ake an incorporating union to be, where
there is a change both in the material and formal points of
government, as if two pieces of metal were melted down into one
mass, it can neither be said to retain its former form or substance
as it did before the mixture. But now, when I consider this treaty,
as it hath been explained and spoke to before us this three weeks by
past, I see the English constitution remaining firm, the same two
houses of Parliament, the same taxes, the same customs, the same
excises, the same trading companies, the same municipal laws and
courts of judicature; and all ours either subject to regulations or
annihilations, only we have the honor to pay their old debts and to
have some few persons present for witnesses to the validity of the
deed when they are pleased to contract more.

Good God! What, is this an entire surrender!

My lord, I find my heart so full of grief and indignation that I
must beg pardon not to finish the last part of my discourse, that I
may drop a tear as the prelude to so sad a story.

JOHN BELL (1797-1869)

John Bell, of Tennessee, who was a candidate with Edward Everett on
the "Constitutional Union" ticket of 1860, when Virginia, Kentucky,
and Tennessee gave him their thirty-nine electoral votes in favor of
a hopeless peace, will always seem one of the most respectable
figures in the politics of a time when calmness and conservatism,
such as characterized him and his coadjutor., Mr. Everett, of
Massachusetts, had ceased to be desired by men who wished immediate
success in public life. He was one of the founders of the Whig
party, and by demonstrating himself to be one of the very few men
who could win against Andrew Jackson's opposition in Tennessee, he
acquired, under Jackson and Van Buren, a great influence with the
Whigs of the country at large. He was a member of Congress from
Tennessee for fourteen years dating from 1827, when he won by a
single vote against Felix Grundy, one of the strongest men in
Tennessee and a special favorite with General Jackson. Disagreeing
with Jackson on the removal of the deposits, Bell was elected
Speaker of the House over Jackson's protege, James K. Polk, in 1834,
and in 1841 he entered the Whig cabinet as Secretary of War under
Harrison who had defeated another of Jackson's proteges, Van
Buren. In 1847 and again in 1853, he was elected United States
Senator from Tennessee and he did his best to prevent secession. He
had opp