was “not deterred by the news” and decided to travel to Mexico with two of
his sons, his personal doctor, and another friend. From January 1876, Mexico
had been racked by civil war between the government led by Sebastian Lerdo
and the rebels of General Porfirio Diaz.6 Cannon’s assurances to Elizabeth,
Young’s failure to send men to accompany Kane, and the “revolutions in
Mexico” caused Cannon intense anxiety regarding Kane’s safety. Following
Cannon’s return to the east, he and Brigham Young Jr. visited Elizabeth in
Kane during both October and November.7
By late October, Kane had arrived in San Antonio and wrote Young the fol-
lowing brief letter. Kane included a newspaper clipping from the San Antonio
Daily Herald that stated:
Gen. Kane, of Philadelphila, a distinguished officer in the late war, and
who at one time commanded the renowned “Buck Tail” Regiment, is
now in our City, and quartered at the Menger Hotel. The General’s
4. C
annon, journal, July 29, 1876. Cannon also met with an American developer, John
Green, about possible Mormon settlement in Mexico’s northern provinces. See Cannon to Kane, June 19, 1876, BYU.
5. Cannon, journal, January 11, 1877.
6. John Hart, Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), chp. 4.
7. Harriet Kane, journal, October 14, 1876, November 7–9, 1876, BYU.
Kane to Young, October 21, 1876
497
health being somewhat impaired, we hope his trip to our Western
country may result in its complete restoration.8
Source
Kane to Young, October 21, 1876, box 40, fd 15, BYOF.
Letter
My dear old friend:
I have no doubt you have done all you could. I am thankful that
I can do more. I leave here tomorrow; and this is my Fare Well.
Thomas L. Kane
President Young.
San Antonio Octo. 21 ’76
8. N
ewspaper clipping, San Antonio Daily Herald, enclosed with Kane to Young, October 21, 1876.
97
Kane to Young, February 8, 1877
With his small entourage, Kane spent three months in the northern Mexican
states of Nuevo Leon, Coahuilua, Chihuahua, and Tamaulipas, returning in
January 1877. Besides researching possible sites for Mormon settlement, Kane
had other motivations for the journey. He hoped to recover his health, which
was typically invigorated by travel and a sense of danger. In addition, he planned to witness the civil war (which had “roused the martial spirit within his breast
of former days”), research railroad routes, and conduct ethnological studies of
Mexican indigenous peoples. He also saw the trip as a type of “grand tour” for
his sons, as they would have the “opportunity of seeing a vast extent of country,
many men and of diverse characters.”1 In addition, according to his son Elisha,
Kane hoped to fulfill a patriotic duty “of serving our government in the border
complications.”2
Soon after his return, Kane gave a lecture to the American Philosophical
Society (later published as a pamphlet, Coahuila) detailing his search for a transcontinental railroad route and his forays into Mexican ethnology. Twenty years
earlier, Kane had written a lengthy essay, “The Africanization of America,” which
entered into the antebellum debates over racial ethnology and focused on the bio-
logical and social dangers of racial intermixture.3 In his lecture, Kane argued that his research in Mexico, including the study of Mexican skulls and his examination of over 300 Mexican soldiers from a variety of indigenous origins, confirmed
his earlier conclusions. Racial amalgamation, he stated, caused Mexico’s political instability and “introduces anarchy into social circles, into the family itself.”4
1. Kane to Alida C
onstable (Kane’s aunt), September 13, 1876, BYU.
2. Elisha K. Kane, untitled essay on a trip to northern Mexico, undated draft, BYU.
3. Kane, “Africanization of America,” BYU.
4. Kane, Coahuila.
Kane to Young, February 8, 1877
499
In January 1877, Kane delivered his first report about his search for Mormon
settlement sites to Cannon. Cannon recorded in his journal that Kane’s search
for possible locations for Mormon colonies had been the “whole object of his
trip.”5 In a letter to Young, Cannon further explained that Kane had arrived
home “thin, and a little lame” but “in excellent health and spirits” and was
“delighted with his trip to Mexico, and thinks that he was inspired of the Lord
to go there.” He continued, “He passed through several close places, but felt
that the protecting care of the Lord was over him.”6 Kane again visited Cannon
in Washington in early February and wrote Young the following brief letter.7
Source
Kane to Young, February 8, 1877, box 40, fd 15, BYOF.
Letter
Washington Febr. 8, ’77
My dear friend:
I will write you on my return home from this place, unless I shd. hear
that John W. will soon put in an appearance.8 I have conversed freely
with Mr. Cannon.9
Affectionately yours
Thomas L. Kane
President Young.
5. C
annon Journal, January 11, 1877.
6. Cannon to Young, January 15, 1877, BYOF.
7. Cannon to Young, February 7, 1877, BYOF.
8. John W. Young had been planning to go east but decided to stay in St. George instead. See Cannon to Kane, February 21 and 27, 1877, Kane Collection, BYU.
