I hope this letter will reach you, as I shall never succeed in persuad-
ing my wife that it has not been decreed for Ages that I shd. write it.
After my hemorrhage, after the Ague, after my resolve of celibacy; after
the cholera and dysentery, after my wife’s miscarriage4 and pronounced
peculiar state of health even,—it has come to pass; and I am the father
of a daughter, about as lively and noisy a personage as my family has
seen, this score of years.
If I have one abatement to my complete satisfaction, it is the remem-
brance that [p. 2] our old friend friend Smith is now no more.5 I believe
he was sincerely attached to me, and, patriarch or no patriarch—would
have rejoiced to bestow upon my child the valued blessing of an aged
man pure and upright and through all his life a consistent professor of
the one truest of religions. My friend, may we both end our days in an
assurance equal to his!
Charge yourself with “giving my love” to all my well wishers in
Utah—the many for whom my heart at this moment overflows. I wd. like
to name them, but my fear is greater, of omitting any. I am still—shall
remain ever
Affectionately your friend
Thomas L. Kane
Governor Young.
3. F
ern Rock was the Kane family country estate, located outside of Philadelphia.
4. For Kane’s sickness at the Mormon camps in 1846, see Kane to Young, September 10, 1846. For Elizabeth’s miscarriage in July 1853, see Grow, Liberty to the Downtrodden, 133.
5. John Smith died on May 23, 1854. “Death of the Patriarch, John Smith,” Deseret News, May 25, 1854.
30
Young to Kane, September 30, 1855
upOn receiving KAne’s July 10, 1855 letter, Young sent his congratula-
tions on the birth of Harriet Kane, as well as a report of the development
of Utah society, including the construction of Young’s own large compound
in the heart of Salt Lake City. Young also noted the “wide spread devasta-
tion” caused by insects on the Mormons’ crops, resulting in an agricultural
crisis that was compounded by a drought. In similar terms as his letter to
Kane, Young wrote to another correspondent, “notwithstanding the drouth
[ sic] and the ravages of the grasshoppers,” there would be enough “grain and vegetables . . . to supply the demand until another harvest.”1 Young also wrote
to Kane regarding his strong support for the development of home industry,
such as wool manufacturing.2
Source
Young to Kane, September 30, 1855, box 15, fd 3, Kane Collection, BYU.
Retained copy is in Brigham Young Letterbooks, box 2, vol. 2, 393–396.
1. Y
oung to Henry Miller, November 28, 1855, BYOF. See also Heber C. Kimball to Warren Kimball, February 29, 1856, “Foreign Correspondence,” Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, vol.
18 (June 21, 1856), 395–398.
2. For similar expressions, see Young to Bernhisel, October 1, 1855; Young to Orson Hyde, October 9, 1855; and Young to Orson Spencer, September 10, 1855, all in BYOF.
Young to Kane, September 30, 1855
187
Letter
Great Salt Lake City,
September 30th 1855.
Col Thos L. Kane
My Dear Friend:
In accordance with your “hope,” your very frank, kind, and welcome
letter of July 10 came safe to hand on the 5th inst, of course too late for
answering by the 1st, thus compelling you, as well as myself to wait, with
such patience as we may, upon the tardy and uncertain movements of the
mail between here and Independence.
Before proceeding further permit me to congratulate you, upon the
lively and joyous addition to your family, and please accept my warmest
wishes that Heaven’s choice blessings may attend your daughter during
her sojourn in this time, even until she accomplishes the will of him who
committed her pure spirit to your care, and fulfills the fondest aspirations
of her parents for her welfare. After your many ups and downs, resolve,
and accidents, you must indeed have been filled with joy, and most truly
do I rejoice with you, and your dear lady (unto whom I suspect I am, at
least, somewhat indebted [p. 2] for your present letter) in so goodly a
harbinger of, I trust, a noble line of posterity.3
You can appreciate my sentiments on this point, for you are more
or less aware of the high estimation in which I hold children as a
blessing—may yours richly prove so and be multiplied to your heart’s
desire.
In our far off peaceful vales there is but little of grave moment
transpiring, to particularly interest one in the midst of the heavy,
jostling and turmoil of the States’ busy millions, unless indeed the
calm and quiet, but energetic and virtuous, movements of our iso-
lated thousands, in converting deserts into fruitful fields and building
beautiful cities in waste places where no others would, afford some
gratification to a lover of the indomitable energy that pervades our
population.
The excitement of politics with all their fury is as yet unable to pass
the lofty barriers on our eastern & western borders; hence our day of
election pass off as quietly as do those of ordinary occupation and your
3. Kane to Y
oung, July 10, 1855.
