Jackson Mississippian, June 6, 1860
That Hon. John Bell, the Opposition candidate for President, voted in Congress to receive abolition petitions, no one denies. The record shows it, and the vote will ever remain against him. No matter how humiliating the fact, there cannot be any doubt of its truthfulness. The Opposition press are endeavoring to excuse this vote by hiding Mr. Bell under the skirts of other men. This will not do.—Mr. Bell is on trial and we have nothing to do with others. It was either right or it was wrong to vote for the reception of abolition petitions. In the register of the debates in Congress in 1835, we see that the petition to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, for the reception of which Mr. Bell voted, was characterized by Southern members as “disrespectful,” “insulting in language, incendiary in its character”—that it called members of the South “LAND PIRATES.” Nevertheless Mr. Bell was willing to consider the petition.—He would not vote against its reception.—This is enough. This will suffice. It is all we have ever charged against Mr. Bell, and the record bears us out. Let the supporters of Mr. Bell make the most of it?