Bell Mines
Sturgis, Union County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Bell Mines. John Bell, 1797-1869, of Tenn. owned mines two miles south of here. In 1860 he was nominated as candidate for President by the Constitutional Union Party. He campaigned to preserve the Union and carried Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia against Abraham Lincoln. Later Bell advocated secession. He was Congressman, 1827-41, and member U.S. Senate, 1847-59, from Tenn. Installed February 19, 1964.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Two miles south of here lay mines owned by John Bell of Tennessee, a national political figure in the tense years before the Civil War. In 1860 the Constitutional Union Party nominated Bell for president on a platform of preserving the Union, and he carried Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia against Abraham Lincoln. A longtime congressman and senator, Bell would later reverse course and back secession once war came.
Why it matters
Bell's 1860 candidacy captured the desperate hopes of border-state moderates to hold the Union together, and his later turn to secession shows how the war forced even compromisers to choose sides.
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Related people
- · John Bell
- · Abraham Lincoln
Themes & tags
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