Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/520

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500 BELL protective system. He opposed the South Carolina doctrine of nullification, and was chairman of the committee to consider ques- tions connected with the subject. For 10 years he was chairman of the committee on Indian affairs. He was in favor of a United States bank, though for reasons peculiar to the time he voted against the' bill for its recharter in 1832. He protested against the removal of the deposits, and refused to vote for a resolution approving that measure. This refusal was one of the causes which led to the subsequent breach between himself and President Jackson and the democratic party, and finally to his cooperation with the whigs. This change of party relations was marked by his election as speaker of the house of representatives in 1834, hi opposition to James K. Polk. The final separation between Mr. Bell and Gen. Jack- son took place in 1835, when Mr. Bell declared himself in favor of Judge "White for the presi- dency, in opposition to Mr. Van Buren, and strongly aided White in carrying the state of Tennessee for almost the first time against the democratic party. "When the question of the reception of petitions for the abolition of slave- ry in the District of Columbia was agitated in the house of representatives in 1836, Mr. Bell alone of the Tennessee delegation favored their reception, and, though assailed at home, was sustained by the people. In 1838, when Ath- erton's anti-petition resolutions were intro- duced, he voted against them. In 1841 Mr. Bell became secretary of war in President Har- rison's cabinet. With the rest of the cabinet, Mr. Webster only excepted, he resigned office on the separation of President Tyler from the whig party, in the autumn of that year. The whig majority in the next Tennessee legisla- ture which met after his withdrawal from the cabinet offered him the office of United States senator. This he declined, and remained in voluntary retirement until he was elected to the state senate in 184T. The same year he was elected to the United State senate, and reflected in 1853. He was especially promi- nent as an opponent of the annexation policy. In 1854, when the Nebraska bill was presented to the senate, Mr. Bell protested against its passing ; and in the controversy on the admis- sion of Kansas, in March, 1858, he took decided ground against the so-called Lecompton con- stitution, and in an elaborate speech charged that it tended directly to the overthrow of the Union. In 1860 he was nominated by the " Constitutional Union " party for president, with Edward Everett for vice president, and received the electoral votes of Virginia, Ken- tucky, and Tennessee. Mr. Bell now retired from active public life, and during the civil war took no prominent part in politics. BELL, John, an English sculptor and author, born in Norfolk in 1800. His best known ar- tistic works are "The Eagle Slayer" (1837), "Dorothea" (1841), "The Babes in the Wood," and " Andromeda " (1851). For the new houses BELLADONNA of parliament he made the statues of Lord Falk- land and Sir Robert Walpole, and for Guild- hall the Wellington monument. His "Guards Memorial" is in Waterloo place, Pall Mall, London ; his statue of " Armed Science " and his " Crimean Artillery Memorial " are at Wool- wich ; and for the prince consort's memorial in Hyde Park he executed the group of " The United States directing the progress of Amer- ica." He originated the principle of entasis and definite proportions applied to the obelisk, for which a medal was awarded to him by the society of arts in 1859. He is noted for not following classical models and for his realistic method. He has published " Compositions from the Liturgy," a "Free-hand Drawing Book for the Use of Artisans," " Primary Sensations of the Mind," and "The Drama of Ivan." BELL, Luther V., M. D., LL. D., an American physician, son of Gov. Samuel Bell of New Hampshire, born at Chester, N. H., Dec. 20, 1806, died near Budd's Ferry, Md., Feb. 11, 1862. He entered Bowdoin college at the age of 12, and graduated in 1821, before he had completed his 15th year. He received his medical degree from the Hanover medical school while yet under 20, and commenced practice in New York, but returned to New Hampshire. One of his earlier operations, the amputation of the femur, was successfully per- formed, in default of any other accessible in- struments, with the patient's razor, a tenon saw, and a darning needle for a tenaculum. He was chosen superintendent of the McLean insane asylum at Charlestown, Mass., entered upon his duties there in January, 1837, and continued to discharge them till 1856, when he resigned. In 1852 he was nominated as the whig candidate for congress, and received the highest vote; but there were three candi- dates, and a majority of the whole vote be- ing required, a second trial was had, in which his opponents united upon one candidate, and he was defeated. In 1850 he was a member of the state council, and in 1853 of the convention for revising the state constitution. In 1856 he was the whig candidate for governor, but was defeated. When the civil war broke out he went as surgeon to a regiment, and was medi- cal director of a division when he died. BELL, Thomas, an English zoologist, born at Poole, Dorsetshire, Oct. 11, 1792. He is the son of a physician, and has been professor of zoology at King's college, London, since 1832, and was lecturer at Guy's hospital from 1816 to 1860, president of the Ray society from its foundation to 1859, secretary of the royal so- ciety from 1848 to 1853, and president of the Linnfflan society from 1853 to 1861. He has published a monograph of the testiedinata (7 parts, completed in 1836), a "History of Brit- ish Reptiles" (1839), a "History of British Stalk-eyed Crustacea" (1853), and "The Anat- omy and Diseases of the Teeth." BELLADONNA (Ital., literally, beautiful lady), a name given to several different plants, as to