James Cannon Jr. (November 13, 1864 – September 6, 1944) was an American

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...

, elected in 1918. He was a prominent leader in the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

in the United States in the 1920s, until derailed by scandal.

H. L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...

said in 1934: "Six years ago he was the undisputed boss of the United States.

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was his troop of

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, and Presidents trembled whenever his name was mentioned.... But since that time there has been a violent revolution, and his whole world is in collapse."

Birth and family

Cannon was born on November 13, 1864, in

Salisbury, Maryland Salisbury ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. Salisbury is the largest city in Eastern Shore of Maryland, the state's Eastern Shore region, with a population of 33,050 at the 2020 United States census ...

, the son of James and Lydia R. (Pimrose) Cannon. He married Miss Lura Virginia Bennett of

Louisa County, Virginia Louisa County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,596. The county seat is Louisa. History Prior to colonial settlement, the area comprising Louisa County was occupied by sever ...

, on August 1, 1888, who was the daughter of William W. Bennett, President of Randolph-Macon College from 1877 to 1886.

Education

Cannon was educated in the schools of Salisbury. He earned his A.B. degree from

Randolph–Macon College Randolph–Macon College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Ashland, Virginia. Founded in 1830, the college has an enrollment of more than 1,500 students. It is the second-oldest M ...

in 1884. He earned his A.M. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1889. The degree of

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (academic discipline), divinity (i.e., Christian theology and Christian ministry, ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the Englis ...

was conferred upon Cannon in 1903 by Randolph-Macon College. Princeton University awarded him an honorary D.D. degree.

Ordained ministry

Cannon was admitted on trial by the

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

Annual Conference of the M.E. Church, South in 1888. He served the following appointments: Charlotte Circuit (1888–89),

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the fifth-most populous city in Virginia and 140th-most populous city i ...

(1889–91) and

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(1891–94). He then became the Principal of the Blackstone Female Institute (1894-1911), and of the Blackstone College for Girls (1914-1918). He also served as the editor of the ''Baltimore-Richmond Christian Advocate,'' a periodical of his denomination, beginning in 1904. Cannon also was the Secretary of Education of his annual conference for some years.

Temperance Movement

Cannon was the Superintendent of the Virginia State Anti-Saloon League, beginning in 1909, as well as Legislative Superintendent of the

Anti-Saloon League The Anti-Saloon League, now known as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems, is an organization of the temperance movement in the United States. Founded in 1893 in Oberlin, Ohio, it was a key component of the Progressive Era, an ...

of America. His appointment as bishop in 1918 gave him nationwide influence as he worked zealously to achieve national prohibition through the Eighteenth Amendment. After the death of Anti-Saloon League leader

Wayne Wheeler Wayne Bidwell Wheeler (November 10, 1869 – September 5, 1927) was an American attorney and longtime leader of the Anti-Saloon League. The leading advocate of the prohibitionist movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s, he played a majo ...

in 1927, Cannon, chairman of the Methodist Board of Temperance and Social Service, emerged as the most powerful leader of the

in the United States.

Virginia politics

Cannon worked closely with the "Ring," the dominant conservative faction in Virginia politics, headed by Senator Thomas Staples Martin. The Ring dropped its opposition to prohibition and allowed the state to go dry in 1915, Cannon's first great triumph. Senator

Carter Glass Carter Glass (January 4, 1858 – May 28, 1946) was an American newspaper publisher and Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician from Lynchburg, Virginia, Lynchburg, Virginia. He represented Virginia in both houses of United Stat ...

became his bitter enemy and started finding irregularities in the bishop's finances, discovering that Cannon, while president of Blackstone College (a small private girls' school in Virginia), had purchased a large quantity of flour in 1917 and, taking advantage of wartime shortages, had resold it not long after at a considerable profit shortly after he became bishop in 1918. Glass kept the information secret. Cannon's national activities in the 1920s reduced his visibility and power in Virginia. In 1921, the old Ring dissolved, replaced by the "

Byrd Organization The Byrd machine, or Byrd Organization, was a political machine of the Democratic Party led by former Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd (1887–1966) that dominated Virginia politics for much of the 20th century. From the 1890s until the ...

" of Harry Flood Byrd, Sr., which controlled the state for decades. When the 1928 Democratic Convention chose wet leader Alfred E. Smith for president, Cannon was outraged at this "betrayal" of the dry cause, and helped organize the Anti-Smith Democratic movement in the South. Cannon strongly criticized Smith, calling him "the Cocktail President", who lived in the "sneering, ridiculing, nullifying...foreign-populated city of New York." Soon Virginia and

upper South The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, economics, demographics, ...

states were leaning toward Republican

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

and he did carry them. However, the new Virginia machine led by Byrd and Glass supported Smith and decided Cannon had to be destroyed for ruining party unity in the

Solid South The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the aftermath of the Co ...

. Glass sent investigators to look into Cannon's financial dealings. Cannon, who had never been a candidate for political office, assumed Hoover's victory in Virginia made the state ripe for himself, and spread rumors he would challenge Glass for the Senate seat. He supported a coalition of Anti-Smith Democrats and Republicans to win the governorship for Dr. William Moseley Brown of Washington and Lee College.

Personality and character

One biographer described Cannon as an unpleasant and deceitful person. Although he "loved power and prestige, profit and pleasure," Cannon was a distant, dour, and aloof individual. One Anti-saloon League colleague described him as "cold as a snake"; and another, after working closely with Cannon for forty years, reported having never seen him laugh and rarely seen him even smile. Glass released information that Cannon had been engaged in shady or illegal

stock market A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange a ...

manipulations. Fellow bishops called for a church investigation. Reports that he had used Methodist church money to support the anti-Smith Democrats in 1928 led to federal investigations. Although Cannon proclaimed his innocence, the disclosure of the wartime hoarding meant that the charges were mounting faster than his friends could deny them. Cannon's preferred candidate was defeated in the contest for the Virginia governorship; meanwhile, Glass kept pushing for more action. In 1930, the bishops decided to bring Cannon to trial before a church court, which voted to find him not guilty by a vote of 54 to 11. Then the national newspapers published private letters between Cannon and his secretary showing they were having an affair before his first wife died. The bishops reopened the case and the church again voted not to convict its bishop, this time from the adultery charges. Still, Cannon was not out of legal trouble. In October 1931, a federal grand jury brought criminal charges against Cannon for violating federal election laws, alleging he borrowed $65,000 for the campaign but kept $48,000 for himself. After a complex series of trials and appeals Cannon was found not guilty in 1934, but the revelations had destroyed his reputation. The highly publicized episodes left Cannon's reputation ruined and helped discredit the prohibition movement as immoral, contributing to the repeal of prohibition.

Death and burial

Cannon died September 6, 1944, in Chicago and is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

Notes

References

* ''The New Bishops'' in Christian Advocate (May 24, 1918), Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, South, p. 56

* Dabney, Virginius. ''Dry Messiah: The Life Of Bishop James Cannon Jr.'' (1949) * Robert A. Hohner, ''Prohibition and Politics: The Life of Bishop James Cannon Jr.'' (1998) * Kyvig, David. ''Repealing National Prohibition''. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979. * Michael S. Patterson, "The Fall of a Bishop: James Cannon Jr. Versus Carter Glass, 1909-1934," ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 39, No. 4 (Nov., 1973), pp. 493–51
online at JSTOR

External links

Biography
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cannon, James Jr. American Methodist bishops Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South American temperance activists Editors of Christian publications 1864 births 1944 deaths Burials at Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia) 20th-century Methodist bishops Virginia Democrats People from Salisbury, Maryland Randolph–Macon College alumni Princeton University alumni