Joseph Bernard Shannon (March 17, 1867 – March 28, 1943) was an American Democratic

political boss In the politics of the United States of America, a boss is a person who controls a faction or local branch of a political party. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves; most historical bosses did not, at least during the times of th ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, who was a rival to the more dominant

James Pendergast James Francis Pendergast (January 27, 1856 – November 10, 1911) was a Democratic politician and the first Big City Boss of Kansas City, Missouri. He rose to prominence in the West Bottoms as the proprietor of saloons and gambling establishme ...

political machine in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries.

Early life

Joseph Bernard Shannon was born on March 17, 1867, in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, and moved in his youth to

Girard, Kansas Girard is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Kansas, Crawford County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,496. History Girard was founded in the spring o ...

. His father died in Girard from an accident. He moved to

, in 1879 where he was a constable and a city-market master, and he attended night school at Central High School and Spalding Business College. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1905.

Career

Shannon began to practice law in Kansas City. His faction was called the "rabbits" because its power base derived from those who lived along the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

and the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a meandering river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is potentially the southwestern most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is sometimes in turn the northwesternmost portion of ...

. His rival were the "goats" and derived power from those living in the hills of Kansas City and was headed by

and upon his retirement sometime in 1910, his brother

Tom Pendergast Thomas Joseph Pendergast (July 22, 1872 – January 26, 1945), also known as T. J. Pendergast, was an American political boss who controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, from 1925 to 1939. Pendergast only briefly held elected ...

. Shannon and the Pendergasts were all members of the Democratic Party but frequently clashed in local elections, either directly or through supported candidates on issues such as

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

, the influence of saloon-owners in local politics, and the Democratic Party's nominee for Kansas City's mayoral and

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

races. The "rabbits" and the "goats" shared control over the Kansas City Democrats in an agreement they called "Fifty-Fifty": each faction would nominate half of the Democratic candidates for local offices. If there was disagreement between the factions as to whose candidate should run in an office, they would each nominate a candidate for the

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

and then respect the results of the vote. This scheme allowed the "goats" and "rabbits" to maintain relatively equal control over the Kansas City Democrats until Shannon's faction was relegated to a minor role after Pendergast successfully urged his followers to vote against Democratic candidates that were not backed by his

political machine In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership c ...

in the 1916 Kansas City local elections; going as far as openly supporting Nonpartisan candidates for alderman and council positions. Pendergast-backed candidates won five

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

seats, with Republicans winning the remainder. This result confirmed that Pendergast's faction had control over the party's future. Shannon was chairman of the Democratic State Convention in 1910; delegate to the

Democratic National Conventions The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

in 1908, 1912, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, and 1940; and member of the Missouri Constitutional Conventions in 1922 and 1923. He was elected as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

to the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

, serving from March 4, 1931, to January 3, 1943. Shannon was known as a scholar of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

and would speak about his life and his teachings.

Personal life

Shannon married Celia J. Hutawa on November 22, 1892. They had two children, Frank and Mrs. John F. Deveney. Shannon died on March 28, 1943, in Kansas City following a heart ailment and pneumonia. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City.

References

External links

* 1867 births 1943 deaths Politicians from St. Louis Pendergast era Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri People from Girard, Kansas 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives {{Missouri-politician-stub