160 years ago today - Feb 25, 1858

"A messenger dire[c]t from Washington [D.C.] arrives in Salt Lake City. Thomas Kane "come[s] as an ambassador from the Chief Executive of our Nation and am fully prepared and duly authorized to lay before you most fully and definitely the feelings and views of the Citizens of our Common Country and the feelings of the executive towards you . . ." He asks "to enlist your sympathies in behalf of the poor soldiers who are now suffering in the cold & snows of the mountains and request you to render them aid and comfort and to assist them to Come here and to bid them a hearty welcome to your hospitable valley." Of the United States Government Brigham Young says, "I suppose they are united in putting down Utah." Kane answers, "I think not."