Joseph Gurney Cannon - Personal Life

Personal Life

Born a Quaker, he became a Methodist after leaving Congress. However, he may have been effectively a Methodist long before this. After marrying Mary Reed in a Methodist service in 1862, a Quaker encouraged him to express regret for this, to which Cannon replied, "If you mean that I am to get up in meeting and say that I am sorry I married Mary, I won't do it. I'm damned if I'm sorry and I'm damned if I will say I am." Joseph Cannon died in his residence in Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. He had a weakened heart and also suffered from the general effects of old age. Cannon died at noon on November 12, 1926 while in a deep sleep. He was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery.

Read more about this topic:  Joseph Gurney Cannon

Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:

    I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can to save the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more—the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort—to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires—and expires, too soon, too soon—before life itself.
    Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)