The Prophet and the Reformer
Page 49
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the prophet and the reformer
present, and this is a great relief to him.” Impressed with Kane’s dedication,
Cannon wrote that there “probably was not one Elder in the Church out of a
thousand who would have taken such risks or deemed it necessary to have
gone to such pains . . . to accomplish such an end.”7
Source
Kane to Young, July 24, 1859, box 40, fd 12, BYOF.
Letter
Elk County July 24, 1859
My dear friend:8
I had a letter shortly after my arrival here from Mr. E. R. Young,9
apprising me that he had transmitted a package of letters from Utah;
and to day I receive another from his dated Philadelphia July 17, in
which he informs me that he leaves for the West upon the 20th.10 I have
not yet received the letters mentioned, but I must not miss the oppor-
tunity of writing to you by such a reliable carrier. I have no tidings of
importance to convey, but it is something to write that I have none.
When I complain to myself or to you however of the slow march
of things, it shd. go far to comfort me that it is in the right direction.
Perhaps it is as it should be that all portions [p. 2] of the great circle shd.
revolve together, and that Utah shd. not have her triumph before the
principles of popular sovereignty of which she is the champion succeed
and enjoy their common triumph with her. All things betoken that the
next turn of the wheel will assert more of the not yet self evident truths
of the Declaration of Independence,—but there does not appear to be
7 . Cannon to Young, March 18, 1859, April 6, 1859, April 14, 1859, and April 23, 1859, BYOF; Kane to Cumming, undated draft, ca. March 22, 1859, Kane Collection, Yale.
8. Kane wrote “Governor Young.” at the bottom of the page to indicate the letter’s recipient.
9. In February, Brigham Young dispatched Ebenezer Russell Young, who had experience in cotton manufacturing, to bring machinery owned by the church from St. Louis to Utah.
He was also to deliver mail to Kane in Philadelphia and to purchase some new machinery. Ebenezer R. Young had no known connection to Brigham Young’s family. See Brigham Young to Bishops of the Various Wards North, February 19, 1859, BYOF; George Q. Cannon to Young, July 22, 1859, BYOF.
10. These letters to Kane from Ebenezer Young are apparently not extant.
Kane to Young, July 24, 1859
333
anything in the nature of a churn geared on to the Divine apparatus, and
those of us who assist to turn the crank seem ever to be earners of least
butter by its operation. The best evidence of success is seen perhaps
in the discomfiture of the enemies of good. I do believe their teeth are
broken and that every day sees them growing more powerless for evil.
My visit to Washington last month was an encouraging one. In a
long [p. 3] interview which I enjoyed with the President he went out of
his way to speak in terms of severe condemnation of the course of the
Cradlebaugh ayacuchos, and admitted the evidence of the attachment
to law & order furnished by the Mormon people in their “superiority to
such outrageous and wanton provocation.” He said Johnston had been
privately rebuked severely, and would not make such another blunder
in a hurry. He promised promotion to Attorney Wilson, whose letters
here show that he can write as your friend; and told me that Forney had
not written against you, as the papers had it, but in your favor.11 Forney,
he said, like Cumming, aimed to put on an appearance of impartiality,
and show he was no Mormon—but it was easy to see which way his
sympathies were leaning.12 I wish poor Cumming’s habits were better.
The President, as on previous occasions, put me many questions [p. 4]
about them whose direction I had difficulty in baffling—the more per-
haps as I had just received from C. a foolish composition—very drunken
indeed. Governor!—“How long”?
I must ask leave to communicate your own letters freely to Mr.
Buchanan. I was much tempted upon his request to let him have your
last despatches as they came to hand. And I would suggest the expe-
diency of your next writing with this purpose in view—reserving for
private notes to me the mention of matters not calculated for his eye.
It would be well if I could transmit him his budget with no appearance
upon it of having been expurgated, and immediately upon its receipt.
11. F
orney privately informed the Deseret News of the eastern newspapers’ errors in reporting.
Secretary of War John B. Floyd notified Johnston of the administration’s decision to sustain Cumming and not the judges: “You will . . . only order the troops under your command to assist as a posse comitatus in the execution of the laws, upon the written application of the Governor of the Territory not otherwise.” Floyd reportedly opposed Buchanan’s decision. See Forney to Elias Smith, May 31, 1859, BYOF; Floyd to Johnston, May 6, 1859, in Johnston, Life of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, 229, 239.
12. Forney placed most of the responsibility of the Mountain Meadows Massacre on the Paiute Indians with this caveat: “The Indians had material assistance from whites; and in my opinion the Pi-ute Indians would not have perpetrated the terrible massacre without such aid and assistance.” “Kirk Anderson, Esq.,” Valley Tan, May 10, 1859, 2.
