262
the prOphet And the refOrmer
imagined, and still am [p. 2] prone to imagine, that you are more or less
inclined to scepticism even upon many points commonly received by
the religious world.8
The faith embraced by the Latter Day Saints is so naturally philo-
sophical, and so consistent with and enforcive of every valuable and
true principle that should govern in every department of life, that I am
strongly of opinion that a plain, candid exposition of the faith of the
everlasting gospel, which I have so much at heart, can not, probably, fail
to at least interest a person of your reflective turn of mind. Such being
my conviction, your permission to me to converse familiarly with you
upon a subject of so much import, previous to your departure for your
home, or to write to you upon your return to the society of your family
and friends, will confer a highly esteemed favor upon, most truly,
Your Friend and the Friend of all good and honorable men,
Brigham Young
Col. Thomas L. Kane.
8. On Kane
’s religious beliefs, see Grow, Liberty to the Downtrodden, 13, 17–18, 20–25.
45
Young to Kane, May 12, 1858
the dAy BefOre Kane left Salt Lake City to return east, Young wrote the
following letter, explaining why the $1,200 in bank notes that Kane had
spent while in Utah had not been cashed. The bank notes were signed by
Robert P. Kane, Thomas’s younger brother, who served as his attorney and
accountant during his journey to mediate the Utah War.1 Young gave the let-
ter not to Kane, but to territorial delegate John M. Bernhisel, with instruc-
tions to present it to Kane if the need arose. Though recognizing that Kane
was “very sensitive on such matters,” Young reasoned that he “should not
object to our paying his expenses.”2 By late 1858, Kane pressed Bernhisel
for an explanation regarding the bank notes. When Bernhisel gave him the
letter from Young, Kane insisted on repaying the money; Bernhisel noted
Kane’s payments on Young’s letter to Kane.3 This was not the only attempt
by the Mormons to provide some compensation to Kane. When Daniel
Wells parted from Kane after accompanying him on the first stretch of his
journey home from Salt Lake City, he “dropped something heavy in my lap
and rode off not stopping for all my shouts.” Kane found a “chronometer
watch worth at least $500 with a heavy chain,” which he gave to Elizabeth
Cumming to return.4
Kane made these decisions notwithstanding his financial pressures and
lack of employment. He also refused government reimbursement for his
1. Elizabeth W
. Kane, journal, February 2, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU.
2. Daniel H. Wells to John M. Bernhisel, May 12, 1858, BYOF.
3. See note by John M. Bernhisel, December 1, 1858, on back side of this letter. Also included with the letter were the bank drafts.
4. Elizabeth W. Kane, journal, December 10, 1858, BYU.
264
the prOphet And the refOrmer
traveling expenses, a decision which deeply distressed Elizabeth. In her
journal, she meticulously recorded their financial standing, noting cred-
its of $18,150 (mostly tied up in insurance policies and land in McKean
County, Pennsylvania) versus debts of $9,184, including $2,600 Kane had
taken with him to Utah and an additional $1,200 Elizabeth had spent dur-
ing his absence.5 Thomas’s brother Robert (Pat) reasoned, “Tom’s achieve-
ment is worth more than $2600 to the family.”6 Elizabeth countered that
upon his return Thomas had “no prospect of employment,” as he had
lost his clerkship with his father’s death. While she respected his “noble
delicacy and disinterestedness,” she feared that if he died or could not
find work “we must be a burden” on his mother’s estate, a prospect which
“galls me.”7 Nevertheless, Elizabeth later adopted Thomas’s view. She told
Bernhisel in 1880, “I am very proud of General Kane’s record in connec-
tion with Mormon affairs . . . I should regard this record as tarnished had
he accepted from either side, fee or reward, or even the payment of his
expenses.”8
Source
Young to Kane, May 12, 1858, box 14, fd 17, Kane Collection, BYU.
A slightly different version is in Brigham Young Letterbooks, box 4, vol.
4, 192.
Letter
Great Salt Lake City U.T.
May 12th 1858.
My dear Colonel
Enclosed please accept the return of your Drafts upon R. P. Kane
Esq. of Philadelphia. In remembrance of our most cordial friendship
I am sure you will not deny me the favor of having extended to you
the scanty hospitality of our mountain home; nor feel offended at what
5. Elizabeth W
. Kane, journal, June 20, 1858, BYU.
6. Elizabeth W. Kane, journal, May 20, 1858, BYU.
7. Elizabeth W. Kane, journal, June 20, 1858.
8. Elizabeth W. Kane to John M. Bernhisel, June 22, 1880, Kane Collection, BYU.
Young to Kane, May 12, 1858
265
I consider a just though exceedingly poor return for many very great
favors.
May the peace of Heaven dwell with you and each member of your
good and highly esteemed house.
