as much for the
support of the Federal Constitution, in proportion to their number, as
we are ready & willing to do, & will do, if we are permitted the oppor-
tunity, their free institutions will be lasting as time, & no power can
overthrow them.
Accept Sir, the assurance of our highest consideration & enduring
friendship, for our blessing & our prayers are yours continually.
We subscribe <ourselves> in behalf of the Council
Brigham Young President
Willard Richards Clerk
P. S. We are fully assured that we shall not be able to get an petition
before Congress this Session, but if our views of which you are well
acquainted, can be embodied in any form, so as to bring the subject
before Congress & gain their attention; the agitation may be advanta-
geous & on our part desirable.
Brother Appleby received arrived safely five days since in good
health & Spirits, with the by whom we received the most pleasing &
acceptable <unfading> tokens of friendship the enduring love of our
“fast friend,” May his reward be an hundred fold, with life, & health
unceasing—23
The Council solicits the Company of Col Kane, in a trip to the Great
Salt Lake next Spring; fully confident that it would tend to the pro-
motion of his health & continuance of life, beyond any other means,
which they most ardently desire. May it not be convenient for him to
assistance in obtaining the post office for the S
aints. See draft letters, ca. January 1848, Kane
Collection, BYU.
22. By February 1848, the Saints’ petition for a post office at Council Bluffs was forwarded to Kane with 1,850 names. See “To the Honorable Postmaster General of the United States,”
BYOF; Kane Collection, BYU.
23. See Appleby, journal, December 2–3, 1847, CHL; General Church Minutes, December 3, 1847, CHL.
50
the prOphet and the refOrmer
arrange his business with Clerks for a short season, for the sake of pro-
moting so desirable an object, as life & health? All this sickly part of the
Country will be past in the healthy portion of the Season & beyond this
point there is no miasmi, but perfect health beyond what we have ever
witnessed in any Country; and last but not least in the pleasure of his
Company24
24. Kane declined this offer
. “Say to them [church leaders],” Kane responded to Richards,
“that I am not the less touched by the delicacy of feeling which dictated it,” though his business would not allow such a trip. “If I am tempted by the advantages it would afford of reviving my intimacy with them, tell them that I stand in no need of such to confirm my fixed attachment which Time has increased instead of abating. Their conduct has proved them every day more deserving of my respect and esteem, and with every day has made me more willing and more proud to avow them my friends.” Kane to Willard Richards, January 18, 1848, Kane Collection, BYU.
7
Kane to Young, December 9, 1847
in the midst of fundraising for the Latter-day Saints in Philadelphia, Kane
wrote Young this letter, stating that a sensational divorce trial in Boston had
turned public opinion against the Mormons and especially against Young. The
case involved Augusta Adams Cobb, who had converted to Mormonism in the
early 1830s. Her husband Henry never joined the church and the religious
differences, as well as other causes, led to tensions between the couple.1 The
final estrangement between Henry and Augusta occurred in September 1843,
when Augusta left Boston with Young and other Latter-day Saints, traveling for
Nauvoo. While leaving most of her children in Boston, she took her daughter
Charlotte and an infant son, who died en route of consumption.2 The sex-
ton’s record in Nauvoo indicates that the infant was named Brigham Y. Cobb,
a likely indication of Augusta’s attachment to Young even before leaving for
Nauvoo. Young had possibly taught Augusta about plural marriage while in
Boston, which may have prompted her to travel to Nauvoo and marry him.
With the permission of Brigham’s first wife Mary Ann, Augusta and Brigham
were married on November 2, 1843. In 1847, Brigham stated, “Sister Cobb was
until I got the ceremonies performed and all made right.”3
1. J
ohn S. Turner, Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (Cambridge: The Bellknap Press Press, 2012), 101. On Augusta Adams, see also Ronald W. Walker, Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 136–137. Surviving correspondence between Henry, Augusta, and their children depict a troubled marriage and family life.
For instance, see Henry Cobb to daughter Ellen Cobb, April 15, 1844; Ellen Cobb to Augusta Adams Cobb, January 29, 1844, Cobb Family Papers, Theodore Schroeder collection, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, microfilm copy at CHL.
2. Brigham Young, journal, October 12, 1843, CHL.
3. Minutes, November 30, 1847, as quoted in Turner, Pioneer Prophet, 101.
52
the prOphet and the refOrmer
Henry Cobb unsuccessfully sued for divorce from Augusta, who had returned
to Boston, in 1844. After visiting Augusta in Boston in July 1844, Young noted
that Henry had attempted to “get a bill of devose from hir but could not, and she
is in possession of hir family and hir house.”4 Augusta returned to Nauvoo by
November 1845 and Henry again sued for divorce in 1847, this time successfully.5
George J. Adams and Catherine Lewis, both disaffected Latter-day Saints, testified against Augusta at these later divorce proceedings. Lewis, who later published an
exposé against Mormonism, stated that Augusta had attempted to introduce her
to plural marriage as well.6 Several of Augusta’s children, meanwhile, signed
an affidavit attesting that they “kn[e] w her to be innocent of the base charges”
leveled against her.7 Daughter Ellen wrote that she would “stake my life on that
mother’s purity.”8 Nevertheless, Augusta lost the divorce trial and was denied
the custody of her children, except for a daughter who had left Boston with her.