334
the prophet and the reformer
When his gills are swelled, his pavonian13 fancy is for having private
sources of intelligence,14 which upon Cabinet days he can spread out to
the clucking advisers who constitute his council; and his first informant
always tells his story to the most [p. 5] advantage.15
Mr. Black (Attorney General) is anxious for a full account of the
circumstances of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. As he wishes it
for good purposes, I think it wd. be right to furnish him such a one,
needlessly (as you might think at least) diffuse and circumstantial,
and bearing the affectation of being confidential.—“My dear Colonel
Kane: The truth of the whole matter about the massacre at the
Meadows was—”&c.16
I wish I cd. close my letter with an entirely satisfactory account of
the correspondent whom you thus address I know with so much warm
affection. I do not however think his health of mind is very good. Now
that the danger which menaced you is over, I fancy the piping times of
peace relax his moral fibre. He works very hard to gain a humble living,
and finds [p. 6] in the fatigue of work an assuagement of the acute sense
of his bereavement. But he is despondent and listless; and, if he has
ceased weeping for his noble father and dear brother—is all too con-
scious that the light of his day has left the world, so hopes the object-
less dusk will soon be over bringing the time appointed for him to go
to roost. But God bless you and yours my friend. My heart is still fresh
in love for all of you whose disinterestedness I witnessed and whose
13. A
term referring to peacock-like attributes, such as egotism and ostentation. For an example of contemporary usage, see Springfield Republican, September 13, 1869, 6.
14. Buchanan often preferred to discuss important matters through unofficial chan-
nels, communicating at times through secret meetings, letters, and reports. See Wil
liam P. MacKinnon, “ ‘Not As a Stranger’: A Presbyterian Afoot in the Mormon Past,” Journal of Mormon History, vol. 38, no. 2 (Spring, 2012): 1–46.
15. Several of Buchanan’s cabinet members recalled that while he often sought them out for his advice, they believed that he “was but little influenced by his Cabinet.” According to Jeremiah Black, “He is a stubborn old gentleman—very fond of having his own way, and I don’t know what his way is.” John B. Floyd stated, “Mr Buchanan was different from Genl.
Jackson; . . . Genl. Jackson could be coaxed from his purpose, but . . . Mr. B. could neither be coaxed nor driven.” See Philip Gerald Auchampaugh, James Buchanan and His Cabinet on the Eve of Secession (Lancaster, Penn.: By the Author, 1926), 125–126; Klein, President James Buchanan, 285.
16. Young responded to this request on December 15, 1859. In December 1859, George Q. Cannon reported from Washington that Kane was “looking anxiously for a letter . . .
in answer to his requesting affidavits and evidence concerning the Mountain Meadow Massacre.” See Cannon to Young, December 13, 1859, BYOF.
Kane to Young, July 24, 1859
335
manhood I proved. With all the trials and burdens of its apprentice state,
believe me Utah is for such as yourselves a favored and not inglorious
tarrying place.
Yours always
Thomas L. Kane
58
Young to Kane, September 17, 1859
In the folloWInG letter, Young expressed frustration with the army troops
and what he perceived as their corrupting influence on Latter-day Saint soci-
ety and their abuse of both American Indians and Mormons. Young also
assessed the conduct of the federal officials, criticizing Superintendent of
Indian Affairs Jacob Forney and praising District Attorney Alexander Wilson
and Governor Alfred Cumming, though also noting Wilson’s indebtedness
and heavy drinking and Cumming’s “peculiarities.” For Young, the contin-
ued presence of military troops in Utah “definitely proves a standing army in
a republican government in time of peace to be a very great nuisance—one
seriously endangering the liberties of our common country.”1 Horace Greeley
agreed. “Popular sovereignty,” Greeley wrote of his visit through Utah in sum-
mer 1859, “in a territory backed by a thousand sharp federal bayonets and a
battery of flying artillery, is too monstrous a futility, too transparent a swindle, to be much longer upheld or tolerated.”2
Young assigned William H. Hooper, the newly elected territorial delegate
to Congress, to deliver this letter to Kane. In March 1860, however, Hooper
reported to Young that he had not yet seen Kane, “though I strove hard to
see him, while I was in P[hiladelphia].”3 It is unclear when Kane received the
letter.
1. Y
oung to Kane, September 17, 1859. To another correspondent, Young reported rumors
that Buchanan would withdraw the troops over the next six months. Young to Asa Calkin, October 6, 1859, BYOF.
2.Horace Greeley, An Overland Journey From New York to San Francisco (New York: C.M.
Saxton, Barker, and Company, 1860), 229.
3. William H. Hooper to Young, March 6, 1860, BYOF.
Young to Kane, September 17, 1859
337
Source
Young to Kane, September 17, 1859, box 15, fd 3, Kane Collection, BYU.
Letterpress copy is in Brigham Young Letterbooks, box 5, vol. 5, 251–256.
