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John Bell
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: John Bell |
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| Art Encyclopedia: John Bell |
(b Hepton, Suffolk, 1811 or 1812; d London, 14 March 1895). English sculptor. He enrolled at the Royal Academy in 1829 and attracted attention there with The Eagleslayer (1837), of which versions were made in bronze, marble (c. 1844; Wentworth Woodhouse, S. Yorks) and iron (1851; London, Bethnal Green Mus. Childhood). The latter, cast by the Coalbrookdale Company, was shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851, placed under a canopy with the slain eagle at the top. Prestigious commissions followed, including statuary for the Houses of Parliament: Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland (marble, 1848) and Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (marble, 1854). Bell's best-known public sculptures are the Guards' Crimean War memorial (bronze, 1860; London, Waterloo Place) and America, part of the Albert Memorial (marble, 1864-9; London, Kensington Gdns). Both show his stylistic and iconographic compromise between Neo-classical tradition and meticulous contemporary realism. Bell's works on imagined subjects, many of which were reproduced in Parian porcelain by W. T. Copeland and by Henry Cole's Art-Manufactures, include Babes in the Wood (marble, 1842; London, V&A); Andromeda (bronze, c. 1851; Osborne House, Isle of Wight, Royal Col.); and The Octoroon (marble, 1868; Blackburn, Town Hall), the eroticism of which was influenced by Hiram Powers. Bell was more innovative as an industrial designer than as an artist. His creations include fish-knives, a table supported by cast-iron deerhounds (1845) for the Coalbrookdale Company, a matchbox shaped like a crusader's tomb (1848) and a cast-iron Cerberus doorstop (1849). He was a prolific correspondent and also published some essays, including 'Colour on Statues and Paintings' (1861), 'The Principle of Entasis as Applied to the Obelisk' (1862) and 'The Lost Venus of Knidos' (1894).
See the Abbreviations for further details.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: John Bell |
Bell, John, 1797-1869, American statesman, b. near Nashville, Tenn. A leading member of the Nashville bar, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1827-41), was speaker in 1834, and for a few weeks in 1841 was Secretary of War under President William Henry Harrison. At first a Jacksonian, Bell broke with Jackson in the fight over the Bank of the United States and ultimately became the chief leader of the Whigs in Tennessee, dominating state politics for nearly two decades. As U.S. Senator (1847-59), he was the leader of the conservative Southern element that, though supporting slavery, placed the Union first. He admitted the right of Congress to prohibit slavery in the territories, supported the Compromise of 1850, objected to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and opposed the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. In 1860, Bell was the presidential candidate of the moderate Constitutional Union party and won the electoral votes of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. The lower South seceded with Lincoln's election, but Bell held Tennessee in the Union until after the firing on Fort Sumter. Bell counseled resistance to the Union invasion, but, disheartened and in ill health, he took no active part in the Civil War.
Bibliography
See biography by J. H. Parks (1950).
| Legal Encyclopedia: Bell, John |
John Bell was born February 15, 1797, near Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from Cumberland College in Nashville in 1817 and was admitted to the bar in the same year. He practiced law in Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee, before entering politics.
From 1827 to 1841, Bell served as a congressman for Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He voiced strong opposition to Andrew Jackson's program for the deposit of federal funds into state banks and to the elimination of the Bank of the United States.
Bell was secretary of war in 1841 and then U.S. senator for Tennessee for twelve years beginning in 1847.
In 1860 Bell was the unsuccessful presidential candidate of a small party known as the Constitutional Union Party. He favored a cautious policy concerning slavery and opposed the South's secession from the Union until the battle of Fort Sumter signaled the outbreak of the Civil War; he then encouraged Tennessee to join the Confederacy.
Bell died September 10, 1869, in Stewart County, Tennessee.
| Wikipedia: John Bell (Tennessee politician) |
For other persons of the same name, see John Bell.
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John Bell
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| In office June 2, 1834 – March 4, 1835 |
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| President | Andrew Jackson |
| Preceded by | Andrew Stevenson |
| Succeeded by | James K. Polk |
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| In office March 4, 1827 – March 3, 1841 |
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| Preceded by | Sam Houston |
| Succeeded by | Robert L. Caruthers |
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| In office March 5, 1841 – September 13, 1841 |
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| President | William Henry Harrison John Tyler |
| Preceded by | Joel R. Poinsett |
| Succeeded by | John C. Spencer |
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| In office November 22, 1847 – March 3, 1859 |
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| Preceded by | Spencer Jarnagin |
| Succeeded by | Alfred O. P. Nicholson |
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| Born | February 15, 1797 Nashville, Tennessee |
| Died | September 10, 1869 (aged 72) 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")[citation needed] (February 15, 1797 – 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.
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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. He served as Speaker of the House from 1834 to 1835. He 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.
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 attempted to preserve the Whig Party in another form, and became the Presidential candidate of the United States Constitutional Union Party. The way many people[who?] viewed the Constitutional Union Party was that it was a desperate attempt to save the collapsing Whig Party. The moderate party was formed from a group of southern Whigs who joined with nativists from border states like Tennessee.
Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party won the United States Presidential election of 1860 in the face of a four-way split of the votes. Bell won 39 electoral votes (13%) and 592,906 popular votes (13% of the total; 39% of Southern popular votes). Lincoln was not on the ballot in several southern states. Bell carried Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, largely as a result of the division of fracture of the Democratic Party between John C. Breckenridge (representing the South) and Stephen A. Douglas (representing the North), but received less than 3% of the vote in Northern states.
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) at Find a Grave Retrieved on 2008-08-10
- The public record and past history of John Bell & Edward Everett
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| 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 3, 1841 |
Succeeded by Robert L. Caruthers |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by Spencer Jarnagin |
Senator from Tennessee (Class 2) November 22, 1847 – March 3, 1859 Served alongside: Hopkins L. Turney, James C. Jones and Andrew Johnson |
Succeeded by Alfred O.P. Nicholson |
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| Preceded by Millard Fillmore |
Whig Party presidential candidate 1860 |
Party dissolved |
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Constitutional Union Party presidential candidate 1860 |
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