Brigham Young and Augusta Adams were resealed in the Nauvoo Temple
in February 1846. Augusta, nevertheless, indicated that she wanted to be
sealed to Joseph Smith for eternity, with Young acting as proxy husband in
mortality. In April 1848, such a sealing ceremony occurred, with Young stand-
ing in for Smith as proxy.9
It is unclear if Young ever responded to Kane’s request in the featured
letter for information on the allegations regarding himself and Augusta. The
divorce trial, Kane wrote, created “more than ordinary bad effect,” making the
effort to raise money for the Mormons immeasurably more difficult. Kane
may have learned some information from other fundraising missionaries
whom Young dispatched in early 1848, including apostles Ezra T. Benson,
Amasa Lyman, and Erastus Snow.10
Benson and Snow, along with a few others, enlisted Kane’s help in advanc-
ing their missions in the large eastern cities. Benson found Kane “some what
cast down,” apparently over the dimming prospects of the fundraising, but
encouraged him: “my mission must be filled and I should not give it up until
a fair trial h
ad been made.” Kane agreed to accompany Benson to Boston, the
4. Brigham Y
oung to Mary Young, July 18, 1844, CHL.
5. Divorce filing, November 16, 1847, Cobb family papers,
6. Turner, Pioneer Prophet, 102; Catherine Lewis, Narrative of Some of the Proceedings of the Mormons (Lynn, MA: n.p., 1848).
7. Affidavit signed by Cobb children, March 1, 1847, Cobb family papers.
8. Ellen to E. B. Thompson, January 30, 1847, Cobb family papers.
9. Turner, Pioneer Prophet, 192–193.
10. Erastus Snow, journal, December 24–27, 1847, CHL.
Kane to Young, December 9, 1847
53
site of the Cobb divorce trial, in February 1848. From Boston, Benson reported
that the “little Col is in good spirrits this morning and will and is exerting himself to the utmost and my feelings are that something will be done among the
Rich of this generation.”11 The fundraising appeals by Kane and his Latter-day
Saint associates successfully turned the Boston papers away from accusa-
tions of Mormon polygamy to stories of Mormon suffering.12 In Boston, a
committee—including abolitionist Charles Sumner, Charles Francis Adams
(son of John Quincy Adams), and Mayor Josiah Quincy Jr.—was formed to
spearhead the fundraising efforts.13 When Kane had to leave Boston unexpect-
edly to attend to his clerkship duties, he urged his Mormon companions to
gather all of the favorable newspaper notices. Kane then amplified the positive
campaign “upon [his] wearily sapped old fortress enemy—public opinion.”14
Source
Kane to Young, December 9, 1847, box 40, fd 9, BYOF.
Letter
(Private in haste.)
Independence Hall
Philadelphia Decem. 9, 1847
My dear Sir,
I have made it my rule, for the reasons known to you, to commu-
nicate with you by letter no more than circumstances have rendered
11. Ezra T
. Benson to Brigham Young, February 14, 1848, BYOF.
12. “The Victims of Popular Violence,” Evening Transcript [Boston], March 3, 1848; “The Mormons,” Boston Post, February 16, 1848, clipping in Isaac Clarke Emigrating Company, Journal, CHL. The Post called Kane a “public spirited, philanthropic gentleman, who has served his country in California, seen the distress of the unhappy people whose relief he seeks, and is entitled to confidence and respect.”
13. “Relief of Distressed Mormons,” statement of Boston committee written by Kane, in Isaac Clarke Emigrating Company, Journal, CHL. Adams and Quincy had traveled to Nauvoo
in May 1844 and met with Joseph Smith. See Richard L. Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling (New York City: Knopf, 2005), 3–7; Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past from the Leaves of Old Journals (Boston: Roberts Bros., 1883), 376–400.
14. Kane to [Jesse C. Little?], February 25–26, 1848; Kane to Little, February 25, 1848, both in Little Collection, BYU.
54
the prOphet and the refOrmer
necessary, having full confidence in the gentlemen who have been
instruments of correspondence between us.
There is a matter, however, affecting the interests of your people,
which for an obvious cause, shall offer you an exception to my usual
course.
