Joseph Gurney Cannon (May 7, 1836 – November 12, 1926) was an American politician from
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
and leader of the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
* Republican Party (Liberia)
*Republican Party ...
. Cannon served as
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the ...
from 1903 to 1911, and many consider him to be the most dominant speaker in United States history, with such control over the
House
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...
that he could often control debate. The
Cannon House Office Building, the oldest congressional office building, completed in 1908, was named for him in 1962.
Early life
Cannon was born in
Guilford County, North Carolina
Guilford County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population is 541,299, making it the third-most populous county in North Carolina. The county seat, and largest municipality, is Greensboro. ...
, and in 1840 moved with his parents to
Annapolis, Indiana
Annapolis is an unincorporated community in Penn Township, Parke County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.
History
Annapolis was first settled in 1825 or 1826. It was platted on February 4, 1837, by settlers William Maris, Sr., and John Moulder. ...
, about 30 miles north of
Terre Haute
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...
. He was the elder of two sons of Gulielma (née Hollingsworth) and Horace Franklin Cannon, a country doctor. Horace Cannon drowned on August 7, 1851, when Joseph was fifteen years old as he tried to reach a sick patient by crossing Sugar Creek. Young Cannon took charge of the family farm. His brother William would become a successful banker and realtor.
Asked by Terre Haute politician and lawyer
John Palmer Usher
John Palmer Usher (January 9, 1816 – April 13, 1889) was an American administrator who served in the Cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.
Life and career
Born in Brookfield, New York, Usher trekked west in ...
, future
Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to:
* Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)
* Interior Secretary of Pakistan
* Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines)
* United States Secretary of the Interior
See also
*Interior ministry ...
under President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
, to testify in a slander case, Cannon became fascinated with the law. Eventually, he asked Usher if he could study law under him and moved to Terre Haute. At age 19 he traveled to
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, to attend a semester of law school at the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
law school. In 1858, he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Terre Haute, Indiana, but was disappointed when Usher refused to offer him a place in his office. That year he relocated to
Tuscola, Illinois
Tuscola is a city in Douglas County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,480 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Douglas County.
Geography
Tuscola is located at (39.797682, -88.281564).
According to the 2010 census, Tuscola ...
. His choice of a new hometown was somewhat involuntary, taking place while he was travelling from
Shelbyville, Illinois
Shelbyville is a city in and the county seat of Shelby County, Illinois, United States, along the Kaskaskia River. As of the 2020 census, the population was at 4,674. HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital, located in town, is the county's only hospital. S ...
, to Chicago to find more clients for his law firm. During the trip, he ran out of money. He boarded a Chicago-bound train in
Mattoon, Illinois
Mattoon ( ) is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 16,870 as of the 2020 census. The city is home to Lake Land College and has close ties with its neighbor, Charleston. Both are principal cities of the Charleston ...
; after the train had started, he was asked for his ticket. As Cannon did not have a ticket, he was removed from the train in Tuscola. There, he became
State's attorney for the twenty-seventh judicial district of Illinois, holding the position from March 1861 to December 1868. He was one of the charter members of Tuscola's Masonic Lodge No. 332, which was founded on October 2, 1860.
In 1876 Cannon moved to
Danville, Illinois
Danville is a city in and the county seat of Vermilion County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 33,027. As of 2019, the population was an estimated 30,479.
History
The area that is now Danville was once home to the Miami, K ...
, where he resided for the rest of his life. He and his wife Mary P. Reed, whom he married in 1862, had two daughters.
Political career
He became a follower of
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
during the
Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858. After Lincoln was elected
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
in
1860, Cannon received an appointment as a regional prosecutor. Cannon, a member of the
Republican Party, was elected to the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
from
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
to the 42nd and to the eight succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1891), and was the chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the
Post Office Department
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department, officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the postmas ...
(47th Congress) and of the Committee on Appropriations (51st Congress). Cannon was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in
1890
Events
January–March
* January 1
** The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony, in the Horn of Africa.
** In Michigan, the wooden steamer ''Mackinaw'' burns in a fire on the Black River.
* January 2
** The steamship ...
to the
52nd Congress
The 52nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1891, ...
