Bell, JOHN

Bell, JOHN, an American statesman, born near Nashville, Tennessee, February 18, 1797, was admitted to the bar in 1816. He was a member of congress from 1827 to 1841, and was made Speaker in 1834, and Secretary of War in 1841. During this period he became, from an ardent Free-trader, a Protectionist and supporter of the Whigs, and favoured the reception of petitions for the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia; afterwards (1858) he vigorously opposed the admission of Kansas as a slave state. He sat in the United States senate from 1847 to 1859, and in 1860 was nominated for the presidency by the 'Constitutional Union' party, but received only 39 electoral votes, cast by the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. He afterwards took no active share in politics, and died at Cumberland Ironworks, September 10, 1869.