Background
Samuel Bell was born on February 8, 1770, in Londonderry, the son of John and Mary Ann (Gilmore) Bell, and a grandson of John Bell, a Scotch-Irishman who settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1720.
Samuel Bell was born on February 8, 1770, in Londonderry, the son of John and Mary Ann (Gilmore) Bell, and a grandson of John Bell, a Scotch-Irishman who settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1720.
Samuel Bell worked on his father's farm and attended the district school in the winter months. Later he studied at New Ipswich Academy, taught school, and graduated from Dartmouth in 1793.
Samuel Bell was admitted to the bar in 1796 and began practise at Francestown, later removing to Amherst, and finally about 1812 to Chester where he maintained a residence henceforth. He was successful in his law practise from the outset and rapidly acquired a competence, although meeting severe losses in the failure of the Hillsborough Bank in 1809. His presidency of this ill-fated institution was afterward used against him as a Federalist campaign argument. As a Jeffersonian Republican, he represented Francestown in the legislature 1804-1806, being speaker in the last two years. He was president of the state Senate 1807-1808 and member of the Executive Council in 1809. After several years' retirement from public affairs, due to ill health, he was appointed associate justice of the superior court in 1816, where he served for three years.
In 1819 Bell was chosen governor. The Federalist party was now moribund, and his election was welcomed by its leading organ as a "harbinger of peaceful times. " He was reelected in the three succeeding years with only scattering opposition. The most important enactment during his administration was the Toleration Act of 1819, which ended the power of the towns to tax for the support of clergymen. He advocated and secured the enactment in 1821 of an important statute conferring chancery powers on the superior court in matters affecting the trusteeship of charitable and other foundations. He was a pioneer in calling attention to the evils of intemperance and demanding a stricter licensing system. In the emphasis laid in his annual messages on the need of developing manufactures and diversifying the economic life of New Hampshire, it is easy to perceive the principles which later made him an ardent supporter of the tariff. He expressed disapproval of internal improvements by the national government, however, and in 1822 the legislature memorialized Congress against the practise.
Beginning in 1823 Bell served two successive terms in the United States Senate. His career in that body was undistinguished, although he appears to have had the respect and confidence of his associates, including Webster. He spoke infrequently, but his speeches against the abolition of imprisonment for debt, against a bill settling the claims of Revolutionary officers , against the preemption and graduation of the prices of public lands, and his stalwart opposition to President Jackson's bank policy, throw considerable light on his principles and show that he possessed some of the characteristics of the Ulster Scot. His longest congressional speeches were on tariff subjects, including one in support of the compromise measure of 1833. By 1834 the tide of Jacksonian Democracy was running strongly in New Hampshire, and the legislature of that year passed resolutions which declared that he was misrepresenting the state and demanded his resignation. At the expiration of his term the following March, he retired to his farm in Chester where he spent the remainder of his life.
Samuel Bell was a member of the Democratic-Republican party (before 1834); Whig party (1834); National Republican party (1835); the New Hampshire House of Representatives (1804); the New Hampshire Senate (1807–1809); the Executive Council (1809).
Samuel Bell was twice married: on November 26, 1797, to Mehitable Dana of Amherst, who died in 1810, and on July 4, 1828, to Lucy Smith, also of Amherst.