Letter
Presidents Office,
G. S. L City, Sep. 17, 1859.
Col. Thomas L. Kane,
Philadelphia, Pa.,
Dear Friend:—
It affords me great pleasure to improve the present opportunity for
safely transmitting a letter to you through the politeness of our mutual
and good friend the Hon. William H. Hooper, our Delegate to Congress.4
Gen. Johnston and his command remain, as quietly as possible,
ensconced in Camp Floyd, with the exception of occasionally send-
ing out a small detachment. One detachment, under Major Lynde,5
was sent to escort some emigrants on their way to California by the
northern route, a few wishing to leave here having applied for protec-
tion on that route, though, when they came to muster, the detachment
had only 9 wagons to escort on a track whereon at the time there was no
known danger.6 Remarkably condescending in Gen. Johnston to send a
4. H
ooper, who had previously served as secretary of Utah Territory, had been “unanimously nominated” as the territorial delegate to Congress on July 20, 1859. He was also appointed as Young’s business agent. Hooper eventually served five terms as delegate (1859–1861 and 1865–1873). “New Nomination,” Deseret News, July 27, 1859; Young statement, September 16, 1859, BYOF; Jensen, Latter-day Saint Bibliographical Encyclopedia, Vol. I, 724.
5. Isaac Lynde later became infamous for his role in surrendering Fort Fillmore in New Mexico without a fight to Confederate soldiers in July 1861. See A. F. H. Armstrong, “The Case of Major Isaac Lynde,” New Mexico Historical Review 36 (January 1961): 1–35.
6. In early August, Utah’s civilian and army officials received word of an Indian attack (presumably by Bannocks and Shoshones) on a party of emigrants on the northern route to California and Oregon in late July. Samuel Smith reported that two Indians had “entered a camp of emigrants to do some trading and were killed by said emigrants.” The Indians proceeded to marshal their forces and “revenged their deaths by killing five men and two women belonging to said camp.” In response, Albert Sidney Johnston ordered Major Isaac Lynde to “make every effort to arrest or punish the murderers.” News of Indian attacks on the California trail quickly spread. The Sacramento Daily Union reported that “the Indians are again becoming very troublesome” and that “several emigrants have been killed or wounded, and a good deal of their stock driven off.” See Samuel Smith to Jacob Forney, August 1, 1859,
338
the prophet and the reformer
major and escort with a few uneasy spirits! How many troops has Gen.
Johnston ever furnished in Utah to protect the actual rights of American
citizens? Not one? Judging from the past, how many is he likely to fur-
nish for such an object? Not many. [p. 2]
It is currently reported that a portion of the aforesaid escorting
detachment, temporarily stationed apart from their major, treated some
squaws very abusively, which naturally much enraged Indians in that
neighborhood. Soon after that conduct, some of the Indians on the
northern emigrant route began to waylay the emigration thereon, and
attacked and plundered a small company, killing 3 or 4 of them. A small
additional detachment was then sent north to apprehend or chastise the
guilty, and in Box Elder Cañon made an onslaught upon the first camp
of Indians they found, composed of a few old Indians and some squaws
and children, far from the scene of murder and unknown as to their
guilt or innocence, and came out of the fight with several wounded,
one of the soldiers, in their rapid retreat, having wantonly shot and
killed a friendly Indian boy who was peacefully driving together the
herd of one of the citizens.7 Since then Major Lynde and Lieut. Gay
have concentrated their detachments on an elevated plateau on Bear
river, secure from harm by Indians, and some distance from any route
traveled by whites or any trail often used by Indians; and it is said the
Indians have attacked two or more emigrant companies
, plundering and
killing, and threatening to continue their depredations.8 Immediately
after the affair in Box Elder Cañon some Indians drove [p. 3] off quite
a number of cattle and horses from the settlers in Cache Valley, so that
up to the present it certainly is evident that the lives and property of
both travelers and citizens would have been far better protected and
preserved had the detachments remained in Camp Floyd. And in Camp
in
Senate Documents (Washington: George W. Bowman, 1860), 211; Fitz-John Porter to Isaac Lynde, August 6, 1859, in Senate Documents, 213; “Further from Salt Lake,” Sacramento Daily Union, September 1, 1859, 3.
7. Young sent a similar description to George Q. Cannon. See Young to Cannon, September 17, 1859, BYOF.
8. On August 14, 1859, believing that he had discovered the perpetrators in Devil’s Gate Canyon, Lieutenant Ebenezer Gay “surprised the encampment of the Indians, and charged upon the main body, killing and wounding several.” Gay stated that he had killed twenty Indians out of a party of 150–200. He accused his Mormon guide of having led him “into a fatal ambuscade.” See “Report of the Secretary of War,” in Message from the President of the United States (Washington: George W. Bowman, 1860), 2: 589; Gay to Fitz-John Porter, August 15, 1859, in Senate Documents, 219.
Young to Kane, September 17, 1859
339
Floyd, as a general course, so far as I can learn, aside from camp duty
and drill and the riotous assault upon Fort Cedar on the 15th of August
last,9 very many mostly occupy their time in making particularly free
comments upon the people of Utah and plotting their injury.10 In short
almost every line of the history of the “Expedition to Utah” from its
inception to now, definitely proves a standing army in a republican gov-
ernment in time of peace to be a very great nuisance—one seriously
endangering the liberties of our common country.
Dr. Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in the official course
he has seen proper to take, is another cause of the hostile feeling and
attitude of many of the Indians who are now somewhat troublesome,