The Prophet and the Reformer
Page 65
strength, as occasion stimulates or inspires you to impart them. I think
that after we have conversed upon the leading points of your Biography,
you will feel frequently [p. 3] impelled to make important corrections
of my views and impressions. I should vainly endeavor to express to you
how grave I feel the responsibility of handing down to posterity, if not
the truth or the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Ever yours faithfully
Thomas L. Kane
85
Young to Kane, October 31, 1872
YoUng qUicKlY responded to Kane’s October 16 letter and gladly received his
offer to visit Utah. Along with Elizabeth, two of their sons, and a servant, Kane
arrived in Salt Lake City on November 26, 1872. Though still skeptical of the
Saints, Elizabeth was impressed by their affections for her husband. She wrote
their daughter Harriet, “Father is like another man here. It would delight you to
see how this people worship him! How I wish Elisha and you were with us to lis-
ten to the things they tell us of him. He has kept so quiet that we know nothing
about him except what we’ve seen.”1 The rapid improvement in Thomas’s health
exceeded Elizabeth’s “fondest wish.” Even the news of the death of Horace
Greeley did not sink him into depression, as it might have otherwise.2
Source
Young to Kane, October 31, 1872, box 15, fd 6, Kane Collection, BYU.
Retained copy is in Brigham Young Letterbooks, box 9, vol. 13, 249–250.
Letter
Salt Lake City, U. T.
October 31, 1872.
Gen. Thomas L. Kane
Kane, Kane Co. Penn.
1. Elizabeth W
. Kane to Harriet Kane, November 27, 1872, Kane Collection, BYU.
2. Elizabeth W. Kane to Elisha Kane, December 4, 1872, Kane Collection, BYU.
Young to Kane, October 31, 1872
457
My dear friend,
Your esteemed favor under date of Oct. 16. came to hand this morn-
ing to which I hasten to reply.3
I shall only be too glad to have your cherished company this winter,
and whatever lays in my power, that can in any way contribute to your
peace and comfort is yours to command.
I regret to learn by a letter from my son John W. that you have been
quite unwell, but I hope that the change of air and the genial climate
of our southern country will greatly aid in effectually restoring you to
health and vigor.
We cannot tell what in the providence of the Almighty may be
brought to pass this winter, but if all is well I expect to reside in St.
George,4 and that anticipated pleasure is doubly heightened in pros-
pect of your society. There we may be as retired as we please, and the
delightful climate is all that man can desire. Or would you prefer to pass
[p. 2] the cold, damp winter in Salt Lake City?
I would be pleased to hear from you on receipt of this, or as soon
thereafter as may be convenient, so as to learn your wishes in all par-
ticulars, and when you will be prepared to start, and should you feel
disposed to bring your wife and children with you, they will be as gladly
welcome as it is in our power to make them.
Your many friends here join me in love to you.
Yours very respectfully.
Brigham Young
3. Kane to Y
oung, October 16, 1872.
4. For a description of Young’s home in St. George, see “A Journey Through Utah, Winter 1872–73,” Kane Collection, BYU.
86
Young to Kane, December 9, 1872
YoUng sent the following invitation to dinner at the Lion House, one of his
Salt Lake City homes, to the Kanes as they were preparing to leave for their
journey to southern Utah. The day after the dinner, Elizabeth Kane sent a
description to her daughter Harriet. Young sent a carriage to pick up the
Kanes, met them in the “paved courtyard in front of the Lion House” and then
escorted them into a parlor, where he commenced introducing them to vari-
ous family members. Elizabeth wrote,
That untimely and uncontrollable grin of mine twitched my mouth
when I came to the fifth “My wife Mrs Young.” However rescue came
to my aid by a change to daughters, and of these he had all the married
ones present who were in the city and well enough to be there. Short
and tall, young and middle-aged, ugly and pretty; there were loads
of them!
When Elizabeth inquired of “one of the old Mrs. Youngs how many daugh-
ters he had,” after some thought, she stated that “there were over twenty
married.” At that point, “another Mrs. Young chimed in that he had fifteen
grandchildren born last year, so that it wasn’t easy to reckon up a family
that changed so constantly.” A small number of guests who were not fam-
ily members were also present. Elizabeth thought that the “long dining
room” was “very much like a boarding school one, except that no boarding
school ever displayed such a feast.” The first course was “oyster soup made
with big frying oysters.”
