| George Q. Cannon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First Counselor in theFirst Presidency | |
| September 13, 1898 (1898-09-13) – April 12, 1901 (1901-04-12) | |
| Called by | Lorenzo Snow |
| First Counselor in the First Presidency | |
| April 7, 1889 (1889-04-07) – September 2, 1898 (1898-09-02) | |
| Called by | Wilford Woodruff |
| End reason | Dissolution of First Presidency upon death of Wilford Woodruff |
| Quorum of the Twelve Apostles | |
| July 25, 1887 (1887-07-25) – April 7, 1889 (1889-04-07) | |
| End reason | Called as First Counselor in the First Presidency |
| First Counselor in the First Presidency | |
| October 10, 1880 (1880-10-10) – July 25, 1887 (1887-07-25) | |
| Called by | John Taylor |
| End reason | Dissolution of First Presidency upon death of John Taylor |
| Quorum of the Twelve Apostles | |
| August 29, 1877 (1877-08-29) – October 10, 1880 (1880-10-10) | |
| End reason | Called as First Counselor in the First Presidency |
| Assistant Counselor in the First Presidency | |
| May 9, 1874 (1874-05-09) – August 29, 1877 (1877-08-29) | |
| Called by | Brigham Young |
| End reason | Dissolution of First Presidency upon death of Brigham Young |
| Counselor in the First Presidency | |
| June 8, 1873 (1873-06-08) – May 9, 1874 (1874-05-09) | |
| Called by | Brigham Young |
| End reason | Called as Assistant Counselor in the First Presidency |
| Quorum of the Twelve Apostles | |
| August 26, 1860 (1860-08-26) – June 8, 1873 (1873-06-08) | |
| Called by | Brigham Young |
| End reason | Called as Counselor in the First Presidency |
| LDS ChurchApostle | |
| August 26, 1860 (1860-08-26) – April 12, 1901 (1901-04-12) | |
| Called by | Brigham Young |
| Reason | Death ofParley P. Pratt |
| Reorganization at end of term | Rudger Clawson added to First Presidency[1] |
| Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives fromUtah Territory'sat-large district | |
| In office | |
| March 4, 1873 – February 25, 1882 | |
| Predecessor | William Henry Hooper |
| Successor | John T. Caine |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George Quayle Cannon (1827-01-11)January 11, 1827 Liverpool,England,United Kingdom |
| Died | April 12, 1901(1901-04-12) (aged 74) Monterey, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Salt Lake City Cemetery 40°46′37.92″N111°51′28.8″W / 40.7772000°N 111.858000°W /40.7772000; -111.858000 (Salt Lake City Cemetery) |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Hoagland Sarah Jane Jenne Eliza L. Tenney Martha Telle Emily Hoagland Caroline Young |
| Children | 43 |
| Parents | George Cannon Ann Quayle |
| Relatives | AmbassadorCavendish W. Cannon (Grandson) |
| Signature | |
.png) | |
George Quayle Cannon (January 11, 1827 – April 12, 1901) was an early member of theQuorum of the Twelve Apostles ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and served in theFirst Presidency under four successivepresidents of the church:Brigham Young,John Taylor,Wilford Woodruff, andLorenzo Snow. He was the church's chief political strategist, and was dubbed "the Mormon premier" and "the MormonRichelieu" by the press. He was also a five-timeUtah territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress.
Cannon was born inLiverpool,England, to George Cannon and Ann Quayle, the eldest of six children. His mother and father were from Peel on theIsle of Man. His father's sister, Leonora Cannon, had married future Latter Day Saintapostle John Taylor and was baptized in 1836. News reached the elder George Cannon and four years later, when Taylor came to Liverpool, the entire Cannon family wasbaptized into theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; George Q. Cannon was 13 years old at the time. Cannon's siblings were Mary Alice Cannon (Lambert), Ann Cannon (Woodbury),Angus M. Cannon, David H. Cannon, and Leonora Cannon (Gardner). In 1842, the Cannon family set sail for the United States to join with the church inNauvoo, Illinois. On the voyage over the Atlantic Ocean, Cannon's mother died. The motherless family arrived safely in Nauvoo in the spring of 1843. George Sr. married Mary Edwards in 1844 and had another daughter, Elizabeth Cannon (Piggott).
In Nauvoo, Cannon's father sent him to live with his uncle and aunt, John and Leonora Taylor. Cannon worked in the printing office of theTimes and Seasons and theNauvoo Neighbor for Taylor, who was an editor of both periodicals. In June 1844, Taylor accompaniedJoseph Smith,Hyrum Smith, andWillard Richards and others toCarthage Jail. There, Joseph and Hyrum werekilled, and Taylor sustained serious bullet wounds. Cannon tended the printing affairs while Taylor recovered. This training would serve him well in later life.[2] Cannon's father died in 1845.