Ever and most Sincerely
Your friend,
Brigham Young
46
Kane to Young, July 5, 1858
KAne wrOte the featured letter, which exists only as a draft, upon his
return to the east in July 1858, giving advice to Young in his interactions with
the federal army and officials. Kane arrived in Philadelphia on June 19 and
stayed only two days before leaving to consult with President Buchanan in
Washington, D.C. It was a tumultuous time for Elizabeth Kane: “happy and
unhappy,” she recorded in her diary. While Thomas was finally home, which
pleased Elizabeth enormously, her husband confessed to her that “the hope
that had dawned on him of being a Christian was gone.” He had professed
a belief in Christianity shortly before he left for Utah. During his experience
in the West, he had written in his diary with deep religious feeling. Yet upon
returning home, this feeling was gone.1
Over the next five days, Kane met with Buchanan and other government
officials. According to his wife, Kane “explained a few matters of the past,” but
focused on an “examination of such facts as bore upon the future”—probably
the need to grant Utah a measure of local decision-making. Kane assured
Buchanan that the Utah peace “is all true . . . and better than he had yet heard”; in response, Buchanan “thanked God with some solemnity.” Buchanan asked
about the Move South: “But these poor creatures—is there much suffering
among them? Will they be homeless . . . next winter? Have they food enough?”
Kane dispelled his apprehensions about the Mormons’ immediate necessities
to Buchanan’s satisfaction.2 Kane’s assurances notwithstanding, the move-
ment of some 30,000 Mormons caused terrible hardship. “Such a scene of
squalid misery, such a spectacle of want and distress, was never witnessed
1. Elizabeth W
2. Elizabeth W. Kane, journal, June 20, 1858; Elizabeth W. Kane, “Mother of the Regiment.”
Kane to Young, July 5, 1858
267
in America,” wrote the correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, with little exaggeration.3
In subsequent meetings, Kane disagreed with Buchanan and members of
the cabinet about their intended policies regarding Utah, and he “quarreled”
with Secretary of War John B. Floyd, a former governor of Virginia whom Kane
had regarded as an opponent since the start of the Utah War. Even so, Kane
considered their disputes “honest and open differences of opinion,” which did
not cause him to think “less highly of the President & Cabinet . . . seeing that the truth had been kept from them by designing persons, and they no doubt
heard it from him for the first time.” Elizabeth Kane asserted that her husband
convinced Buchanan “that the Mormons should no longer be molested.”4
The cabinet discussions focused in part on the prospect of replacing some
of the current Utah officials. John Bernhisel informed Brigham Young on July
2, “It will be our interest to make the most of Governor Cumming, and win
his favor. Our enemies arranged matters at Washington to have him removed,
and the question whether he should be or not, was I believe the main one
which Colonel Kane had to attend to.” According to Bernhisel, Kane persuaded
Buchanan to support Cumming: “It is everywhere understood now in political
circles that the administration is committed to sustain him in everything he
has done.” Kane had also likely discussed the replacement of other Utah offi-
cials, as Bernhisel told Young that “Extensive change in the Utah civil appoint-
ments are also confidently anticipated.”5 Bernhisel referred in part to Judge
Delana Eckels, who Mormons deeply disliked for impaneling a grand jury to
investigate polygamy in Utah immediately following Cumming’s departure
from Camp Scott to travel with Kane to Salt Lake City. On July 8, Bernhisel
wrote to Young that Eckels would not be removed immediately, but “he holds
his office by an uncertain tenure, and he will be instructed fully in regard to
his future course.”6
Soon after his visit to Washington, Kane fell “dangerously ill.”7 Elizabeth
chronicled his ill health, writing following his return from Washington, “He
is sick already and is also suffering much from one eye, which was injured in
3.Albert G.
Browne, “The Utah Expedition: Its Causes and Consequences,” Atlantic Monthly
(March, April, and May, 1859), 483.
4. Elizabeth W. Kane, journal, June 20, 1858; Elizabeth W. Kane, “Mother of the Regiment.”
5. Bernhisel to Young, July 2, 1858, BYOF.
6. Bernhisel to Young, July 8, 1858, BYOF. See also Cumming to James L. Orr, May 12, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU.
