Recognizing his administrative ability, the government repeatedly entrusted Cantoni with the drafting of statutes affecting the Jewish communities.
[citation needed] In 1848 he actively recruited among Turin's Jews and helped organize volunteers into three battalions of sharpshooters to fight for Piedmont-Sardinia against Austria-Hungary.
He published his Nuovo Ordinamento del Culto Israelitico nes Regi Stati, in which he advocated the establishment by the government of consistories, pointing out the means by which these could be supported.
Most noteworthy among his achievements was his work on behalf of the emancipation of the Jews in the Kingdom of Sardinia through the Constitution of 1848, which was subsequently transferred to united Italy.
Cantoni's untimely death prevented the realization of his hopes of founding an organization to include all the communities and rabbis of Italy.