William Blount | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Washington Bogart Cooper, 1850 | |
| Speaker of the Tennessee Senate | |
| In office 1798–1799 | |
| Preceded by | James White |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Outlaw |
| United States Senator from Tennessee | |
| In office August 2, 1796 – July 8, 1797 | |
| Preceded by | Himself (Shadow Senator from the Southwest Territory) |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Anderson |
| United States Shadow Senator from the Southwest Territory | |
| In office March 30, 1796 – August 2, 1796 | |
| Preceded by | Seat established |
| Succeeded by | Himself (U.S. Senator from Tennessee) |
| Governor of the Southwest Territory | |
| In office September 20, 1790 – March 30, 1796 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | John Sevier (Tennessee) |
| Member of the Congress of the Confederation from North Carolina | |
| In office 1786–1787 | |
| In office 1782–1783 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 6, 1749 (March 29, 1749 (O.S.)) Windsor, Province of North Carolina, British America |
| Died | March 21, 1800 (aged 50) Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Resting place | First Presbyterian Church Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Spouse | Mary Grainger |
| Children | 6, including William Grainger |
| Relatives |
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| Signature |  |
William Blount (April 6, 1749 – March 21, 1800)[1] was an American politician, landowner and Founding Father who was one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and led the efforts for North Carolina to ratify the Constitution in 1789 at the Fayetteville Convention. He then served as the only governor of the Southwest Territory and played a leading role in helping the territory gain admission to the union as the state of Tennessee. He was selected as one of Tennessee's initial United States Senators in 1796, serving until he was expelled for treason in 1797.[2][3]
Born to a prominent North Carolina family, Blount served as a paymaster during the American Revolutionary War. He was elected to the North Carolina legislature in 1781, where he remained in one role or another for most of the decade, except for two terms in the Continental Congress in 1782 and 1786. Blount pushed efforts in the legislature to open the lands west of the Appalachians to settlement. As governor of the Southwest Territory, he negotiated the Treaty of Holston in 1791, bringing thousands of acres of Indian lands under U.S. control.[2]
An aggressive land speculator, Blount gradually acquired millions of acres in Tennessee and the Trans-Appalachian West. He owned slaves as well.[4] His risky land investments left him in debt, and in the 1790s, he conspired of his own accord to have Great Britain take over Spanish-controlled Louisiana and Florida in the hope of boosting local land prices. When the conspiracy was uncovered in 1797, he was expelled from the Senate and became the first federal official to face impeachment.[5] However, Blount remained popular in Tennessee and served in the state senate during the last years of his life.[2]
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b c Terry Weeks, "William Blount," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2010. Accessed 10 September 2012.
- ^ "U.S. Senate: Expulsion Case of William Blount of Tennessee (1797)". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
- ^ "Congress slaveowners", The Washington Post, 2022-01-19, retrieved 2022-07-10
- ^ "To Arrest an Impeached Senator." United States Senate website. Accessed 10 September 2012.