7. Bernhisel to Young, July 2, 1858, BYOF.
268
the prOphet And the refOrmer
crossing the snows.” A few days later, Kane awoke with a “violent fever” and he
soon became “thoroughly worn out & dispirited”; the Kanes traveled to a resort in the Hudson Valley to aid in his recovery.8 During this period, Howard Egan,
a Mormon courier who had accompanied Kane to Philadelphia, was anxiously
awaiting reports from Kane to Young, which he would carry “with the greatest
speed” to Utah.9
It appears unlikely that the following letter was ever mailed to or delivered
to Young, as a received copy does not exist in Young’s papers. In addition, on
July 3, Kane dictated a letter (perhaps the featured letter, which is dated July
5) which he intended to have Egan carry to Young. At the request of her ill
husband, Elizabeth Kane sent the letter to Attorney General Jeremiah Black,
a friend of the Kanes and a fellow Philadelphia lawyer. Thomas Kane asked
Black to “write me back that I am safe in giving Young such positive assur-
ances.”10 Black, however, stated that he would need to consult with Buchanan
about Kane’s request;11 on July 20, after Egan had left for Utah, Kane informed
Black that a response would no longer be necessary: “I shall not be able to
send the letter to Young which was enclosed you. Please save the President the
trouble of pondering upon it, if he has not already unfortunately done so, and
return the missive in question by Mail.”12
Source
Kane to Young, July 5, 1858, box 14, fd 18, Kane Collection, BYU.
Fern Rock Near Philada
July 5th 1858
My dear Sir,
You cannot be more anxious to hear from me, than I am to write
to you: for our news from Utah being entirely derived through Camp
sources, the friends of your people are not without tidings that distress
them. We
have not yet given up their plans, and we know that we
8. Elizabeth W
. Kane, journal, July 4–July 10, 1858.
9. Bernhisel to Young, July 2, 1858.
10. Elizabeth W. Kane to Jeremiah Black, July 3, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU.
11. Jeremiah Black to Elizabeth W. Kane, July 7, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU.
12. Thomas L. Kane to Jeremiah Black, July 20, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU.
Kane to Young, July 5, 1858
269
urge you our utmost
forbearance.
Give way: Go on giving way: be superior to all provocation this sin-
gle summer through;—and I promise you as complete a triumph for the
future, as the most sanguine hopeful among you has
The Administration will do right. I am their
and you know I would not be this so, if I had cause for to doubt:
Governor Cumming’s instructions as I read them to you, have not been
varied His powers are unimpaired. The President will supports him in
all that he has done. and the country, (for I have had time to feel its
pulse) will stand by
which he may takes for your protection.
But you must not expect at once to <[illeg.]>see things as they are.
Men
change a line of conduct;—to consider new [p. 3] facts,—not only to say
“The war is ended, we will give over thinking of our war measures;
to add,> yes, peace is upon us. And now such
peace measures we acknowledge are necessary—
sufficiently matured them—let the public
fully resolved
Besides you must not think it unnatural that you are not fully trusted
by persons with whom <—bear it in mind—> you, are for the first time
brought into friendly relations. Wrong as you may think it—undeserved
as you know must know I certainly think it—you must expend a little
time to earn a character, and compel the prejudiced [p. 4] to recognise
who and what you are.
Having told you this much of what I know to be the real state of facts,
you will understand how little reliance you should place upon the idle
words of the newspapers. The Contractors and others whose teeth are<
br />
broken if the Government spends no more money, if they cannot force
a war, can still gain by persuading people to the contrary until they have
thrown some of their own bad bargains and unprofitable engagements
upon foolish persons outside.13 Neither the Union nor the Herald are
recognised organs, nor do they express the views of the Administration.14
13.
Kane referred to the large number of contractors profiting from the Utah expedition. By summer 1858, a portion of public opinion had focused on the Utah Expedition as a “contractors war.” See “The Contractors’ War,” Massachusetts Spy, July 14, 1858, 2.
14. Kane referred to the Washington Union and the New York Herald. In early 1858, the New York Times saw the Union as a “retained organ” for the Buchanan administration. The
270
the prOphet And the refOrmer
When you read in such journals as the Harper’s Weekly how deeply
those Methodist Know Nothings15 (and the rest of the world which has
advanced no further than to their state of “civilisation”16) regret that
the fine chance is passing away of assailing you as rebels when it is
unfortunately illegal to do so as heretics—let this confirm your faith in
what I told you, that the surest way of disappointing your enemies is to
sacrifice everything for peace.17
I have not yet attended to any of my own affairs though I find them
shockingly involved. Nor have I allowed my thoughts to turn to my
duties to my mother to my wife & children, or the last wishes of my
father. But the first thing which I shall do on rising my from sickbed will
be to write to you fully and to Gov. Cumming to whom I beg you will
whenever you think of me continue to be generous and kind. Repeat
my saying to all who profess to love me: “Your enemies” last hope lies
in provoking you to war. Your friends are all laboring with you to compel
a peace.18
Whose hopes will you cast down—your friends’ or your enemies?
Yours with sincere affection
Thos L. Kane
Union
wrote that the peaceful resolution to the conflict “was due entirely to the energy of the President and the Cabinet. ” In response, the New York Times opined that the credit for the war’s peaceful end should be given to a “volunteer diplomatist”—Kane—who ended the war “without the sanction of the Government and against its wishes.” See “The Utah Dispersion,” New York Times, June 14, 1858.
The Prophet and the Reformer Page 39