Quote#Politics & Power
I would rather quit public life at seventy, and quit it forever, than…
Quote byJoseph Gurney Cannon · 1836–1926
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Speech opposing the Pearre Injunction Bill (1906); reported in L. White Busby, Uncle Joe Cannon (1927), p. 278. Cannon noted that Samuel Gompers blacklisted him for opposing the legislation. Cannon expanded this passage in a speech in Lewiston, Maine (September 5, 1906), while successfully campaigni.
English (original)
I would rather quit public life at seventy, and quit it forever, than to retain public life at a sacrifice to my own self-respect. I will not vote for any law which will make fair for me and foul for another. The blacklist is the most cruel form of oppression ever devised by man for the infliction of suffering upon his weaker fellows.
— Joseph Gurney Cannon
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