Before the Kanes left, Young “rang a bell and the rooms filled with sons
and daughters, and then every one knelt down to pray.” Elizabeth concluded
by noting that Young
Young to Kane, December 9, 1872
459
prayed God to bless “thy servant General Kane and his wife, his little
children here, and his sons and daughter left behind” with all the bless-
ings that he could think of. When we left, the family crowded after us
in the hall, as we do after friends we love. Fancy your hosts bidding you
farewell by the dozen!1
The day after the dinner (December 12), the Kanes left Salt Lake City along
with Young and his entourage (composed of about sixteen people—members
of Young’s family and other prominent Saints) on their annual tour of Utah’s
southern settlements. Elizabeth commented, “It is a sort of Royal Progress in
a primitive Kingdom with Father for Queen of Sheba!”2The journey of roughly
three hundred miles to St. George, renowned for its mild winters, took twelve
days; the company traveled the first 35 miles to Lehi by railroad and then the
rest by carriage. Elizabeth later wrote of the journey in Twelve Mormon Homes, in which she defended Latter-day Saint women and domestic life.3
In St. George, Kane’s health initially improved. Elizabeth recorded in early
January that he “was able to walk over two miles today without pain, a thing he
has never done since the War.”4Soon, however, Kane became very ill, “perhaps
from cold taken in his wounds,” and he “endured frightful suffering, and lay
long at the point of death.” Until Kane’s recovery, the Saints constantly attended to him and his family. On one occasion, as Elizabeth returned to his sickroom,
she found Young, of whom she had long held a negative view, kneeling in
prayer while Kane slept. She wrote, “I find myself thinking kindly of this man,
too!”5 The following December, Elizabeth marveled at Thomas’s improvement
while in Utah: “I never saw so great a change in any one in so short a time as
the few months in the dry balmy climate effected, aided by the total change of
habits and thoughts. He
laid aside first one crutch, then another, and then his
stick.” She thought him “as strong as he was before the War.”6
1. Elizabeth W
. Kane to Harriet Kane, December 11, 1872, Kane Collection, BYU.
2. Elizabeth W. Kane to Elisha Kane, December 7, 1872, Kane Collection, BYU.
3. Kane, Twelve Mormon Homes. See also Lowell C. Bennion and Thomas R. Carter,
“Touring Polygamous Utah with Elizabeth W. Kane,” Brigham Young University Studies 48
(2009): 159–192.
4.Elizabeth W. Kane, A Gentile Account of Life in Utah’s Dixie, 1872–73: Elizabeth Kane’s St.
George Journal, ed. Norman R. Bowen (Salt Lake City: Tanner Trust Fund, University of Utah Library, 1995), 50.
5. Kane, Gentile Account, 170.
6. Elizabeth W. Kane, biographical sketch of Thomas L. Kane, December 20, 1873, Kane Collection, BYU.
460
the prophet and the reformer
The Mormons’ care of Thomas transformed Elizabeth’s views on them,
as she felt “indebted for his recovery to the kind and able nursing of the
Mormons.” Elizabeth consented, along with Thomas, to receive a patriarchal
blessing from St. George patriarch William G. Perkins (as Thomas had while
at the Mormon camps in 1846). Elizabeth reasoned, “I don’t see what the harm
is. I am sure it won’t make a Mormon of me.”7 The Kanes were also honored
with a farewell feast from the local Relief Society: “The feast was spread in the
basement, with 270 men and women sitting down and as many children flit-
ting about, waiting on the company and picking up crumbs.”8The winter had
also proved salubrious for Young; his son John W. reported that he “never saw
[Young] look better, nor in better health.”9 The group arrived back in Salt Lake
in early March 1873; the Kanes left for home on March 4.10
While in Utah, Kane’s proposed biography of Young had faded from view.
Other objectives quickly emerged in extensive conversations with Young,
including strategies to protect the Saints from anti-polygamy legislation,
shape Mormon public image, prepare Young’s will, expand Mormon settle-
ment into Arizona and Mexico, and influence the Saints’ educational policy
and communitarian practices. These topics largely set the agenda for the cor-
respondence between Kane and Young for the remaining years of Young’s life.
Source
Young to Kane, December 9, 1872, Kane Collection, BYU.
Letter
Monday Morning,
Compliments of Prest Brigham Young to Gen. Thomas L. Kane,
Lady and Sons.
Would be pleased to have their Company at dinner in the west or
Lion House to-morrow at 5. p. m.
7 . Kane, Gentile Account, 162–172.
8. Elizabeth Kane, journal, March 1873.
9. School of the Prophets, Salt Lake City, January 13, 1873.
10. Church Historian’s Office Journal, March 4, 1873.
Young to Kane, December 9, 1872
461
Carriage will be in waiting at 3 p. m.
Please signify at what hour to-day you wish the carriage for your visit
to Col. Jennings.
S. L. City
Dec. 9/72
87
Kane to Young, April 2, 1873
soon after his return east from Utah, Kane wrote this letter to Young, describ-
ing his rationale for “declining to attend or aid in attending to the negotiation
of securities for you,” an offer that John W. Young had apparently made to
Kane in a recent visit. Rather, Kane explained, he intended to fulfill a promise
made to Young while in Utah, that he would “set your Estate in order.” As early
as summer 1871, the “sudden death of some . . . leading men who have plural
families” prompted George A. Smith to urge church leaders to make their
wills “to prevent their property from being squandered among the Lawyers.”