In 1846, Taylor traveled to England to organize the affairs of the church after Smith's death. Meanwhile, Cannon accompanied Taylor's wife and family as they moved toWinter Quarters, Nebraska. When Taylor returned, Cannon traveled with the entire Taylor family to theSalt Lake Valley, arriving in October 1847.
In 1849, Cannon was asked by church president Brigham Young to serve as amissionary for the church in California. This assignment involved working the mines and attempting to preach the gospel to gold miners. After doing this for several months Cannon and several other mining missionaries were asked to head to theKingdom of Hawaii, where he served for four years.
Initially the missionaries in Hawaii focused on teaching European and Euro-Americans in the islands. Cannon was the first missionary to focus on teaching natives on the island ofMaui. While in the islands, Cannon taught and baptized many Native Hawaiians. He also organized multiple branches of the church and on occasions met with government ministers of the Kingdom of Hawaii to get the church recognition.[3] One of the most notable wasJonatana Napela, who assisted Cannon in translating theBook of Mormon intoHawaiian.Joseph F. Smith, a future church president, would follow Cannon and serve in Hawaii one year later. Cannon eventually was madedistrict president over multiple branches in Maui. By October 1852 there were slightly over 900 members of the LDS Church in Hawaii with most on the island of Maui.[4]
Returning toUtah Territory, Cannon married Elizabeth Hoagland (daughter ofAbraham Hoagland and his wife.) He was almost immediately called to assistapostleParley P. Pratt in publishing a newspaper inCalifornia. Meeting Pratt in California, Cannon was told that he would remain behind and becamepresident of the church's Oregon and CaliforniaMission; he held this position from 1856 to 1858. During this period of time, Cannon published the Hawaiian translation of the Book of Mormon. In February 1856, he started theWestern Standard, a weekly publication based in San Francisco.
Returning to Utah in 1857 to assist in theUtah War, Cannon was commissioned aLieutenant General in theNauvoo Legion. During this time, Cannon served as printer of theDeseret News while it was publishing in exile inFillmore, Utah.[2] After the Utah War, he was called as president of the church's Eastern States Mission.
The murder ofParley P. Pratt in 1857 created a vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That vacancy was not filled until Brigham Young called Cannon to the apostleship three years later. Cannon was ordained to thepriesthood office of apostle on August 26, 1860, at age 33. Upon his joining the Quorum of the Twelve, Cannon was called to preside over the church's EuropeanMission.
Cannon's mission in Europe ended when he was recalled by Young in 1862 to work inWashington, D.C., to assist in the church's promotion of Utah Territory's bid for statehood. At the adjournment of the 1862congressional session,[5] Cannon again left for Europe to preside over the mission. In this capacity, Cannon was the editor of theMillennial Star and, for a short time, the church'sWelsh-language periodical,Udgorn Seion.
From 1867 to 1874, Cannon was the managing editor of theDeseret News.[2] It was under his direction that the newspaper was first published on a daily basis.
In 1866, Cannon began publication of a magazine for youth and young adult Latter-day Saints calledThe Juvenile Instructor. He owned and published this magazine until his death; in 1901 his family sold the magazine to the LDS Church'sSunday School organization. The periodical was the official organ of the Sunday School until 1930, when it was replaced withThe Instructor. Cannon also served as the first general superintendent of the church's Sunday School from 1867 until his death.
On April 8, 1873, Cannon became a member of the church's First Presidency when he was called as an assistant counselor by Brigham Young.[6] Cannon went on to serve as counselor to three more presidents of the church: he was First Counselor to John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow.
Although Cannon was the second-most senior apostle of the church after the death of Woodruff, Cannon did not becomePresident of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as would be the practice in the LDS Church today. Rather, because Cannon was a member of the First Presidency, the church simply appointed the next senior apostle of the church—Brigham Young Jr.—to be the quorum president. (Under today's practices, Cannon would have been appointed the president of the quorum and Young would have been appointedacting president.)
Cannon was elected to be the non-voting delegate for Utah Territory in the United States Congress in 1872. He remained a congressional delegate until 1882, when his seat was declared vacant by the enactment of theEdmunds Act, which terminated many political and civil rights for Utah'sMormon polygamists.
By 1880, Cannon had served four terms in Congress as Utah territorial delegate.