A divorce has recently been granted in Boston to one Cobb, an
inhabitant of that place, from his wife Augusta, on [p. 2] the ground of
adultery; and your name was directly implicated in the charge. I should
not bring the lie to your notice—for we have always an abundant supply
of the staple on hand; but that it happens to be producing a more than
ordinary bad effect. You will observe from the enclosed that we had a
Meeting for the relief of the suffering people on the Iowa peninsula a
few nights since.15 Everything was going on swimmingly and I counted
upon raising a large sum for the purpose, when this news from Boston
came among us. Since then it is impossible to keep head above water.
I cannot get our Committee together:16 I cannot even make decent
arrangements for collecting. The whole concern will fall to the ground
unless the nasty story is corrected. I have [p. 3] measures afoot to try
to procure a new trial in the shape of a rehearing, but the information
given me promises little success. I fear much that there is knavery on
the part of all parties concerned: if there be not collusion, certainly the
defence has been ill advised.
In view of this state of things, it becomes important to me to have
the true statement of facts, and I write to you to ask you to send me
on such at as early a period as practicable. It is important to stamp the
falsehood at once.
I shall go on to Boston as soon as I can obtain leave from the Judges,
but at present scarce a moment of my time can be spared. I send you
this letter [p. 4] from my desk in Court, having indited it in the inter-
vals of a trial.17 This fact gives you my excuse for its brevity and my
15. The
meeting was held in Philadelphia and its proceedings were printed in various
newspapers. See “Meeting for the Relief of the Mormons,” broadside, CHL; “Meeting
for the Relief of the Mormons,” Pennsylvania Inquirer and National Gazette, November 13, 1847, 2.
16. The committee included Philadelphia’s mayor as chairman and sixteen promi-
nent Philadelphians as vice-presidents. “Meeting for the Relief of the Mormons,”
broadside, CHL.
17. Kane worked as a legal clerk in his father’s Independence Hall courtroom.
Kane to Young, December 9, 1847
55
abstaining from personal messages to my friends at Camp. Say to them
all, my heart is with them, and for yourself take the assurance of my
earnest and trusting friendship, continuing me always,
Faithfully yours,
Thomas L. Kane,
Mr. Young
8
Young to Kane, February 9, 1848
after leading the vanguard company of pioneers to Utah in 1847, Young
returned to Winter Quarters. In late December, he was officially sustained as president of the church and he designated Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as
his counselors in the First Presidency. In the following letter, only extant in draft form, Young asked Kane to put the question of territorial government for Utah
before Congress with “all the Agitation . . . the nature of the case will admit.”
During his sojourn in the Mormon camps, Kane had advised the Saints to
write a letter to President Polk to assuage any concerns about their loyalty to the government. While a U.S. territorial government was “one of the richest boons
of earth,” Young told Polk that his people would retreat to “deserts,” “islands,”
or “mountain caves” rather than have Washington appoint men over them who
might place their own selfish interests over those of their constituents and who
might therefore persecute the Latter-day Saints rather than protect them. The
Mormons saw themselves as wounded religionists and patriots. These two
opposite tugs—alienation and love of country—could push the Saints in polar
directions, especially when one of their orators stood behind a podium or pulpit.
Young’s letter to Polk, full of these opposites, nevertheless came down on the
side of working within the American system. His
hope was to have Washington
appoint men from among the Mormons—or at least men who were not oppo-
nents. Young, like settlers in other western territories, wanted home rule.1 During the next several years, the Saints made this same appeal to Washington again and
again. In April 1847, just as their pioneer parties were about to strike out for Utah, they renewed their petition for a friendly territorial government;2 and once in
1. Y
oung to James K. Polk, August 9, 1846, BYOF.
2. Kane to Willard Richards, April 25, 1847, BYOF.
Young to Kane, February 9, 1848
57
Utah, in February 1848, they tried another time, as demonstrated by this letter
from Young to Kane.
In addition, Young directed Kane to continue his efforts to secure a post
office for the Mormon camps at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and attached a peti-
tion with 1805 signatures which Kane could use for both purposes.3 Besides
ensuring adequate mail service (as there was “no Post Office within forty
or fifty miles”), a post office would indicate the federal government’s rec-
ognition of the midwestern Mormon communities, which served as stag-
ing grounds for the emigration west. Young had also sent a copy of the
petition to President Polk’s Postmaster General Cave Johnson; Kane was
already lobbying Johnson through Vice President George Dallas, a Kane
family friend and political ally.4 On February 11, 1848, Johnson informed
Dallas that he would fulfill the Saints’ request by establishing a post office
at Council Bluffs and appointing Evan M. Greene (Young’s nephew) as
postmaster.5 The Saints credited Kane’s “instrumentality and kindness” for
the post office and displayed their gratitude by renaming Council Bluffs as
“Kanesville.”6
Source
Young to Kane, February 9, 1848, letter draft, box 16, fd 15, BYOF.
W. Q. 9 Feb 1848
Colonel Kane
Dear Sir
With this we forward you a Petition for a P O at the bluffs and solicit
your influence in its favor at your earliest convenience
3. P