Frank J. Cannon

Utah's path to statehood was the most tortuousin U.S. history, due in no small part to theMormon practice of polygamy. Frank J. Cannon,newspaperman, Congressional delegate, and senator,guided Utah toward becoming the forty-fifth state inthe Union in 1896. But when he lost favor with theLDS Church, his contributions fell into obscurity.In the 1880s, Congress dealt with the intransigenceof the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints overpolygamy by enacting punitive new laws. Mormonlobbyists who pleaded for relief in Washington camehome empty-handed before Cannon finally broke thelogjam. He persuaded President Grover Clevelandto appoint judges who would deal mercifully withconvicted polygamists and dissuaded Congressfrom disenfranchising all members by pledgingthat the church would abandon polygamy.But when Utah elected Mormon apostle Reed Smoot to the U.S. Senate in 1903, Cannon condemnedwhat he called the reneging of LDS Church pledges tostay out of politics. He wrote scathing denunciationsof Smoot and Mormon president Joseph F. Smith,co-authored the exposÉ Under the Prophet in Utah,and spearheaded the National Reform Association'santi-Mormon crusade. Utah's subsequent displeasurewith Cannon ensured that his critical role inits statehood would be buried by omission.