Joseph G(urney) Cannon - Early life

US representative, born in New Garden, North Carolina, USA. A country lawyer with only six months of law school, as state's attorney in Danville, IL (1861–8) he dismissed a charge of theft against Lincoln's stepmother. A conservative Republican congressman (Illinois, 1873–91), his racy language and uncouth manners earned him his nickname. He voted against appropriations for the Civil Service Act in 1882 and was a minority member of the Committee on Rules. Defeated in 1890, he returned to the House (1893–1913) and chaired the Committee on Appropriations, offending fellow committee members by putting through a $50 000 national defence bill in 1898 for President McKinley without consulting them. Elected Speaker of the House (1903–11), he began ‘cannonising’ procedures to benefit Republicans. When congressmen protested, he responded by keeping them off desirable committees. In 1910, Democrats and Republicans led by Champ Clark were finally able to break his arbitrary control of the Rules Committee, but he remained in the House until 1913, then returned in his eighties (1917–23).

Joseph Gurney Cannon
40th United States Speaker of the House
In office
January 6, 1903 – 1911
Preceded by	David B. Henderson
Succeeded by	Champ Clark
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 14th district
Term of office: 1873 - 1891 1893 - 1913 1915 - 1923
Political party:	Republican
Preceded by:	John Lourie Beveridge
Succeeded by:	Samuel T. Fuller(1923)
Born:	May 7, 1836 Guilford County, North Carolina
Died:	November 12, 1926 Danville, Illinois

Joseph Gurney Cannon (May 7, 1836 – November 12, 1926) was a United States politician from Illinois and leader of the Republican Party.

Early life

He was born in Guilford, Guilford County, North Carolina, moved with his parents to Bloomingdale, Indiana, in 1840, about 30 miles north of Terre Haute, Indiana.

Asked by Terre Haute lawyer John Palmer Usher to testify in a slander case, Cannon became fascinated with the law.

Cannon, a member of the Republican Party, was elected as to the United States House of Representatives from Illinois to the Forty-second and to the eight succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1873–March 4, 1891), and was the chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Forty-seventh Congress), Committee on Appropriations (Fifty-first Congress).

He moved to Danville, Illinois, in 1878, and was unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress, but was elected to the Fifty-third and to the nine succeeding Congresses 1893 to 1913.

"Uncle Joe" as he was known often clashed with fellow Republican Theodore Roosevelt, who Cannon remarked had "no more use for the Constitution than a tomcat has for a marriage license".

Joseph was chairman to the Committee on Appropriations (Fifty-fourth through Fifty-seventh Congresses), Committee on Rules (Fifty-eighth through Sixty-first Congresses), and Speaker of the House of Representatives (Fifty-eighth through Sixty-first Congresses).

In 1910 an Insurgent revolt flared in the House as both Democrats and dissatisfied Republicans stripped the Speaker of some of his powers, such as heading the House Rules Committee and ability to appoint members of other House committees.

Joseph Cannon died in Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, with an interment in Spring Hill Cemetery.