Cannon, Joseph G (Gurney) (1836-1926)

US Republican representative. A conservative congressman for Illinois 1873-91, 1893-1913, and again 1917-23, he chaired the Committee on Appropriations; he offended fellow committee members by putting through a $50,000 national defence bill in 1898 for President McKinley without consulting them.

He was born in New Garden, North Carolina. A country lawyer with only six months of law school, as state's attorney in Danville, Illinois(1861-68) he dismissed a charge of theft against Lincoln's stepmother. He voted against appropriations for the Civil Service Act in 1882 and was a minority member of the Committee on Rules. Elected Speaker of the House (1903-11), he began ‘cannonizing’ procedures to benefit Republicans. In 1910, Democrats and Republicans were finally able to break his arbitrary control of the Rules Committee.His racy language and uncouth manners earned him the nickname ‘Uncle Joe’.