The newly appointedanti-Mormon[7] territorialgovernor,Eli Houston Murray, openly supported theLiberal Party, which generally opposed church candidates. The 1880 territory-wide election for a congressional delegate brought the Liberal Party unexpectedly close to sending a representative to Washington, DC. The Liberal candidate,Allen G. Campbell, with 1357 votes, lost resoundingly to Cannon, who had 18,567 votes. However, before Governor Murray certified the election, a protest on behalf of Campbell was filed. The protest listed a dozen claims, chiefly that Cannon, born in England, was not anaturalized citizen but analien. The protest also claimed that Cannon's participation in polygamy was incompatible with federal law and a delegate's oath of office. Murray agreed and issued certification to Campbell, in spite of his poor showing.
Cannon, in Washington at the time, argued that onlyCongress could decide on a member's qualifications. He furthermore received a certificate from sympathetic territorial election officials that stated he had received the most votes. That document convinced theHouse of Representatives clerk to enter Cannon's name on the roll and so Cannon began drawing the delegate's salary.
Both Murray and Campbell traveled to Washington to dispute the seat. Each side battled over the position for over a year, even after the assassination ofPresidentJames Garfield. On February 25, 1882, the House of Representatives finally rejected both candidates. The House refused Cannon his seat on the basis of his involvement in polygamy. In the end, the House seatedJohn T. Caine as the Delegate during the47th Congress. Caine went on to serve for several years.
The issue brought unfavorable national attention to Utah, which contributed to theEdmunds Act being signed into law on March 23, 1882. The act reinforced the 1862Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act by declaring polygamy a felony and also revoked polygamists'right to vote, made them ineligible forjury service, and prohibited them from holdingpolitical office.
Cannon practicedplural marriage and was married to six women.[8] Cannon frequently spoke in justification of the practice.
When the Supreme Court upheld the ban on plural marriage in the 1879Reynolds v. United States decision, Cannon stated:
Our crime has been: We married women instead of seducing them; we reared children instead of destroying them; we desired to exclude from the land prostitution, bastardy and infanticide. If George Reynolds [the man who was convicted of committing bigamy] is to be punished, let the world know the facts. ... Let it be published to the four corners of the earth that in this land of liberty, the most blessed and glorious upon which the sun shines, the law is swiftly invoked to punish religion, but justice goes limping and blindfolded in pursuit of crime.[9]
Eventually, Cannon went "underground" with others in the church leadership as a fugitive from the federal authorities. In September 1888, Cannon surrendered himself and pleaded guilty at trial to charges of unlawfulcohabitation under theEdmunds Act. As a result, Cannon served nearly six months in Utah'sfederal penitentiary.[10]
In the string of events precedingthe announcement of Wilford Woodruff in September, 1890 that the church would not sanction additional polygamist marriages, Cannon's sonFrank shuttled communications relating to polygamy between the US Congress and his father.[11]
Cannon was pardoned in 1894 by U.S. PresidentGrover Cleveland.[12]
Cannon died on April 12, 1901, inMonterey, California, at 74 years of age. Had he lived a few months longer, he would have become the President of the LDS Church: Lorenzo Snow died on October 10 of that year. Cannon was buried in theSalt Lake City Cemetery.
Cannon fathered 33 children, some of whom areAbraham H. Cannon,John Q. Cannon, andSylvester Q. Cannon, who all becamegeneral authorities of the LDS Church;Frank J. Cannon, Utah's firstU.S. Senator; andLewis T. Cannon andGeorgius Y. Cannon, prominent architects in Utah. Some of Cannon's prominentdescendants includeHoward Cannon,U.S. Senator fromNevada from 1959 to 1983 andChris Cannon, a member of theU.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2009. Another descendant,George I. Cannon, became a general authority of the church.
AtBYU football games, the BYU ROTC celebrates touchdowns with cannon named "George Q" to honor him.[13]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)[T]heCullom-Struble Bill . . . was on its way to passage when powerful Republican party leaderJames G. Blaine intervened to at least postpone it, with the stipulation that church leaders alter their stance on plural marriage. There was some indirect communication between Blaine and a former congressional friend, George Q. Cannon, First Counselor in the presidency of the LDS Church, through the latter's politically active son, Frank J. Cannon.
Media related toGeorge Q. Cannon at Wikimedia Commons
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives fromUtah Territory 1873-1882 | Succeeded by |
| The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints titles | ||
| Preceded by | First Counselor in theFirst Presidency September 13, 1898 – April 21, 1901 April 7, 1889 – September 2, 1898 October 10, 1880 – July 25, 1887 Note: position was vacant between date | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Quorum of the Twelve Apostles August 26, 1860 – 1873 | Succeeded by |
| Territorial (1851–1895) |
|   | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oneat-large seat (1895–1913) |
| ||||||||
| Two at-large seats (1913–1915) |
| ||||||||
| Districts (1915–present) (3rd district established in 1983) (4th district established in 2013) |
| ||||||||
| | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