Young agreed with Smith and presented the brethren with a blank form made
by Probate Judge Elias Smith. Following his conversations with Kane, Young
asked him to write a will for him, which could also be used as a model for
other Mormons.1
Kane’s work on Young’s will was the central topic of much of their corre-
spondence over the next year. A few days before Kane sent this letter, he wrote
a lengthy letter to Brigham Young Jr. about his father’s will, listing various
modifications to the planned will that they had initially agreed upon during
Kane’s stay in Utah.2 A few days later, Kane wrote Daniel H. Wells, referring to
their “confidential conversation at the Lion House on the importance of defin-
ing during President Young’s life time the relative interests of himself and the
Church.” Though Young and other church officials believed that the interests
of Young and the church were “harmonious,” Kane argued that they should
have separate legal counsel.3
1. School of the Prophets minutes, J
uly 29, 1871, September 2, 1871 and November 10, 1873.
2. Kane to Brigham Young Jr., March 29, 1873.
3. Kane to Wells, March 31, 1873, Kane Collection, BYU.
Kane to Young, April 2, 1873
463
In addition, in this letter, Kane referred to Young’s “curtailing” of his busi-
ness operations. Young was in the process of decreasing his involvement in
the business interests of the church. Four days after Kane wrote this letter,
on April 6, Young declared that he wished to be “relieved, so far as possible,
from all secular business.” He also resigned from his position as the church’s
Trustee-in-Trust; George A. Smith replaced him.4
Source
Kane to Young, April 2, 1873, CHL. A draft, dated April 1, 1873, is in box
15, fd 6, Kane Collection, BYU.
Letter
Genl Thomas L. Kane
4. W. 18th St. N. Y.
April 2. ’73
My dear friend:5
I avail myself of the reliable favor of your son John W. to send
you per B. Y. Jr. two letters, substantially duplicates of others now
in Philadelphia, written you a fortnight since but which I was wis[e]
enough not to entrust to the mail.6
Having conversed freely with your son on affairs in general, [p. 2]
I will only express myself in writing on two points:
1. He will tell you that in declining to attend or aid in attending to
the negotiation of securities for you, I asked him to remark that I did so
with decided peremptoriness. I meant by this to intimate that I intend
to devote myself this spring and next summer exclusively to the fulfil-
ment of my last promise made you, and that I perceive it to be your
duty above all other duties, cognizable by me, to set your Estate in order
before extending any line or lines of business. Let us, my friend, avail
4. Y
oung to Church, April 6, 1873, BYOF; Young to Willard Young, April 14, 1873, BYOF.
5. Kane wrote “President Young.” at the bottom of the page to indicate the recipient.
6. John W. Young informed his father on March 28, 1873 that he and Kane had just arrived in New York City from Philadelphia: “we had a most delightful visit. Tomorrow I will call to see Mrs Kane and the children. The General is in excellent health, and so also are Mrs Kane and the children.” John W. Young to Brigham Young, March 28, 1873, BYOF.
46
4
the prophet and the reformer
ourselves of the present lull in the storm to establish all your rights
of ownership on a stable footing—extinguish or provide for all your
liabilities—and then you will find me ready to borrow with alacrity, for
any good enterprise of which your judgment approves.7 But there is a
time for everything, and now is your time for contracting, drawing in,
making [ever] all around you safe and sure. [p. 3]
2. You can quote me as saying: that no fair man, in the Church or out
of it, ought to misunderstand your curtailing your operations in order to
limit your responsibility, at this juncture.
Ever yours
Thomas L. Kane
7 . Kane had recently advised Brigham Young Jr. that “being without a sufficient provision of cash has I fear been for some time the weakest side of your Mormon business. You have I apprehend often paid too high for your money in consequence. You are not at all well prepared to encounter a financial revulsion!” Kane’s advice was prescient. In the fall of 1873, several major U.S. investment firms were unable to meet their obligations, which began the American “Panic of 1873.” The subsequent American financial and industrial contraction mirrored events elsewhere, and the result was several years of international difficulty that was known at the time as the “Great Depression” or the “Long Depression.” Kane to Brigham Young Jr., March 29, 1873, Kane Collection, BYU; David Glasner, “Crisis of 1873,” in David Glasner and Thomas F. Cooley, eds., Business Cycles and Depressions: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1997), 148–149.
88
Kane to Young, April 4, 1873
Kane Wrote this letter, which only exists as a draft, shortly after his return
to the East on April 4.1 Its phrasing at times is terse. Continuing in his
efforts to assist the Saints politically and economically, Kane referred to a
recent attempt to lobby President Grant through an “intimate friend” as well
as Mormon efforts to expand their railroad interests. Kane perhaps did not
directly approach Grant, as he had in the past, because of his involvement with
the Liberal Republican opposition to Grant during the presidential campaign