, but was elected to the
53rd and to the nine succeeding Congresses that sat between 1893 and 1913.
He attempted to gain the Speakership four times before succeeding. His antic speaking style, diminutive stature and pugnacious manner were his trademarks. The newspapers frequently lampooned him as a colorful rube. "Uncle Joe", as he was known, often clashed with fellow Republican
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, asserting that Roosevelt "has no more use for the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
than a tomcat has for a marriage license".
Cannon was chairman to the
Committee on Appropriations
The United States House Committee on Appropriations is a committee of the United States House of Representatives that is responsible for passing appropriation bills along with its Senate counterpart. The bills passed by the Appropriations Commi ...
(
54th through
57th Congresses), Committee on Rules (
58th through
61st Congresses), and Speaker of the House of Representatives (58th through 61st Congresses). He received 58 votes for the
presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention at Chicago in
1908.
Speaker of the House
Cannon wielded the office of Speaker with unprecedented power. At the time of Cannon's election, the Speaker of the House concurrently held the chair of the
Rules Committee, which determined under what rules and restrictions bills could be debated, amended, and voted on, and, in some cases, whether they would be allowed on the floor at all. As such, Cannon effectively controlled every aspect of the House's agenda: bills reached the floor of the house only if Cannon approved of them, and then in whatever form he determined – with Cannon himself deciding whether and to what extent the measures could be debated and amended.
Cannon also reserved to himself the right to appoint not only the chairs of the various
House committees, but also all of the committees' members, and (despite the seniority system that had begun to develop) used that power to appoint his allies and proteges to leadership positions while punishing those who opposed his legislation. Crucially, Cannon exercised these powers to maintain discipline within the ranks of his own party: the Republicans were divided into the conservative "Old Guard," led by Cannon, and the progressives, led by President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
. His committee assignment privileges ensured that the party's Progressive element had little influence in the House, and his control over the legislative process obstructed progressive legislation.
Revolt
On March 17, 1910, after two failed attempts to curb Cannon's absolute power in the House,
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
Representative
George Norris led a coalition of 42 progressive Republicans and the entire delegation of 149
Democrats in a revolt. With many of Cannon's most powerful allies absent from the Chamber, but enough Members on hand for a
quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...
, Norris introduced a resolution that would remove the Speaker from the Rules Committee and strip him of his power to assign committees.
While his lieutenants and the House
sergeant-at-arms left the chamber to collect absent members in an attempt to rally enough votes for Cannon, the Speaker's allies initiated a legislative block in the form of a
point of order
In parliamentary procedure, a point of order occurs when someone draws attention to a rules violation in a meeting of a deliberative assembly.
Explanation and uses
In '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'' (RONR), a point of order may be ra ...
debate. When Cannon supporters proved difficult to find (many of the staunchest were Irish and spent the day at various
St. Patrick's Day celebrations), the filibuster continued for 26 hours, with Cannon's present friends making repeated motions for recess and adjournment. When Cannon finally ruled the resolution out of order at noon on March 19, Norris appealed the resolution to the full House, which voted to overrule Cannon and then to adopt the Norris resolution.
Cannon managed to save some face by promptly requesting a vote to remove him as Speaker, which he won handily since the Republican majority would not risk a Democratic speaker replacing him. However, his iron rule of the House was broken, and when the Democrats won control of the House in the
1910 midterm elections, the Republican caucus pushed Cannon from leadership altogether prior to the start of the
62nd Congress
The 62nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1911, to M ...
.
Cannon is the second-longest continuously serving Republican Speaker in history, having been surpassed by fellow Illinoisan
Dennis Hastert, who passed him on June 1, 2006.
File:Chase Wilson 02900v.jpg, Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
, Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
, Cannon, and Philander Chase Knox
Philander Chase Knox (May 6, 1853October 12, 1921) was an American lawyer, bank director and politician. A member of the Republican Party, Knox served in the Cabinet of three different presidents and represented Pennsylvania in the United Sta ...
on March 4, 1921
Image:Time Magazine - first cover.jpg, Cannon on ''Time'' magazine's first cover on March 3, 1923
Post-Speaker
Cannon was defeated in 1912 but returned in 1914 and was re-elected each congressional election until 1920. He was a critic of President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
and
U.S. entry into World War I. He was also an outspoken critic of Wilson's
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
.
