BELL, John (1796-1869)
American of Tennessee 
0th congressional district
Served in Senate 1847-1859
Served in House 1827-1841
Biography
Representative and a Senator from Tennessee; born near Nashville, Tenn., February 18, 1796; graduated from Cumberland College in 1814; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1816 and commenced practice in Franklin, Tenn.; member of the Tennessee state senate, 1817; elected as a Jacksonian candidate to the Twentieth and to the three succeeding Congresses; reelected as an Anti-Jacksonian candidate to the Twenty-fourth Congress; reelected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth and to the succeeding Congress (March 4, 1827-March 3, 1841); Speaker of the House (Twenty-third Congress); chair, Committee on Indian Affairs (Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congress; Twenty-fourth through Twenty-sixth Congresses); chair, Committee on Judiciary (Twenty-second and Twenty-third Congresses); appointed by President William Henry Harrison as Secretary of War March 5, 1841, and served until September 12, 1841, when he resigned; member, Tennessee state house of representatives in 1847; elected as a Whig to the United States Senate in 1847; reelected in 1853, and served from November 22, 1847, to March 3, 1859; unsuccessful candidate in 1860 for President of the United States on the Constitutional Union ticket; investor in ironworks at Cumberland Furnace in Chattanooga, Tenn.; died at his home on the banks of the Cumberland River, near Cumberland Furnace, September 10, 1869; interment in Mount Olivet Cemetery, near Nashville, Tenn.Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Notice: By custom, the Speaker of the House rarely votes. Votes for BELL, John may appear to be missing as a result.
