Twelve Mormon Homes : Twelve Mormon homes visited in succession on a journey through Utah to Arizona.

Twelve Mormon Homes, introduction ix

first on the scene and he might win for himself the position of governor of California as soon as it was wrested from Mexico. His scheme is spelled out in several letters, but especially one of May 17, 1846, to his brother the navy officer physician and arctic explorer, Elisha Kent Kane. Above all if on the journey I shall have ingratiated myself with the disaffected Mormon Army before it descends upon the plains, I could carry my commission quietly in my money belt, and, accord- ing to the promptings of the occasion be OY be lzot the first U. S. Governor of the new territory of California. There would be no difficulty in obtaining me some sort of government agency of Polk if Father would only work for it-and any kind of a one would sell for me a thousand dollars worth of my book. And so with a firm conviction that he was going to gain fame and fortune, Thomas Kane obtained letters of credit to be drawn in California and letters of introduction from President Polk, cabinet officials, and other prominent persons. In the event that his Protestantism would work against him, he secured let- ters from eminent Catholics, including Daniel J. Desmond, consul general of his Holiness Gregory XVI, "that Thomas L. Kane, colonel and aide de camp of his excellency the Governor and Commander in Chief of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl- vania is known to us as a gentleman of excellent family adorned with the most pure and exemplary morals and habits and friendly to our Holy Catholic Religion . . . ." President Polk in a letter dated June I I, 1846, commended Kane to all United States government agents to render him favors and services as he needed on his journey to the Pacific Coast. 1x