Cannon declined to run in the 1922 congressional election, and retired at the end of his last term in 1923; he was featured on the cover of the first issue of ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine on the last day of his last term in office.
Cannon is the second longest-serving Republican Representative, surpassed only by
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
congressman
Don Young
Donald Edwin Young (June 9, 1933 – March 18, 2022) was an American politician from the state of Alaska. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving Republican in congressional history, having been the U.S. representative for for ...
, as well as the first member of Congress, of either party, ever to
surpass 40 years of service (non-consecutive). His congressional career spanned 46 years of cumulative service, a concurrent 50 years, bar two terms after which he came back—a record not broken until 1959. He is the longest-serving member ever of the House of Representatives in Illinois, although the longest continuous service belongs to
Adolph J. Sabath
Adolph Joachim Sabath (April 4, 1866 – November 6, 1952) was an American politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Chicago, Illinois, from 1907 until his death in Bethesda, Maryland on November 6, 1952. From 19 ...
. He served in the House during the terms of 11 presidents, a record he shares with
John Dingell
John David Dingell Jr. (July 8, 1926 – February 7, 2019) was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1955 until 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he holds the record for longes ...
and
Jamie Whitten.
Personal life
Born a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
, he became a
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
after leaving Congress. However, he may have been effectively a Methodist long before this. After marrying Mary Reed in a Methodist service in 1862, a Quaker encouraged him to express regret for this, to which Cannon replied, "If you mean that I am to get up in meeting and say that I am sorry I married Mary, I won't do it. I'm damned if I'm sorry and I'm damned if I will say I am." Joseph Cannon died in his residence in Danville,
Vermilion County, Illinois
Vermilion County is a County (United States), county in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Illinois, between the Indiana border and Champaign County, Illinois, Champaign County. It was established in 1826 and was the 45th of Illinois' 102 cou ...
. He had a weakened heart and also suffered from the general effects of old age. Cannon died at noon on Friday, November 12, 1926, while in a deep sleep.
He was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery.
Legacy
* Cannon brought a federal Veterans Administration Hospital to Danville; it continues to serve military veterans.
* The
first building of offices for congressmen outside of the
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...
building was named after Cannon.
* Cannon signed the
Sixteenth Amendment which established Congress' right to impose a federal income tax without apportionment among the states and without regard to any census or enumeration.
*
List of people on the cover of ''Time'' magazine (1920s), March 3, 1923
See also
*
1908 Republican National Convention
*
1908 United States presidential election
*
List of Republican National Conventions
This is a list of Republican National Conventions. The quadrennial convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States.
List of Republican National Conventions
Note: Conventions whose nominees won ...
References
Further reading
* Bolles, Blair. ''Tyrant from Illinois: Uncle Joe Cannon's Experiment with Personal Power'' (1951)
* Busbey, L. White.
Uncle Joe Cannon, The Story of a Pioneer American' (1927)—His (auto)biography
* Roger, Scott William. "Uncle Joe Cannon: The Brakeman of the House of Representatives, 1903–1911" in Raymond W Smock and Susan W Hammond, eds. ''Masters of the House: Congressional Leadership Over Two Centuries'' (1998), pp. 33–62
External links
* Th
Joseph Gurney Cannon Papersare housed at the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum documents the life of the 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln, and the course of the American Civil War. Combining traditional scholarship with 21st-century showmanship techniques, the museum ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cannon, Joseph Gurney
1836 births
1926 deaths
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 1908 United States presidential election
Conservatism in the United States
Converts to Methodism
Deans of the United States House of Representatives
Illinois lawyers
Indiana lawyers
People from Danville, Illinois
People from Guilford County, North Carolina
People from Parke County, Indiana
People from Tuscola, Illinois
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois
Speakers of the United States House of Representatives