Utah Westerners

March Announcement for the Utah Westerners

March 8, 2013 at 7:15 pm kenttschanz Leave a comment

“THE MODERN MORMON KINGDOM:”

FRANK J. CANNON’S NATIONAL CAMPAIGN

AGAINST MORMONISM, 1910-1918

 KENNETH L. CANNON II 

The story of Frank J. Cannon, up to the time he published Under the Prophet in Utah: The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft as a book in 1911, is well known by Utah history buffs. Frank was the talented son of George Q. Cannon, prominent Mormon Church, political, and business leader. Controversy surrounded Frank from an early age—he was first jailed for leading a group of Cannon sons and cousins in mugging federal prosecutor, William Dickson, who had reportedly treated one of George Q.’s wives impolitely. Frank was a binge drinker with a penchant for visiting prostitutes while under the influence and even fathered an illegitimate son. And yet, the LDS Church’s First Presidency still utilized Frank’s extraordinary abilities by having him serve as their agent in political and financial matters for most of the 1890s. He was elected as one of Utah’s first two U. S. Senators, but was not re-elected amid controversy over his opposition to the Dingley tariff bill and changing political parties. After his father’s death in 1901, Frank’s festering feud with Church president, Joseph F. Smith, erupted into full-scale war. Cannon attacked Smith from the editorial pages of the Salt Lake Tribune and Smith had Cannon excommunicated from the Mormon Church in early 1905.

Sometime after moving to Denver, Cannon became managing editor of the Rocky Mountain News. While there, he met Harvey J. O’Higgins, a talented New York muckraker, and the two collaborated on Under the Prophet in Utah. This launched Frank into a successful career as a Chataqua and Lyceum lecturer during which he frightened well over a million Americans with stories of the evils of the Mormons and their Prophet in his lecture entitled “The Modern Mormon Kingdom.” He was certainly the most eloquent and likely the most effective anti-Mormon agitator in LDSChurch history. It is this portion of Frank Cannon’s colorful life that Ken Cannon will discuss.

Utah Westerner, Ken Cannon, a Salt Lake City attorney with three degrees from BYU, served for several years as Adjunct Faculty at BYU and is currently in a similar position at the University of Utah’s law school. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles (including some which won awards) published in a variety of academic journals including the Utah Historical Quarterly, BYU Studies, Journal of Mormon History, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Several have focused on Frank J. Cannon and other members of the Cannon family. One, which bears the same title as that of this presentation, appeared in the Journal of Mormon History in 2011.

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