John Bell (politician, 1797)

John Bell

John Bell (born February 18, 1797 in Nashville , Tennessee , † September 11, 1869 in Dickson County , Tennessee) was an American politician . He was the United States Secretary of War and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Life

A wealthy slave owner, John Bell entered the political scene in 1817 and drew general attention partly in the government of Tennessee and partly in Congress in Washington. From 1827 to 1841 he was a member of the House of Representatives in Congress and was its speaker from June 2, 1834 to March 3, 1835. He split from the Democratic Party under President Andrew Jackson and became a member of the Whig Party . In 1841, President William Henry Harrison appointed him to the cabinet as Secretary of War . In 1847 Bell was elected to the US Senate and remained there until 1859.

Run by the Constitutional Union Party as a presidential candidate against John C. Breckinridge , Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln in 1860 , Bell received 13 percent of the total vote. This corresponds to 592,906 voters who voted for him. In the states of Virginia , Kentucky and Tennessee it even emerged as the winner.

Although he sympathized with the southern states during the Civil War , he did not take any active part in the struggle.

Web links

• John Bell in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• John Bell in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)