U.S. Congresman Joseph Gurney Cannon, smoking a cigar, 1920.

Joseph Gurney Cannon (May 7, 1836-November 12, 1926) was a United States politician who served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1903 through 1911.

Joseph Cannon at the 1904 Republican Convention

He was born in Guilford, Guilford County, North Carolina, moved with his parents to Bloomingdale, Indiana, in 1840, where he completed preparatory studies and studied law at the Cincinnati Law School.

He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and commenced practice in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1858, he moved to Tuscola, Illinois, in 1859 he was State's attorney for the twenty-seventh judicial district of Illinois from March 1861 to December 1868.

Cannon, a member of the Republican Party, was elected as to the United States House of Representatives from Illinois to the Forty-third and to the eight succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 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 (March 4, 1893-March 3, 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). He received fifty-eight votes for the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1908.

In 1910 a political revolt in the House by both Democrats and dissatisfied Republicans stripped the Speaker of some of the great powers he hitherto wielded there, such as heading the House Rules Committee and ability to appoint members of other House committees.

Cannon was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912 to the Sixty-third Congress, but was elected to the Sixty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1915-March 3, 1923). Cannon declined renomination for Congress at the end of the Sixty-seventh Congress and retired from public life.

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

His autobiography, Uncle Joe Cannon, was published the year after his death.

The first building of offices for congressmen outside of the United States Capitol building was named after Cannon.