ferently in the eyes of men of honor from all other allyed [allied] criminals. To
be proscribed by a Parliament is not to have been Judged or condemned in
the Courts.” Kane believed that Young, as an object of “religious persecution”
could honorably evade prosecution, until he could be assured of a speedy and
fair trial. In the draft, Kane (writing in Young’s voice) suggested that Young’s
“California commercial friends offered to be my sureties to one hundred
times the last accepted for Jefferson Davis” when he was arrested following
the Civil War.2
By the time of the arrival of Kane’s November 30, 1871 letter in Utah,
Young had narrowly escaped incarceration while his alleged collaborators in
the 1857 murder of Richard Yates—Daniel Wells, Hosea Stout, and William
Kimball—were arrested and imprisoned at Camp Douglas. In addition,
1. S
ee John W. Young to Kane, November 29, 1871, Kane Collection, BYU.
2. Thomas L. Kane, “Interesting as Notes of Communication to Prest. Young when he was urged to seek refuge &c.,” Kane Collection, BYU. This document is not included in this collection because it does not fit our criteria of correspondence between Kane and Young.
Kane to Young, November 30, 1871
441
Joseph A. Young was indicted along with his father. Brigham Young slipped
out of Salt Lake City on October 24 for his annual winter tour of the southern
Mormon settlements.3 The day after his departure, Wells warned Young that
an arrest warrant would be issued on October 26, making his trip “none too
soon.” In response, Young warned Wells that his “hired girl” was being used
as a spy for the federal authorities and instructed other church leaders to leave
Salt Lake City for the southern settlements.4
While in St. George in southern Utah, Young attended the dedication of
the St. George temple site and pondered his legal strategy.5 In Salt Lake City,
Wells was released on bail due to his position as city mayor, though Stout
and Kimball remained at Camp Douglas.6 Within two weeks of Kane’s let-
ter, Wells met with church leaders and sympathetic non-Mormons, and “all
were in favor of [Young’s] return under all the circumstances.”7 While Young’s
confidantes generally had “no confidence whatever in the justice of McKean’s
court,” they were resigned to the reality that Young needed to make his court
appearance lest he be seen as a fugitive. Frank Fuller, a non-Mormon who
had earlier served as territorial governor, urged Young that “to return to Salt
Lake City as soon as possible.”8 Young’s non-Mormon attorney Thomas Fitch
urged caution, for McKean would “do against [Young] all that he has the wit to
conceive and the physical power to execute without regard to law or decency,
and with but little respect for local public opinion.” Reflecting this fear, other Latter-day Saint leaders, such as Orson Hyde, followed Young into hiding.9
Nevertheless, Young and other Latter-day Saints viewed with favor
President Grant’s appointment of a new U.S. attorney for the territory, George
3.
See T.W. Ellerbeck to John Sharp, October 28, 1871, BYOF; D. McKenzie to John Sharp, November 2, 1871, BYOF; Wells to Young, October 25, 1871, October 29, 1871, and October 31, 1871, BYOF; “Affairs in Utah,” New York Herald, November 9, 1871.
4. Wells to Young, October 25, 1871, BYOF; Young to Wells, October 26, 1871, BYOF.
5. See Robert Burton, diary, November 9, 1871, CHL; Turner, Pioneer Prophet, 366.
6. Wells’ bail amounted to just over $50,000. Kimball and Stout attempted to “quell” the indictment given Hickman’s acknowledgment of his own murders and the vagueness of
the charges, but McKean refused to do so. See “Affairs in Utah,” New York Herald Tribune, November 9, 1871, 2; “Local and Other Matters,” Deseret News, December 6, 1871, 1; Wells to Young, October 30, 1871, BYOF.
7. Wells to Young, December 13/14, 1871, BYOF.
8.“Minutes of a Meeting,” December 13, 1871, BYOF; Frank Fuller to Young, December 5, 1871, BYOF.
9. Thomas Fitch to Young, December 12, 1871, BYOF; Orson Hyde to Young, November 23, 1871, BYOF; Hyde to Wells, December 22, 1871, Daniel H. Wells Papers, CHL.