9. Cannon to Young, January 15, 1877, BYOF, CHL; Cannon, journal, February 9, 1877.
98
Kane to Young, March 2, 1877
[Letter #1]
Kane Wrote tWo letters to Young on March 2, which he asked Cannon to
deliver.1 The first, a private missive to Young, stated that he had obtained
“almost priceless information on Mormon affairs” during his visit to Mexico.
Kane elaborated on his advice to Young in a second letter, designed to be
“unobjectionably read by others.”
Source
Kane to Young, March 2, 1877, box 40, fd 15, BYOF.
Letter
Mar. 2, 1877
My dear friend:2
Our truly Honorable George Q. communicates your kind inquiry
from St. George by telegraph.3 To which I answer:
That your Old Friend is well, and as much attached to you as
ever, and he would have written to you [p. 2] two months ago, had he
not been expecting John W., to whom he meant to impart his usual
1. C
annon, journal, March 5, 1877.
2. Kane identified the recipient by writing “President Young” at the bottom of the page.
3. See Cannon to Kane, February 27, 1877, Kane Collection, BYU.
Kane to Young, March 2, 1877 [1]
501
complete confidence. To drop the third person, I will say that, disap-
pointed as I have been not to see the dear fellow, I feel that he is better
by your side.4
The breaking up of the Lerdo government,5 rendering my proceed-
ing to the City of Mexico superfluous, I had the more time to devote
to the Northern States, in which you are immediately interested. The
time was particularly f
avorable for my purposes, as I seemed to hit
upon the very crisis of the Revolution, at each point I touched, and
just as I reached it. Travelling as I did under Government auspices,
and with transportation furnished by the War Department, I was able
to get through and come out again in [p. 3] safety. My credentials too
helped me to associate with all the leading public characters I wished
to meet when, under the uncertainty of success or defeat, they were
least upon their guard.6 You may congratulate me on the acquisition of
almost priceless information on Mexican affairs. I have also, from the
confirmation of the views previously entertained by me, [p. 4] derived a
confidence in their soundness, which should add to their value greatly.
I will now write a letter which may be unobjectionably read by oth-
ers, enforcing the essential points; that the Objective in Mexico should
be fixed upon, that the line (one line) leading to it should be afterwards
determined, that time should not be lost in acquiring desirable lands,
[p. 5] and the privileges of self government needed by you as a peculiar
people,7 before the advent of the American white savage.
4. On F
ebruary 21, Cannon informed Kane that John W. Young had been talking about “com-
ing East on business.” “From this I infer that John W. may not come East himself,” Cannon continued, “I ought to have a reply soon from him to a letter I wrote in which I asked him when he was coming down.” On February 27, Cannon told Kane that he had not yet heard from John Young and offered himself to be the “bearer of communications” as he intended to leave Washington on March 5 for Utah. Cannon to Kane, February 21 and February 27, 1877, Kane Collection, BYU.
5. With the help of American arms, money, and soldiers, Porfirio Diaz successfully waged a campaign against the Lerdo government throughout 1876. Lerdo stepped down from his position as president in November 1876. See John M. Hart, Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico Since the Civil War (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 61–67.
6. In December 1877, Kane testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about his visit to Mexico “in connection with railroad and scientific officers.” Kane expressed a “highly complimentary opinion of President Diaz.” See “Border Troubles,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 14, 1877, 1.
7. In 1875, Young sent Daniel W. Jones to Chihuahua for missionary labors as well as to examine the viability of establishing a settlement. Jones wrote that “a good prosperous settlement of Latter-day Saints in the United Order” would “show the difference between the
502
the prophet and the reformer
Mr. Cannon will explain to you the objects I have sought to accom-
plish by airing a Joint Resolution proposing a Scientific Exploration,
to be conducted nominally under the guidance of the [p. 6] National
Academy of Sciences.8 If, on hearing them, you should perceive how
advisable it is to conduct your own scout under its wing, I shall place
every facility at your command. You must let me know however, I regret
to say, at your earliest convenience, if you desire to do so. I must invoke
the aid of others, or they [p. 7] will take the scheme from under my own
control themselves.
Hayes being counted in, I shall have a reliable friend in the War
Office.9
Ever affectionately yours
Thomas L. Kane
rule of the Priesthood of G
od and that of corrupt priestcraft.” Further, Jones met with the
governor of Chihuahua who gave him the impression that “there is nothing in [the laws] that would hinder [the Saints] from keeping the commandments of God.” Jones also arranged to have the “United Order regulations” published in Chihuahua’s state newspaper. Jones to Young, January 10, February 7, and April 9, 1876, BYOF; Jones to George Reynolds, April 21, 1876, BYOF.
8. The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 to advise the U.S. government. See Rexmond Cochrane, The National Academy of Sciences: The First Hundred Years, 1863–1963 (Washington, D.C.: National Academies, 1978), chp. 3.
