John Bell (Tennessee politician)

John Bell
16th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office June 2, 1834 – March 4, 1835
President	Andrew Jackson
Preceded by	Andrew Stevenson
Succeeded by	James K. Polk
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 7th district
In office March 4, 1827 – March 4, 1841
Preceded by	Sam Houston
Succeeded by	Robert L. Caruthers
16th United States Secretary of War
In office March 5, 1841 – September 13, 1841
President	William Henry Harrison John Tyler
Preceded by	Joel R. Poinsett
Succeeded by	John C. Spencer
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office November 22, 1847 – March 4, 1859
Preceded by	Spencer Jarnagin
Succeeded by	Alfred O. P. Nicholson
Personal details
Born	February 18, 1796(1796-02-18) Nashville, Tennessee
Died	September 10, 1869(1869-09-10) (aged 73) Dickson County, Tennessee
Political party	Democratic-Republican Democratic National Republican Whig American Constitutional Union
Spouse(s)	Sally Dickinson Bell Jane Yeatman Bell
Alma mater	Cumberland College
Profession	Law

John Bell (also known as "The Great Apostate") (February 18, 1796 – September 10, 1869) was a U.S. politician, attorney, and plantation owner. A wealthy slaveholder from Tennessee, Bell served in the United States Congress in both the House of Representatives and Senate. He began his career as a Democrat, he eventually fell out with Andrew Jackson and became a Whig. In 1860, he was among the three presidential candidates defeated by Abraham Lincoln in a bitterly divided election that helped spark the American Civil War.

Early life and career

Bell was born in Mill Creek, a hamlet near Nashville, Tennessee. He was the son of local farmer Samuel Bell and Margaret (Edmiston) Bell. His father was a blacksmith and farmer. He graduated from Cumberland University in 1814 and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1816 and established a prosperous practice in Franklin. Entering politics, he successfully ran for the Tennessee State Senate in 1817. After serving a single term, Bell declined to run for reelection and instead moved to Nashville. He was elected to the 20th Congress in 1826, defeating Felix Grundy, who had the support of presidential candidate Andrew Jackson.

He served Tennessee's 9th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1827 to 1841. At first a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson, Bell broke with the Jacksonian Democrats in the fight over the controversial Bank of the United States. (It was his abandonment of Jackson and the Democrats to join the Whigs that earned Bell the derisive nickname "The Great Apostate" from Jackson and other Democrats.) He served as Speaker of the House from 1834 to 1835, but was defeated for the post several other times by his rival and fellow Tennessean James K. Polk. Bell also served several terms as the chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and served on the Committee on Judiciary.

John Bell

Bell then served briefly as Secretary of War under William Henry Harrison and John Tyler in 1841, but then resigned along with the rest of the Cabinet in protest at Tyler's vetoes of Whig bills. He returned to Tennessee and invested in railroads and manufacturing interests, while politically opposing Polk, who won the presidency in 1844 but failed to carry Tennessee through Bell's efforts. In 1847, Bell returned to local politics, being elected to the State House of Representatives. His majority Whig Party selected him for the United States Senate, where he served until 1859. A reluctant supporter of the Compromise of 1850, Bell was only one of two Southern senators (the other being Sam Houston of Texas) to vote against the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Bell married twice, first to Sally Dickinson and then to Jane Yeatman after Dickinson's death.

Presidential candidacy

After the collapse of the Whig Party in the 1850s, Bell was among the leaders of the small group (mostly border state and middle state Whigs) who sought to preserve the Whig Party in another form.

In the 1856 election, Bell, along with many other former Whigs, supported "American" Party Presidential candidate Millard Fillmore.

In the 1860 election, Bell became a candidate himself. Sectional tensions over slavery reached dangerous levels, threatening disunion and war. In response, a group of ex-Whigs formed the Constitutional Union Party. They nominated Bell for President, on a platform which evaded all slavery-related issues and called for Union above all other concerns.

Bell faced Republican Abraham Lincoln, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and breakaway Democrat John C. Breckenridge. Bell and Breckinridge were the leading candidates in the South, where Lincoln got no votes and Douglas was a minor factor. In the North, Lincoln and Douglas were the leading candidates, but Republican leaders feared that Bell might draw off many of the former Whigs who were moving to the Republicans.

Lincoln won the election, carrying all northern and far-western states.

Bell got 592,906 popular votes (13% of the total; 39% of Southern popular votes), and won 39 electoral votes (13%). Bell carried Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee with narrow pluralities over Breckenridge, thanks to a small diversion of Democrat votes to Douglas, but was narrowly defeated by Breckinridge in Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, and by Douglas in Missouri, and lost badly in Delaware, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.

Bell received less than 3% of the popular vote cast in northern states. In several states his electors were on fusion tickets with Douglas and Breckinridge electors, so that may understate his actual support. He was not a danger to Lincoln, except in California, where his vote exceeded Lincoln's plurality over Douglas.

Later life

Initially opposed to secession, he travelled to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Lincoln. Bell was initially successful in helping hold Tennessee in the Union after states in the Deep South seceded. However, after the secessionist firing on Fort Sumter in South Carolina and Lincoln's call up of troops in response to this attack, Bell reluctantly accepted Tennessee's subsequent secession and retired from politics, his spirit broken and in ill health. He joined a group of investors in saltworks and ironworks, purchasing a shared interest in the Cumberland Furnace near Charlotte, Tennessee. However, most of his businesses were severely damaged or ruined during the Civil War. In 1869 Bell died at his home on the banks of the Cumberland River, near the Cumberland Furnace not far from Dover, Tennessee. He was buried in Nashville's Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

His son-in-law was Confederate Congressman Edwin Augustus Keeble.

External links

• John Bell (Tennessee politician) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• "John Bell (Tennessee politician)". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6653388. Retrieved 2008-08-10. 
• The public record and past history of John Bell & Edward Everett

Political offices
Preceded by Andrew Stevenson	Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives June 2, 1834 – March 4, 1835	Succeeded by James K. Polk
Preceded by Joel Roberts Poinsett	United States Secretary of War March 5, 1841 – September 13, 1841 Served Under: William Henry Harrison, John Tyler	Succeeded by John C. Spencer
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Sam Houston	Member from Tennessee's 7th congressional district March 4, 1827 – March 4, 1841	Succeeded by Robert L. Caruthers
United States Senate
Preceded by Spencer Jarnagin	Senator from Tennessee (Class 2) November 22, 1847 – March 4, 1859 Served alongside: Hopkins L. Turney, James C. Jones and Andrew Johnson	Succeeded by Alfred O.P. Nicholson
Party political offices
Preceded by Millard Fillmore	Whig Party presidential candidate 1860	Party dissolved
New title First candidate	Constitutional Union Party presidential candidate 1860

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.