442
the prophet and the reformer
C. Bates, in October 1871. A native of New York, Bates had practiced law in San
Francisco and Chicago. Supposedly “an old time friend” of President Grant,
Bates replaced Robert N. Baskin, who had worked closely with McKean in
opposing the Mormons. When speaking before the Utah bar in December 1871,
Bates pledged “fairness,” “calmness,” and “candor” and promised “to write
my name on the muster roll of Utah, as a permanent citizen.”10 Church lead-
ers moved quickly to befriend Bates, even “offering him five hundred dollars
after he lost everything in the October 1871 Great Chicago Fire,” though Bates
refused to accept the money.11 Young and other Mormons hoped that Bates
might end the anti-Mormon zeal of Baskin. Hiram Clawson, Young’s son-in-
law, informed Young in early December that the news of Bates’ appointment
“acted like a wet blanket” on the “Ring’s” enthusiasm to prosecute Young and
others.12
Bates suggested that Young’s trial be postponed until early January and
refused to forfeit Young’s right to bonds due to his failure to appear at a
December 2 court date established by McKean. Bates explained that he con-
sidered Young’s “the most important case tried in this country,” and he needed
more time to prosecute it properly. Wells wrote Young in early December, tell-
ing him that the federal prosecutors saw Young’s murder charges as a “test
case” and would likely drop the lasciviousness charges entirely.13 Two months
later, the Deseret News hopefully reported the rumor that Bates favored “dropping prosecution of all polygamy cases involving current marriages and the
prosecution of only plural marriages sanctioned in the future.”14
Before returning to Salt Lake City, Young wanted assurances that he could
post bail and thus not be detained at Camp Douglas, where he feared he
might be assassinated. On December 14, Young sent a telegram in cipher
to Wells:
Can I be assured of getting bail if I come home? We understand they
have a thousand troops at Camp Douglas. Bates may have it in his mind
10.“U.S. A
ttorney for Utah,” Deseret News, November 8, 1871; “District Court,” Deseret News, December 6, 1871.
11. Turner, Pioneer Prophet, 367.
12. Hiram Clawson to Young, December 11, 1871, BYOF. George Q. Cannon expressed skepticism, maintaining that Bates thought McKean to be “engaged in duties no less sacred than those who minister on the altar of the living God.” See Cannon to Young, December 1, 1871, BYOF.
13. Wells to Brigham Young, December 2, 1871.
14. Deseret News, February 19, 1872.
Kane to Young, November 30, 1871
443
to spring a trap upon me, get me to camp and let men come in there
who would assassinate me. If there is the least apprehension with you
or the brethren of anything of this kind then I should want you to have
two thousand men distributed in the city ready with materials for such
an emergency.15
Even though Young expressed his skepticism of Bates’s intentions, Bates<
br />
worked to secure such an agreement for Young’s treatment. In response
to a query from Bates, McKean expressed incredulity that Young would
request that he “not be confined and treated like other men charged with
like offenses.” But he intimated that he would grant the request, given that
it was made in “good faith.”16
Young thus left St. George on December 19 and arrived in Salt Lake
City a week later.17 It was a difficult trip, Young said, especially for a
70-year-old man, with a “superabundance” of snow, rain, and mud. On
January 2, under an arrangement with the U.S. marshal, Young was
arrested and appeared in court. While McKean denied bail, he placed
Young under house arrest rather than send him to Fort Douglas.18 Young’s
trial was initially scheduled to begin a week later, but William Clayton,
a Mormon acting in his capacity as territorial auditor, declined to pay
the court’s expenses, leading Bates to request that all pending trials be
delayed until the first week in March. Young thus remained under a loose
house arrest.19
Source
Kane to Young, November 30, 1871, box 15, fd 5, Kane Collection,
BYU. A partial draft of this letter dated ca. October 1871 is in the Kane
Collection, BYU.
15.
See U.P. [Young] to N.R.G. [Wells], December 14, 1871, telegram in code, BYOF. We have followed the deciphering of the code done by Turner, Pioneer Prophet, 367, as well as independently verifying it.
16. See McKean to George Bates, December 18, 1871, BYOF; “Minutes of a Meeting Held in the President’s Office,” December 13, 1871, General Church Minutes, CHL.
17. Wells to Young, December 19, 1871; Robert Burton, diary, December 26, 1871.
18. See Brigham Young to Willard Young, January 26, 1872, BYOF.
19. Turner, Pioneer Prophet, 367; Brigham Young to Willard Young, January 26, 1872, BYOF.
444
the prophet and the reformer
Letter
Kane Nov. 30 1871
My dear friend:20
Here is your true hearted son again; with his points and questions.
I have most fully and particularly advised Mr Hooper on the course
he should adopt; and if he obey counsel, the worst is over.21
When congress meets he will introduce (without blowing off steam)
the Bill providing for appeals in Criml Causes from the Territorial courts
to the Supreme Court of the United States. I have so informed influen-
tial parties, and have thus, I expect, drawn the sting from the message22
I have requested Mr. Hooper to take no other action at present
without your express order. You have time to reflect before you direct
him. [p. 2]
Mean while; experiency experiencing no call to assume a more ele-
vated tone than that of one considering your policy from the point of
view of temporal expediency—I offer:
My own advice
Continue in hiding observing every precaution to prevent your place
of refuge from being disclosed. For this, it will not suffice to restrict the
visits of your friends, if you do not at the same time restrict your corre-
spondence. Whatever ground we may gain, whatever success may seem
to have been achieved—conceal yourself until I advise you to cease
doing so.
Be guarded in the extreme in your communications with me, recol-
lecting that no interests of mine can be affected by our correspondence;
but yours may be. Such unworthy means have been used by your enemies
20. Kane wrote “President Y
oung” at the bottom of this page.
