BOOK REVIEWS
I
A N D
New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. xvi + 511 pp. Cloth, $39.95
U H Q
I
E D I T E D
8 4
The Letters of Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane
V O L .
N O .
1
The Prophet and the Reformer:
88
B Y
M A T T H E W
R O N A L D
W .
J .
G R O W
W A L K E R
This book left me wondering if the desiccated heart of Thomas L. Kane was enshrined somewhere in the Salt Lake City temple, for, at one time Kane wrote to Brigham Young “I request you to receive my heart to be deposited in the Temple of your Salt Lake City, that after death it may repose, where in metaphor at least it often was when living” (76). It is but one of the fascinating tidbits that awaits the reader of these ninety-nine letters that passed between Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane between 1846 and Young’s death in 1877. In a very helpful introduction and a brief epilogue, the editors provide the context in which the governor of the Utah Territory and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Young, and the “diminutive, sickly, and elite Philadelphian,” Kane, formed a lasting and consequential friendship (1). In addition, each letter is preceded by a short description that provides the context and provenance of that particular missive. The letters were culled from the archives of the American Philosophical Society, the Brigham Young Office Files at the LDS Church History Library, and the Kane Collection at Brigham Young University. Helpful footnotes further elucidate the contents. No other non-Mormon played such an important role in the history of nineteenthcentury Utah and Mormonism as Kane, and the
fact that these two men were usually separated by the vast North American continent made possible the gift of these fascinating epistles. Meeting for the first time when the Mormons were refugees in Iowa, Kane became a sometimes passionate defender of a people whose beliefs he never came to share. As the editors point out, he and Brigham Young were “a study in contrast”: Young was the hard-working son of relatively impoverished New Englanders who became something of a spiritual seeker, while Kane was the son of a federal judge who was well-connected socially and somewhat skeptical as to religion (2). For the historian, the most important letters in this collection may be those that concern the “Utah War” of 1857 and 1858. Kane’s self-imposed peace-making voyage to Utah has been credited with defusing the tense situation then existing between the Mormons and U.S. Army troops sent by President James Buchanan. The letters exchanged during that time are helpful not only in giving the reader insight into the minds of Kane and Young but also in providing a glimpse into the actions and possible motivations of other actors, such as the federally appointed governor, Alfred Cummings. Kane, for example, in a letter to Young written on about March 16, 1858, stated that “since my arrival here I have been in constant communication with Governor Cummings. He has made no secret from me of his instructions, and I give my word without reservation that I can reiterate my assurance to you that he is the faithful and determined exponent of the view of yr. friend the President of the United States” (252). On a more critical note, Kane later wrote in regard to Governor Cummings: “I wish poor Cumming’s habits were better . . . I had just received from C. a foolish composition—very drunken indeed” (353). Another point of interest for historians involves Young’s protestations to Kane that he had no
