PROVO, Utah -- At a time when the LDS Church had little or no voice in Washington, D.C., it had a true friend in Thomas L. Kane, an emeritus Brigham Young University professor said Wednesday.

Kane, born in 1822, was a man who valiantly defended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during some very crucial moments in the church's history, said Thomas Alexander, BYU professor of western American history. Kane's father was a close friend to U.S. Presidents Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk, and Kane himself soon followed his father into a life of politics.

Alexander spoke to a crowd of about 40 on Wednesday as part of an ongoing lecture series on Kane.



In 1846, Kane read about the plight of the Latter-day Saints through Philadelphia newspaper accounts of their expulsion from their homes in Illinois, Alexander said. He then used his father's connections to assume a lifetime role as "friend, mediator and peacemaker for the Mormons in their relationships with government officials.

"He played a crucial role in protecting the Mormons in their dealings with Washington," Alexander said.

Many of Kane's manuscripts are on display in the special collections section of the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU.

Among his accomplishments, Kane played a large part in resolving the Utah War that played out from 1857 to 1858. U.S. President James Buchanan dispatched a third of the U.S. Army to escort Allred Cumming to Salt Lake City as he replaced Brigham Young as governor of the Utah Territory. Kane played mediator and managed to calm nerves on both sides of the dispute.

Kane also battled negative public opinion about the church. In 1850, he published the plight of the Mormon Battalion in a book called "The Mormons." He also authored several letters in the New York Herald in support of the LDS Church.

Throughout his life, Kane befriended many church members and traveled with Brigham Young to his winter home in southern Utah in 1872-73. Kane's wife, Elizabeth, wrote about the account in "Twelve Mormon Homes" in 1874.

Kane also coached George Q. Cannon on how to work effectively with congress members and the press, Alexander said.

As far as Alexander can tell, Kane didn't have any underlying motive or self-interest in helping church members. By all accounts, Kane was an altruistic person who sought to protect the downtrodden. He also was involved in anti-slavery causes and education reform.

"I think he was truly a humanitarian," Alexander said.

When Kane died in 1883, the Deseret News wrote, "There is no man outside of Uah who holds a warmer place in the hearts of the 'Mormon' people than the hero who just departed."