21. At this time, McKean’s predecessor, former Utah Supreme Court Justice C. C. Wilson, was lobbying territorial delegate William Hooper to support his reappointment to the Utah judiciary in place of McKean. Wilson wrote Hooper that McKean and the other federal judges in Utah “have showed themselves unfit for any position whatever. No man fit to sit on the bench would place such opinions on record as have emanated from the courts of Utah T[erritor]y of late.” See Wilson to Hooper, November 13, 1871, BYOF.
22. Kane had informed Pennsylvania Senator Simon Cameron of Hooper’s intended legislation that would provide for appeals from the territorial courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kane to Cameron, undated draft, ca. October 1871, Kane Collection, BYU.
Kane to Young, November 30, 1871
445
to obtain the knowledge of your affairs which they possess at Washington,
that I do not think they would scruple to waylay or arrest and search a
person supposed to be bearing secret despatches from or to you.
In the present crisis, I can think of nothing as essential to the safety
of your people as your personal security. It is their first duty to establish
you where [p. 3] you will be exempt, not only from arrest or violence, but
but from every apprehension of it. They stand in need of your unembar-
rassed judgment on their affairs; Your mind should not be burdened by
unnecessary cares—Ought you not to welcome such an occasion for rest
from sordid business thoughts?—Your pecuniary interests cannot suffer
very grievously by your neglecting them a single winter.—If your credi-
tors miss you, will they be less likely to lend a hand to help you back to
your country house room?? I repeat, for the third time, I myself need to
have you in your best and freshest mind to consider with.—So much;
for the future of your people, your friends, your family, depends on your
having a clear insight into matters now!
Besides yourself, I would
the men of men of the old rock whose names are familiar to the public,
keep out of the way. If we do not want you, we do not want them either
to be cited or misquoted [p. 4] as the authority for anything. We do
not want your persecutors to get hold of any man with name enough
to help them to a sensation trial. They are at their wits ends for their
next excitement. They have kept on so far, promising outbreak, out-
rage, insurrection, at each stage of their proceeding; and at each stage
have been so foiled by your forbearance, that the Country asks: What
next?—They are unprovided with their answer. Do not help them to it.
If things continue to look as they do now, political friends of ours
may originate more than one measure in Congress for the relief of
Utah. I would not have Mr. Hooper’s hand seen in them, at all. Leaving
the responsibility of originating originating and enforcing measures
with Washington, you will not be held answerable for them on your
return to power—On one of these, when the time [p. 5] comes for it,
my sentiments will perhaps be found to differ from those of your less
responsible Counsellors. I will not probably be able to recommend the
pretended acceptance by your citizens of a Constitution containing fea-
tures repugnant to their principles.24 As regards the actual abandonment
23. R
eferences to apostles George A. Smith, John Taylor, and Orson Pratt.
24. George Q. Cannon wrote Young that President Grant would support a state government “legalizing existing plural marriages and their issue” while forbidding future plural
446
the prophet and the reformer
of polygamy—that is a question between you an your God. And I
have
naught to say on it. But Duplicity, I see, without a shadow, will not be
good policy for you. I prefer not to write at length on this theme unless
you doubt. If I had not higher grounds for my opinion—I would point
out to you that some members of your Church might gain influence by
its nominal proscription by law, and others would be the losers by it. I do
not know the members of your rank and file as well as I once did, and
reports which have reached the East make me question which of your
men of money are perfectly single minded and think more of your cause
than of themselves. [p. 6]
I risk wearying you by my reiterations: Discretion, Discretion,
Discretion. I particularly deprecate un uncalled for remarks about your
removing from Utah or any part of it.25 any Any measures supposed
to have your favor will be discounted in advance by your enemies or
thwarted by them. No sign should be manifested of yielding or conces-
sion before your mind is fully resolved to make it—before you are cer-
tain that your followers will be a unit upon it—before the effort has been
faithfully made to obtain a responsible pledge from the Administration
that an equivalent, entire or partial, will be given in exchange for it.
When our Government are prepared to treat with you, it will be time
enough to volunteer the most important sacrifice which you can offer.
In short there is no political action on your part required; or be assured
I would advise you of it. The consciousness of this fact shd. relieve your
mind and encourage you to amend your [p. 7] health. Consider how
well, of all men in the world, you are entitled to rest. Think that the
period of enforced repose is ordered in kindness to arrest the encroach-
ing advances on you of old age, to refresh your heart and soul for better
work than any you have yet accomplished.
Your son will now take a few notes for you on practical details.
Your friend
Signed) Thomas L. Kane
marriages. C
annon advised that it would be “worthy of careful consideration before you
decide to reject the offer if it should be made.” Cannon to Young, December 7, 1871, BYOF; see also Phineas Young to Brigham Young, February 2, 1872, BYOF.
The Prophet and the Reformer Page 63