
ment, responding to yr. valued friendly and affectionate expressions;
I shall more appropriately answer first the business proposal which you
make me. Ruling out the questions of interest, I am happily saved the
delay of making up my mind. I was constrained to consider the gen-
eral question, if [p. 2] I wd. accept of office in Utah, a good while ago;
and, after mature deliberation, I was able to decide, without a doubt,
that I ought not to either connect myself in interest with the people
of the territory, or allow any such use to be made of my name as wd.
support the allegation that my interests were identified or connected
with theirs.12 My notion was, that my opinion upon yr. affairs, my voice
and testimony in yr. favor, wd. be impaired in value if I consented to
descend from my impartial position with respect to you.
I see no material change of circumstances. Except, perhaps, that, as
you have it, storm has since subsided into calm, and what were doubts
and contingencies, into the [p. 3] full strength and certainty of prosper-
ity. I am proud of the hearty and natural meaning of your invitation,
that I shd. sit down in yr. company to the holiday feast, as one who
also worked his six week days through with you.—And yet, is all so
well assured—is the ascendant of Justice so secure, that you will not
need me any more? I have believed so; but does not a recent untoward
event(*)13 admonish us to the contrary? Indeed I think you cannot afford
to allow me to part with any portion of the strength I have, which I hold
in my own right.
The necessity is thus spared me of raising the question if it wd. be
perfectly agreeable to yr. present delegate to resign his place. Propriety
suggests however that I should reiterate on this [p. 4] occasion, my testi-
mony to his fidelity, and discreet and modest efficiency. There are many
more busy as well as more restless intriguers in the House—quite a
number of faster horses for the Quarter heat; but I do not think I know
another Member, of whom I cd. assert with equal confidence that, in all
his career, he has not committed one grave mistake or been betrayed into
a single false position. For a representative to gain credit for himself, to
12.
Millard Fillmore had offered Kane a position as Utah’s first territorial governor in 1850.
See Kane to Young, February 19, 1851.
13. Kane’s note: “(*) I refer to Col. Steptoe’s nomination. As I shall be compelled to ask Dr. Bernhisel to explain how entirely I was unprepared for it. I shall also ask him to be good as to state for me the course which I pursued relative to your re-appointment, as well as narrate precisely how the matter now stands. Perhaps the Evil is not yet irretrievable. January 5.”
182
the prOphet And the refOrmer
seem active, to make a name, is one thing: to really serve his constituents,
another!—I shall volunteer freely too, my aid and counsel to Dr Bernhisel;
confident, after this fresh proof of yr confidence, that I shall encounter no
want of deference to my judgment of hesitation in carrying out my views.
—As far as my visit to Utah is concerned [p. 5] I do see a point on yr.
side. Not “to make the acquaintance of yr. more influential citizens”
merely;14—but to see you all, and everything about you—to date my sto-
ries no longer of old ’46:—it stands to reason I shd. make my words in yr.
favor entitled to more weight. I know how you wd. receive me; to what an
intimacy I shd. come, to how many; how, (hardest of all!) how patiently you
wd. bear with my fashion of plain speaking upon matters even that the heart
as well as the head wd. defend. So I shall keep it as a pet day dream, that,
before too long, I may be able to arrange it to come quietly over and pay you
a friendly visit, and brighten up again the links of the brave chain of trusting
friendship with which Time has so long held us.—Meanwhile, [p. 6] you
have reminded me sufficiently how far I have let myself fall behindhand
in my knowledge of yr. affairs. The Pacific Rail Road, the Land Bills, many
other such questions, I must save leisure to bring myself up to. And I shall
regard yr. letter to me as a request that I will use less delicacy than I have
before this felt becoming, in examining into yr territorial business in general.
After what I have written, I have no call to advert to yr. remark that
you are assured it wd. doubtless please me to comply with your wishes.”
At no time (and I wish you take this with meaning) have I allowed any
person whatever to believe that I wd. under any circumstances accept
any office or place of position or profit in connexion with Utah. My gal-
lant friend Grant will [p. 7] best explain to me how his mistake arose, if
it has been one.—I am persuaded only out of his the constant desire of
his warm heart to do his friend a service. And so far I do not misunder-
stand, but sincerely thank him, as I beg him to rest certain.15
I have but one feeling—about the whole matter. Of thanks, not only
for yr. offer and the motives evidently prompting it, but for the hand-
some and most gentlemanly manner in which it is extended to me. I am
touched especially by the delicacy with which you seek to cover the
questions involving my pecuniary circumstances.16 Happily, my worldly
14. F
or Young’s invitation, see Young to Kane, October 30, 1854.
15. For Jedediah M. Grant’s statement, see Young to Kane, October 30, 1854.
16. Young had offered Kane financial assistance to cover the costs of the proposed move to Utah. Young to Kane, October 30, 1854.
Kane to Young, January 5, 1855
183
affairs are in every respect as I wd. wish them. No want of means wd.
interfere with my journey, or housekeeping in Great Salt Lake City, if
I thought it my duty. I spend my annual income, every cent, [p. 8] as
fast as it accrues; but, as I do not spend it upon myself, I hold it only a
troublesome stewardship, and shd. be anything but grieved if, tomor-
row morning, or any other, I shd. find myself turned out of office, with
only my clothes to my back and only my good pen in my hand. I do not
save, but I am personally sparing if not economical, and I do not run into
debt. I am in every sense, in my circumstances, independent.17
—You will not think m
e on this account less pleased to remember
your liberal intentions. Among friends or unfriends, these things do not
happen so often in this world, that a man can be glad to forget them.
Thank then for me emphatically all around you who have been par-
ties to your good will; and, for yourself accept once more the expression
of my best wishes for yr. health and happiness.
Yr. friend sincerely always
Thomas L. Kane
17
. Kane painted an optimistic view of his finances. His income gradually declined following his marriage in 1853, a result of judicial reforms which limited the fees clerks could charge.
Grow, Liberty to the Downtrodden, 137–138.
29
Kane to Young, July 10, 1855
fOllOwing his pAtriArchAl blessing in September 1846, Kane, sickly
and single, had questioned John Smith’s promises that he would “raise
up sons and daughters that shall be esteemed as the excellent of the
earth.”1 Even after his marriage, Kane’s continued illnesses and his wife
Elizabeth’s miscarriage in 1853 further delayed his fatherhood. In her
journal on July 10, 1855, Elizabeth simply recorded that “about half past
twelve [at night], I had to send him [Thomas] for the nurse and the doctor,
and four minutes past one on Tuesday morning, our darling little daugh-
ter was born.”2 Thomas and Elizabeth named their daughter Harriet,
after Elizabeth’s deceased mother. Harriet Kane became a doctor, like her
mother, and lived until 1896. Thomas and Elizabeth later added three
sons to their family: Elisha Kent Kane (1856–1935), Evan O’Neill Kane
(1861–1932), and Thomas Leiper Kane, Jr. (originally named William
Kane, 1863–1929). On the day of Harriet’s birth, Kane sent the following
letter to Young.
Source
Kane to Young, July 10, 1855, box 40, fd 11, BYOF.
1. Kane, patriarchal blessing, CHL.
2. Elizabeth W. Kane, journal, July 10, 1855, BYU.
Kane to Young, July 10, 1855
185
Letter
Fern Rock,3 near
Philadelphia, July 10. 1855.
My dear friend:
The Prophet and the Reformer Page 27