188
the prOphet And the refOrmer
tried and firm friend, Hon John M. Bernhisel, is again unanimously
elected Delegate to Congress from the Territory of Utah.4
Notwithstanding the wide spread [p. 3] devastation by grasshoppers,
cricketts and other insects in the fields of most of our settlements, still
a sufficiency for prudent wants has been and will be secured, and with
reasonable economy it is probable that no one in our borders need suffer
for the necessaries of life previous to another harvest.
Among our various improvements you will be gratified to learn
that much attention has been paid to fruit raising, more especially in
this City, and it would give me great pleasure to have the privilege of
showing you through my young Gardens where grape vines were lately
loaded with probably as large and finely flavored clusters as far famed
California can boast-and the peach trees are bending under the bur-
den of larger and more luscious peaches than I ever remember having
elsewhere seen; apples and other fruits adapted to our climate also give
promising indication of superior excellence.5
I am happy in being able to inform you that amid building mills, opening
farms, and various other cares, and labors, I have finished and furnished a very
tasteful and commodious dwelling, and
[p. 4] friends comfortable, if not happy, whenever they see fit to honor me
with a visit; shall I ever have the pleasure of entertaining Col Kane & Lady?
I am also finishing a very large and comfortable house adjoining the
one just mentioned, and both connected with each other, and with my
Church and Territorial Offices, which when completed will enable me
to render the most of my family (which you know the world say is very
large) quite comfortable, and at the same time allow me to bring the var-
ious channels of my public and private business under my more direct
observation and & control.6
4. The
Deseret News reported that Bernhisel received the “unanimous vote of the large assembly . . . met in this city” on July 4 and would “at the ensuing election, receive the unanimous vote of Utah.” See Deseret News, July 11, 1855.
5. Young sent some of his newly harvested grapes to Indian Agent Garland Hurt. Hurt believed that Utah’s climate was “adapted to the perfection of the grape in its most exquisite flavors and the preservation of its juices.” See Hurt to Young, September 15, 1855, BYOF.
6. Young had recently completed the construction of a two-story official residence which became known as the Beehive House. The following year, he built an additional three-story home, the Lion House. Young’s President’s Office, a one-story structure, stood between the two residences. In 1856, Young had “eleven connubial wives (those he stayed with on occasion) and thirty-five living children, not counting several caretaker wives and several foster children.” Leonard Arrington noted, “Designed to be self-sufficient, Brigham’s compound
Young to Kane, September 30, 1855
189
Permit me to inquire if you have received any late information from
your long absent brother, Dr Kane, in whose welfare and adventures.
I feel a deep interest, and shall be much rejoiced to hear of his success
in accordance with his most sanguine expectations.7
All is peace, progress, union, and prosperity in Utah.
Your true friends, Prests Kimball, and Grant,8 and hosts of others
wish me to give yourself and family their love and best wishes for your
welfare, and I most cordially tender you mine.
Praying that your pathway may ever be strown with all blessings
desirable by the upright.
I Remain, Your Friend
Brigham Young
included a gristmill, barns and
corrals, granaries and outbuildings, a store or commissary, a
schoolhouse, and a small private cemetery.” Arrington, American Moses, 169–170.
7. Elisha Kane left on a second Arctic expedition in May 1853 in search of the lost British explorer John Franklin. Two years dragged by without news from Elisha, causing many to fear that he and his crew were also lost in the Arctic. Elisha, however, returned triumphantly in October 1855; Thomas soon set to work on Elisha’s second book of Arctic exploits, which was published in September 1856. Grow, Liberty to the Downtrodden, 137.
8. Young’s counselors Heber C. Kimball and Jedediah M. Grant.
31
Young to Kane, April 14, 1856
yOung’s exAsperAtiOn with the outside territorial officials, heightened
by the Mormons’ experience with the Steptoe expedition, accelerated his
desire to obtain self-government through statehood. In March 1856, a con-
stitutional convention in Utah drafted a constitution and an application for
statehood and chose apostles George A. Smith and John Taylor as delegates
to present the application to Congress. Whatever Congress decided, Young
felt that it would at least allow the status quo to continue: “they appear to
have plenty enough to think about.”1 If Utah was admitted, John Bernhisel
and Smith would be elected senators and Taylor would be sent to the House
of Representatives.2
In the following letter, Young asked for Kane’s support for the statehood
effort. Reflecting Kane’s previous advice for neutrality on slavery, Young
informed Kane that the proposed constitution left “that question where
Congress has left it with the People, but neither our climate, soil, productions,
nor minds of the people are congenial to African Slavery.” In late May, Young
expressed his hopes to Smith:
But you will soon be fairly launched upon the sea of political wire work-
ing, and I have no doubt but that yourself, Col. Thos. L. Kane, Elder
Taylor, br. Bernhisel and our brethren and friends in the East will be
able to outride the whirlwind of events with honor to yourselves, and
with such success as it may please the Almighty to bless our efforts.3
1. Y
oung to Charles C. Rich, April 3, 1856, BYOF.
