of “direct falsehood.” The article was particularly distressing to her since the
Cummings had previously lived in St. Louis. She queried Kane, “Is it, or is it
not, well to notice them [newspaper attacks]?” Kane’s response assured her
that “the agency of Governor Cumming” was “absolutely essential to the coun-
try to avert the collision which” the military and their sympathizers at Fort
Bridger had “so consistently labored to bring about.” He continued, “I think
that no mere orator or diplomatic person could have succeeded without all his
personal command of temper which he exhibited.” Kane promised Elizabeth
Cumming that, if he should recover from his present illness, he would “as
soon as the cool weather sets in give all my leisure to prepare for the statement
of the truth,” and he asked her to send “any writings or papers” that would be
helpful.4 Kane defended Cumming in a lecture he delivered at the New York
Historical Society in March 1859.5
Source
Kane to Young, August 25, 1858, box 40, fd 12, BYOF. A draft is in the
Thomas L. Kane Collection, Yale University.
Letter
Elk County6 Pa. August 25th 1858
My dear Sir:
As I have given a letter of introduction to you to Mr A. Wilson the
recently appointed District Attorney for Utah, it is right for me to men-
tion the circumstances of his appointment, and what I know about him.7
4. Elizabeth Cumming to Thomas L.
Kane, June 25, 1858, and Kane to Elizabeth
Cumming, BYOF.
5. See historical introduction, Kane to Young, July 24, 1859.
6. Following his arrival home from the Utah War in 1858, Kane plunged into work as a land agent for the McKean and Elk Land and Improvement Company in northwestern
Pennsylvania. John Kane had helped found the company a few years earlier, and his heirs received a financial interest in the company. As company agent, Kane combined the roles of surveyor, salesman, civil engineer, geologist, and promoter; he surveyed and sold land, found routes for roads and railroads, investigated the region’s natural resources, encouraged the development of various towns, and recruited settlers. See Grow, Liberty to the Downtrodden, chapter 12.
7. This letter of introduction is apparently not extant.
Kane to Young, August 25, 1858
285
When I was in Washington I requested that in case Eckels8 was not to
be removed, a District Attorney should be appointed in whom you could
have perfect confidence, and that he should have such instructions as would
place beyond doubt his protecting you from the folly or wickedness of the
Judiciary.9 The week after, Judge Black of our State, the Attorney-General
came on from Washington and spent the day with me. We conversed about
this matter again at some length and he asked me to procure him a suitable
man for the place among the members of our younger Bar. I think I remem-
ber his asking me if I knew “Wilson of Franklin County” who claimed to be
a friend of mine, and being inadvertently answered in the negative.10 The
night after Judge Black’s visit I was taken down with the fever, and before
my recovery Mr Wilson [p. 2] had received his appointment.11
All that I know of Mr Wilson (though not much) is in his favour.
He used to report items of Legal Intelligence for the Papers and I fre-
quently saw him around Court, where people12 spoke well of him. In
point of character he is quite above the grade of man who generally
consents to accept a Dist. Attyship for the Territories, and he may there-
fore render you service in other ways than by his nolle prosequies.13
He has views of mine of the manner in which you can get up Law
Cases that will help to bring your facts before the country, as—waste at
Bridger—stoppage of mail—Kimball Mail Contract &c.14
8.
Judge Delana Eckels, one of the most controversial figures in the Utah War proceedings, was praised by supporters of the army for generally following its policy. His court at Camp Scott had maintained rough order upon the camp followers. However, Kane viewed him as a “bad man” because of his personal as well as professional conduct. Historian Charles P. Roland accused Eckels of “sophistry” and stated that he was “a travesty upon the judicial process” for using Mexican law to outlaw polygamy. See “The Utah Expedition,”
Atlantic Monthly, 374; Thomas L. Kane to John K. Kane, April 4, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU; Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston, Soldier of Three Republics (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964), 206.
9. On Kane’s visit to Washington, see Kane to Young, July 5, 1858.
10. Kane and Black had discussed Wilson’s appointment by July 3, 1858, when Elizabeth Kane (on behalf of her ill husband) asked Black for “the extract from his instructions to Mr Wilson.” Elizabeth W. Kane to Jeremiah Black, July 3, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU.
11. On Kane’s sickness, see Kane to Young, July 5, 1858.
12. One or two words following “people” were erased.
13. Nolle Prosequi refers to “an acknowledgement or undertaking by the plaintiff in an action to forbear to proceed any further either in the action altogether, or as to some part of it, or as to some of the defendants.” See Henry Holthouse, A New Law Dictionary (Boston: Little and Brown, 1850), 282.
14. On the mail contract, see Young to Kane, October 22, 1858.
286
the prOphet And the refOrmer
He will be unlike the Scotch-Irish stock he springs from in
Pennsylvania if he cannot make a pretty warm friend—and a very
bitter enemy.
