John Bell (Tennessee politician)

John Bell
Bell in 1858
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office November 22, 1847 – March 3, 1859
Preceded by	Spencer Jarnagin
Succeeded by	Alfred O. P. Nicholson
16th United States Secretary of War
In office March 5, 1841 – September 11, 1841
President	William Henry Harrison John Tyler
Preceded by	Joel Poinsett
Succeeded by	John Spencer
12th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office June 2, 1834 – March 3, 1835
Preceded by	Andrew Stevenson
Succeeded by	James K. Polk
Chair of the House Judiciary Committee
In office 1832–1834
Preceded by	Warren R. Davis
Succeeded by	Thomas Flournoy Foster
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 7th district
In office March 4, 1827 – March 3, 1841
Preceded by	Sam Houston
Succeeded by	Robert L. Caruthers
Member of the Tennessee Senate
In office 1817
Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives
In office 1847
Personal details
Born	(1796-02-18)February 18, 1796 Mill Creek, Southwest Territory, U.S.
Died	September 10, 1869(1869-09-10) (aged 73) Stewart County, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting place	Mount Olivet Cemetery
Political party	Democratic-Republican (1817–1825) Jacksonian (1825–1835) Whig (1835–1854) American (1854–1860) Constitutional Union (1860–1861)
Spouses	Sally Dickinson ​ ​ (m. 1818; died 1832)​ Jane Erwin Yeatman ​ (m. 1835)​
Education	University of Nashville (BA)
Signature

John Bell (February 18, 1796 – September 10, 1869) was an American politician, attorney, and planter who was a candidate for President of the United States in the election of 1860.

One of Tennessee's most prominent antebellum politicians,^[1] Bell served in the House of Representatives from 1827 to 1841, and in the Senate from 1847 to 1859. He was Speaker of the House for the 23rd Congress (1834–1835), and briefly served as Secretary of War during the administration of William Henry Harrison (1841). In 1860, he ran for president as the candidate of the Constitutional Union Party, a third party which took a neutral stance on the issue of slavery.^[1] He won the electoral votes of three states by a slim margin.

Initially an ally of Andrew Jackson, Bell turned against Jackson in the mid-1830s and aligned himself with the National Republican Party and then the Whig Party, a shift that earned him the nickname "The Great Apostate".^[2][3] He consistently battled Jackson's allies, namely James K. Polk, over issues such as the national bank and the election spoils system. Following the death of Hugh Lawson White in 1840, Bell became the acknowledged leader of Tennessee's Whigs.^[1]

Although a slaveholder,^[4] Bell was one of the few Southern politicians to oppose the expansion of slavery to the territories in the 1850s, and he campaigned vigorously against secession in the years leading up to the American Civil War.^[1] During his 1860 presidential campaign, he argued that secession was unnecessary since the Constitution protected slavery, an argument that resonated with voters in border states, helping him capture the electoral votes of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. After the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861, marking the beginning of the Civil War, Bell abandoned the Union cause and supported the Confederacy.^[1]