Tar
Нек.
History
By Scott Smith
Uncle Joe
Born near Greensboro in 1836. Joseph Gurney Cannon went
on to become one of the most powerful speakers the l J.S.
House of Representatives has ever known.
Wiih all of ihc hullabaloo
surrounding the emer¬
gence of new U.S. House
Speaker Newt Gingrich, how many
North Carolinians recall that the last
Republican Speaker of the I louse to
wield such power was a native Tar
Heel?
Joseph Gurney Cannon, better
known as “Uncle Joe" during his 46
years in the United Stales House of
Representatives, was born in New
Garden (now Guilford College),
Guilford County on May 7. 1836, to
a family of Quakers. His father.
I lorace Franklin Cannon, a country
doctor and one of the founders of
Guilford College, decided the Can¬
nons should join the migration of
the state’s Quaker colonies west-
warti when young Joe was 6.
Opposed to slavery and wary that
the issue would lead to armed con¬
flict, the Cannons traveled all the
way to Indiana, finally settling in the
timber belt along the Wabash River.
When Joe was 14. his father
drowned in a flooded creek on the
way to see a patient. Cannon quick- J0"* Camon had a W 0,1 ,he n,le °f'he US
Iv assumed leadership of the family
household, getting a job as a clerk in a
country store at a salary of $150 a year.
That eagerness for leadership was a qual¬
ity he would demonstrate with authority
years later.
Cannon began his political career in
1860 as a district attorney in Coles Coun¬
ty. Illinois. In 1872, he was elected to his
first term in the L'.S. House of Repre¬
sentatives. That same year, perhaps not
coincidentally. Vesuvius had one of its
worst eruptions.
Cannon burst onto the House scene,
making a name for himself with his
homespun country humor and wind¬
mill-like gestures during speeches on the
floor. I le was not a polished orator, but
his forthrightness and down-home
demeanor earned him immediate
notice, according to Mr. Speaker by Booth
Mooney.
In William S. Powell's Dictionary oj
North Carolina Biography. Roy Parker Jr.
writes that Cannon "epitomized a cer¬
tain style of congressional behavior: the
man of pungent language, rough man¬
ners. decidedly illiberal views and auto¬
cratic parliamentary authority." Despite
his authoritarian style, he was personal¬
ly very popular among both Democrats
and Republicans during his almost half-
century on Capitol Hill.
Cannon championed the rural issues
of his home in Danville, Illinois. I le was
most proud of a bill he pushed through
requiring magazine and newspaper pub¬
lishers to prepay postage. At the time,
each of the 33.000 postmasters in the
country had the responsibility lor col¬
lecting postage from individual sub¬
scribers. Cannon's constituents loved
him for it. He also endeared himself to
farmers by engineering a bill that
allowed members
к»
mail seeds to con¬
stituents postage-free.
While debating the seeds bill.
Representative Walter Phelps of
New Jersey suggested that "the
gentleman from Illinois must
have oats in his pocket." Can¬
non replied. “Yes! I have oats in
my pocket and hayseed in my
hair, and the Western people
generally arc affected the same
way. And we expect that the
seed, being good, will yield a
good crop."
I louse members laughed and
applauded Cannon, causing
Phelps to say later that "hayseed
glowed around his head like a
halo."
Such episodes won Cannon
fr iendship and respect from
both sides of the aisle, so much
so that he was elec ted speaker
in 1903. 31 years after he had
first entered Congress. Inter¬
estingly. he was defeated for re-
election in his district in the
Democratic landslide of 1890,
but won his seat back two years
later. Winning the speakership
in 1908 in his second attempt
was sweet redemption, so sweet
that he quickly moved to make
sure everyone knew who was in charge.
The House was gripped tightly under
Cannon's rule. Legislation did not see¬
the light of day without his approval.
Members would not be recognized on
the floor without first consulting with
the speaker beforehand. Even then, they
might not be recognized if they
broached a subject the sh aker himself
did not agree with, such as free trade. A
conservative isolationist. Cannon stood
for the status quo and bristled whenever
it was challenged by regulation. "Every¬
thing is all right out West and around
Danville." he liked to say. The country
don't need no legislation."
During his eight years as speaker, few
dared to cross him. Gaining Cannon's
House.
PT»«o N C On n>« id Arvhno ml HiKny
The State/April 1995
31