9. President Rutherford B. Hayes was under substantial pressure to retain J. Donald Cameron, Grant’s secretary of war. Cameron was the son of powerful Republican Pennsylvania Senator Simon Cameron, a political ally of Kane. Hayes, however, appointed Iowa Representative George W. McCrary to the post. Albert V. House Jr., “President Hayes’ Selection of David M. Key for Postmaster General,” Journal of Southern History 4.1 (February 1938): 87–93.
99
Kane to Young, March 2, 1877
[Letter #2]
Kane’s second march 2, 1877 letter to Young, written with a broader audience
in mind, emphasized the “essential points” of a potential Mormon coloniza-
tion of northern Mexico. These letters urging Mormon colonization of Mexico
were the final letters exchanged between Young and Kane. When Kane visited
Utah in September 1877 to make sure that Mormons affairs would be properly
administered after Young’s death, he encouraged John Taylor, Young’s succes-
sor, to pursue the matter. The following April, Cannon carried to Taylor “some
suggestions” from Kane about “Mexican matters.”1 Cannon informed Kane
that Taylor and Apostle Erastus Snow (who had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over
the Arizona settlements) had “acquiesced” to his “plan of operations” calling
for a colonizing expedition into Mexico.2 Taylor assured Kane of his “complete
sympathy” with the sentiments of Young and Kane “on the southern develop-
ment question.” Like them, Taylor was “thoroughly convinced of the necessity
of an advanced guard, an outpost . . . in that land, and the sooner we can firmly
establish such the more shall I be gratified.” Indeed, the Saints were slowly
making progress, having already established “more than a dozen settlements”
in Arizona, including one only a “few miles within the nation’s borders.”
Taylor’s letter indicates that Kane was actively working to obtain land grants or
other concessions from the Mexican government; Taylor stated, “on some of
these points we should have to be dependent at present on your diplomacy.”3
1. C
annon, journal, March 16, 1878.
2. Cannon to Kane, May 27, 1878, Kane Collection, BYU.
3. Taylor to Kane, May 14, 1878, Kane Collection, BYU.
504
the prophet and the reformer
Nevertheless, Mormon attempts to establish settlements in Mexico soon
stalled. In September 1878, Cannon reported to Kane that Taylor had not expe-
rienced “that clearness of vision and those manifestations of the Spirit which
he desires to have before commencing any important undertaking.” Taylor
feared that Mexican political turmoil could endanger Mormon communities.4
Even so, he would send an expedition that fall under Snow to visit Arizona
and perhaps Mexico should Kane send “any information . . . rendering it
advisable for them to do so.”5 Kane apparently did not send further news and
nothing immediately came of Snow’s expedition. For the present, Mormon
leaders put aside the project of settlement in Mexico, a decision which irked
Kane. Three years later, Cannon perceived that Kane still felt “sore, I think,
over the non-adoption of his Mexican project, which besides his trip to Mexico
cost him considerably.” Kane was also anxious that Taylor and other Mormon
leaders understood “concerning his Mexican trip and why he had taken it.”6
Nevertheless, the actions of Kane and his Mormon associates laid the founda-
tion for future Latter-day Saint settlement in Mexico. The passage of more
stringent U.S. anti-polygamy legislation in the 1880s again focused Mormon
attention to the south. Beginning in 1885, Mormons began a small exodus into
Mexico, eventually establishing seven settlements.7
Source
Kane to Young, March 2, 1877, box 40, fd 15, BYOF.
Letter
1024 Clinton St. Philada.
March 2. 1877
My dear friend:
You are unquestionably right in all the views you have expressed.
Those who take a less intelligent view of the subject should have two
truths impressed upon their minds.
4. C
annon to Kane, September 6, 1878, BYU.
5. Taylor to Kane, September 2, 1878, BYU; Cannon, journal, December 4, 1878.
6. Cannon, journal, February 1, 1882 and June 16, 1882.
7. Tullis, Mormons in Mexico, 54.
Kane to Young, March 2, 1877 [2]
505
I. First. There are fortified gardens in Mexico: cradles that will
expand with the growth of a Nation in them. I have beheld several
spacious valleys; mountain walled, and rich and well watered as any of
the historical valleys of the East renowned in past Ages as the Seats of
Empire.
But the Midway is too long. And too much of it lies through regions
which I found were rightly put down on ancient Spanish maps as Desert
Burning Desert and Red Tequesquite Desert; that [p. 2] is to say, dry
and thirsty land, utterly unsuited for the permanent planting in it of
good stocks of good men and women.8
Wherefore, that resources may not be dissipated–too truly as water
spilled upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again—the
people should be advised in season respecting the proper line which
the Southern emigration should pursue. They should not fall to build-
ing intermediate piers, as it were, before they know where the land-
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