2. Young to John M. Bernhisel, April 1, 1856, BYOF.
3. Young to George A. Smith, May 29, 1856, BYOF.
Young to Kane, April 14, 1856
191
Nevertheless, national politics once again overwhelmed the Mormons’
quest for statehood. Indeed, Young’s hopeful letter demonstrates his mis-
understanding of the American political scene and the depth of national
feeling against the Latter-day Saints. Two days after Young wrote this letter,
Taylor, already in the east, sent a letter to Young, passing along Bernhisel’s
view “that there is a poor prospect of our coming into the Union at present.”
Taylor noted that Kane was willing to help, but similarly pessimistic.4 In June,
Taylor assured Young that he had met several times with Kane who “will do
all he can; he is decidedly our friend.” Taylor hoped that political chaos, a
result of the realignment of national political parties in the mid-1850s and
the emergence of the Republican Party in the north, would provide an oppor-
tunity for the Saints to obtain statehood:
I am in hopes that, notwithstanding the opposition to Mormonism
as a whole, the turbulent state of the political atmosphere; the com-
ing into existence of new parties; the attempt at fusion; the necessity
of controlling all the elements of power; the fears of committal & the
yearnings after more votes among all classes; the desperate struggle
between North and South: the rising popularity of Squatter Sovereignty,
universally and unquestionably sanctioned by the whole Democratic
party: that among all there may be a prospect of “passing the Rubicon”
by using wisely the various floating materials at hand, for with all their
old cant about Polygamy, I believe any of them could swallow that if we
were only of their party. The Democrats are bound by their Platform to
do so, and others by their necessities.5
Nevertheless, Taylor and the other Mormon petitioners quickly realized their
hopes would again be engulfed in high-stakes national politics. On July 12, Taylor, Smith, and Bernhisel wrote Young that “after the departure of the last mail, political affairs took a very sudden change, in relation to us. At that time indications of a favorable reception of our Constitution were prevalent throughout the country.” The Democrats either favored Utah’s admission into the Union or at the least did not
actively oppose it. However, the Republican Party had held its first national convention on June 18 and had linked “Slavery & Polygamy, as twin relics of barbarism.”
The Republicans hoped to tar the Democratic principle of popular sovereignty,
used to urge federal non-interference with slavery in the territories, by associating it 4. T
aylor to Young, April 16, 1856, BYOF.
5. Taylor to Young, June 18, 1856, BYOF.
192
the prOphet And the refOrmer
with the near-universally condemned Mormon practice of plural marriage. For the
Republicans, polygamy was a symbol of the excesses that would be allowed under
popular sovereignty. Taylor, Smith, and Bernhisel explained that “Polygamy now is
shook at the Democrats as one of the institutions which they must defend, in con-
junction with slavery, upon the great question of Popular Sovere
ignty.”6
As a manifestation of the renewed opposition to the admission of a Mormon
state, George A. Smith informed Young that the congressional Committee on
Territories had in late June “reported a Bill to suppress Polygamy in Utah.”
Smith attempted to cast this as “one of the most favorable omens,” reasoning
that the question of plural marriage “will be debated and decided before we
shall present our Constitution.”7 The new bill was the product of Republican
Justin S. Morrill of Vermont, just beginning a twenty-year-legislative crusade
against the Mormons. Morrill wanted to overturn the Democratic Party’s
doctrine of local decision-making, claiming that Washington had “exclusive
jurisdiction” in the territories and that no political principle could justify polygamy. Morrill proposed that polygamists be subjected to a fine not exceeding
$500 and a jail sentence of at least two years. His bill created a “sensation.”8
Congressmen also considered legislation to curtail Utah’s borders and ques-
tioned whether Utah’s population had reached a sufficient level.9 The recent
inability of Oregon to obtain statehood on similar grounds of inadequate
population—notwithstanding that “it has rather been the favorite Territory”—
augured bad news for Utah’s application.10 In late June, Smith traveled to
Philadelphia to consult with Kane, but found him absent for five weeks.11
Taylor, Smith, and Bernhisel thus found themselves in a quandary. An “over-
whelming majority in the House” were “pledged against us,” based in part upon
longstanding opposition to Mormonism and in part upon the recent political situ-
ation. Furthermore, southern Democrats, who supported the principle of federal
non-intervention on slavery, “are yet scarcely prepared, owing to sectional influ-
ences, moral, social & religious prejudices to stand up in defense of Polygamy, particularly when opposed by so powerful a phalanx.” Illinois Senator Stephen
A. Douglas, a leading Democrat who had previously assisted the Mormons,
6. T
aylor, Smith, and Bernhisel to Young, July 12, 1856, BYOF.
7. George A. Smith to Brigham Young, June 30, 1856, BYOF.
The Prophet and the Reformer Page 28