I enclose you an answer made by me to Mrs A. Cumming that you may
see what (judging from the present aspect of things) will be the narrative
which I shall present next winter, of his agency.15 My gallant friend has a
right to be vexed at the success with which the Army & Commissioners
have arrogated to themselves all the credit of settling the Utah difficulty,
and I suppose it would be ranking him too far above the common level,
to ask him to be entirely superior to the good or bad opinion of the vulgar.
He shall therefore have his just credit, which is that of contributing to
settle matters after, and in spite of the bad behavior of the Military [p. 3]
the Judge, and other civil officers. But I do not intend in the publications
which I may make for present use to fill up the chief place in the fore-
ground which the truth of History compels me to reserve for another to
whose patriotism I know my country is owing so much more.16
My health is bad, but I shall have on file among my papers a state-
ment that will do you justice. Let Brigham Jr. keep this letter as his
warrant to ask Mrs Kane for it such a statement if it fails to find its way
into print17
I do not expect to speak out till after Congress meets. You will there-
fore have time to send me papers and materials generally.
I am, most affectionately yours
Thomas L. Kane
I am still “most affectionately” yours, yet may not defy the mail rob-
bers by saying much more. My health has been languishing, and I am
too slowly emerging from the depths of my grief.18 But it will not always
be with me thus:—it shall not be so long. And this you may say for me
to all my friends.
15. S
ee Elizabeth Cumming to Kane, June 25, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU.
16. On Kane’s defense of Cumming, see Kane to Young, July 24, 1859.
17. This document is apparently not extant. Kane had declined to make a public statement of his view of the Utah War after being invited to do so by a group of prominent Philadelphians.
See Kane to Eli K. Price, July 16, 1858, Kane Collection, BYU.
18. Kane again noted his grief over his “noble father and dear brother” to Young a year later.
Kane to Young, July 24, 1859.
50
Young to Kane, September 1, 1858
GeorGe Q. Cannon, who carried this letter of introduction from Young to
Kane, was a rapidly rising leader in the Latter-day Saint community. After
extensive missionary service in Hawaii, Cannon had operated the Western
Standard, a Latter-day Saint newspaper based in San Francisco from 1856–1857, and then helped guide the return of California Saints to Utah in the fall of 1857.
Cannon had won the trust of Church leaders, including Young, as a capable
writer and administrator.1 Thus, to assist Kane in shaping the coverage of the
Saints by eastern newspapers, Young sent Cannon. Besides Cannon, Young
also sent the urbane Thomas B. H. Stenhouse, the business-savvy Horace
Eldredge, Frederick Kesler, and others to make inroads with eastern elites.
Stenhouse had written for the Mormon and non-Mormon press in the East
and had impressed James Gordon Bennett, editor of the New York Herald. 2
Young hoped to to counteract longstanding negative perceptions of the Saints
that had “so long been left a prey to the unscrupulous lying Demagogue,
Priest, and Trader, to say nothing of Editors.”3
When Cannon arrived in the East, Kane instructed him to not yet assume
the ecclesiastical post of the “presidency of the Eastern mission.” Rather, he
should pose as
a man of business, a “Mormon” of course, with some means at com-
mand, desirous of influencing public opinion and relieving myself and
1. On C
annon, see Davis Bitton, George Q. Cannon: A Biography (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999).
2.Ronald W. Walker, Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 18.
3. Young to George Q. Cannon, September 7, 1858, BYOF.
288
the prophet and the reformer
co-religionists from the weight of odium that had been so unjustly and
cruelly heaped upon us; had a little means which I was willing to devote
to accomplish this.
Kane advised Cannon to meet with editors who possessed the “rare gift
of knowing the public mind—knowing what will meet with popular favor
and when and how to manufacture public opinion on any question.” The
targeted group included powerful editorial voices: John W. Forney of the
Philadelphia Press, Bennett of the New York Herald, Henry J. Raymond of the New York Times, and Charles A. Dana of the New York Tribune. After consulting with the editors, Cannon planned to offer them “several unwritten chapters of the history of our troubles,” following which Kane would
meet with them as well. The plan echoed in some ways Kane’s efforts to
shape Mormon image in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Cannon reported
to Young in April 1859 that they had experienced some success in placing
anonymous articles and in convincing several editors to support a pro-
posed congressional bill to make Utah territorial positions elected rather
than appointed, which would have given Mormons control of local govern-
ment. In return, the editors received articles, flattery, and likely bribes, a
common practice in nineteenth-century America.4
Source
Young to Kane, September 1, 1858, Brigham Young Letterbooks, box 4,
vol. 4, 398.
Letter
Great Salt Lake City, U. T.
Sep 1st 1858.
Col. Thos. L. Kane,
Dear Sir:—
Our worthy friend, the bearer of this note, is Geo. Q. Cannon, who is
selected to go East for the purpose of attending to business pertaining
4. C
annon to Young, April 14, 1859, BYOF. See also Young to Cannon, December 24, 1858, Yale; Bitton, George Q. Cannon, 94–99.
Young to Kane, September 1, 1858
289
to the Press.5 He will receive, with much pleasure, any suggestions and
advice from so valued a friend as Col. Kane, and endeavor to carry them
out to the best of his ability. He will act entirely under your direction.
I have no hesitancy in believing that your acquaintance with him
will open into a mutual friendship alike pleasing, and, I trust, beneficial
in promoting the public interest which we have so at heart, and aid in
ridding our fair Territory of her foreign dictators and oppressors.
Trusting that the time is not far distant when Utah shall be able to
assume her rights and place among the family of nations,
I remain, very truly,
Your friend,
Brigham Young
5. Y
oung also directed Cannon to assist in emigration efforts. See Young to Asa Calkin, September 10, 1858, BYOF.
51
Young to Kane, September 10, 1858
In thIs letter, Young complained about the conduct of the army troops
and “Camp followers,” and compared the Democratic Party’s embrace of
popular sovereignty with the “Military despotism” of an army stationed in
Utah. “The civilization of our new friends,” Young wrote to John Bernhisel
two days earlier, “consists of drinking, swearing, fighting, gambling, whoring,
&c.”1 Mormon leaders constantly complained about the violence and crime
caused by the influx of soldiers as well as other non-Mormons who came to
Utah on the heels of the army. After learning of a shooting in downtown Salt
Lake City on September 10, Wilford Woodruff recorded, “Thus we have the
fruits of Christianity & civilization as manifest in the world introduced into our Territory.”2 The social change was so manifest in Salt Lake City that Young
contemptuously renamed Main Street as “Whiskey Street” and for many years
refused to walk down its sidewalks. More than drinking, the neighborhood
had gaming, prostitution, robberies, and more than an occasional homicide.3
In addition, Young wrote to Bernhisel, the soldiers continued to “hug . . .
closely [Mormon] settlements” with the impending possibility that they would
“squat down in the midst of them.” They consumed the grass, destroyed the
fencing, and left the meadows barren.4 In the letter to Kane, Young also dispar-
aged the actions of the federal appointees, who in the eyes of the Mormons,
were colonial officials: foreign, detached, and corrupt. Nevertheless, Young
1. Y
oung to John M. Bernhisel, September 8, 1858, BYOF.
2. Kenney, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, September 10, 1858, 5, 217.
3.Donald R. Moorman and Gene Allred Sessions, Camp Floyd and the Mormons: The Utah War (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992), 231.
4. Young to Bernhisel, September 8, 1858, BYOF.
Young to Kane, September 10, 1858
291
succinctly summarized his view of the outcome of the Utah Expedition, “We
are only having a little of what we would have had a good deal of, if we had not
stayed the advance of the Army last fall. The Administration yielded, and we
feel also to yi
eld a little, and bear much so long as we are satisfied that no real evil is intended.”
This letter was delivered to Kane by Horace S. Eldredge. Around the same
time as its delivery, George Q. Cannon, who had been commissioned by
Young on September 1 to travel to the East, delivered to Kane a “trunk and
sack” which he had been forced to leave behind in San Bernardino during his
trek to Utah in the early 1858.5
Source
Young to Kane, September 10, 1858, Brigham Young Letterbooks, box
4, vol. 4, 387–394.6
Letter
G.S. L. City Sep. 10th 1858
Col. Thomas L. Kane,
My Dear Friend:—
Your welcome letter of July 18th. with other favors came safely to
hand by Howard Egan, and party, on the 25th ult.7
We hope that your health is fully restored. We are truly gratified at
your expressed intention yet to live, for rest assured, my friend, there
is yet sufficient to induce living—enough to accomplish—to fill up
with usefulness the full measure of days allotted to man in this frail
existence.8
We strenuously insisted upon the peace War Commissioners
investigating the charges which President Buchanan alleged in his
Proclamation against us. [It] was in vain; they had “no power,” “no
5. G
eorge Q. Cannon to Young, April 14, 1859, BYOF.
6. Several words are cut off on the letter’s left margin; these have been supplied in square brackets.
7. An abbreviation for ultimo, meaning the prior month. For Egan’s return, see “Truth and Liberty,” Deseret News, September 8, 1858, 2.
8. On Kane’s illness, see Kane to Young, July 5, 1858 and July 18, 1858.
292
the prophet and the reformer
time,” “not authorized”; “it was utterly impossible[”]. “They only came
to bring the Proclamation, and explain the views of President” as therein
set forth: as though that precious document did not sufficiently explain
itself.9 A footman, postman, or boy could have done the errand as well;
but it matters not, they are evidently disappointed in the main errand,
and equally foiled in the other; neither of them will ever be President
The Prophet and the Reformer Page 42