- Title
- John Gray Blount papers [1796-1802, v.3]
-
-
- Date
- 1965
-
-
- Creator
- ["Blount, John Gray, 1752-1833."]
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
John Gray Blount papers [1796-1802, v.3]
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The John Gray Blount Papers
225
borough57 — and I could not have been more astonished if I had
been charged by the Directory of France of being the murderer
of Louis the XVI. How & where in God’s name can this Report
have originated? Is it possible that any of the agents that have
been employed by you to locate & Survey the Lands of J G & T
В
can have committed frauds in a way that could draw Suspicion
on us, or either of us? I ask because I really do not understand
enough of the mode of transacting Land Business to form an
opinion on the subject, & the Information that such a Report
prevails, although I am Conscious that it cannot be True & have
great reason to believe that it has been fabricated merely to
operate on my Election, runs me almost mad — for God’s sake
trace it to its origin & let me know whence it came, without
delay — I have answered Mr. Burges & Mr. Barnes that it is
false as Hell & written to Ed Jones, the Solicitor, demanding of
him to contradict it which I am sure he can do & trust he will
do. — on shewing my Letters to Mr. [William B.] Grove who is
a regular Correspondent of Mr [2] Jones’s, he declared to me
upon his Honor that he had never before heard it suggested that
I was implicated or suspected, but he confessed that he had recd.
Letters which intimated that W. Blount, W. Polk58 & some other
Respectable Characters were at least suspected — Barnes’ Letter
mentions that the names of the persons found guilty by the
grand Jury have not been announced & are to be kept secret
until they are apprehended for the purpose of giving Bail. This
Report, false as it is, will doubtless injure my Election, & yet
it seems to render it more necessary than ever that I should
hold a poll — To what curses am I doomed! I am in 2 weeks to
declare positively that I am, or that I am not, a Candidate & at
this moment I don’t know how to decide the question. But the
misfortune of which I have spoken, in itself great enough to
make the man who suffers it curse God & die, is not the only
67 These frauds consisted principally of the issuing by entry takers of duplicate warrants
which the recipients used to gain thousands of acres for which they paid nothing and (in
the case of military lands in Tennessee) for which they had no legal right to file claims.
The frauds were brought to light by Andrew Jackson, who discovered the evidence in 1796
and notified Governor Ashe of North Carolina. A secret investigation was then begun by
the North Carolina legislature which indicated that the malefactors included James Glasgow,
Secretary of State of North Carolina, John Sevier, Stocktey Done’son, William Tyrrell,
William Blount, and John Gray and Thomas Blount. Masterson, William Blount, 332-334;
Robinson, Davie, 311-312. See also the election circular by “An Elector,’’ [n.d.]; Governor
Ashe to the General Assembly, 1798; Memorial of John Gray and Thomas Blount, December
16, 1799; and Report of Legislative Committee Investigating Land Frauds, June 6, 1799, in
“Other Papers for 1796-1802," in this volume.
54 William Polk (1758-1834) was born near Charlotte, North Carolina. He was an officer
in the Revolution and in 1788 he was appointed a surveyor general of the land office, with
headquarters in the present Davidson County, Tennessee. A strong Federalist, he was made
Supervisor of TJnifed Slates Revenue by President Adams. He was an active land speculator.
Dictionary of American Biography, XV, 43-44; Polk to Blount, January 6, 1801, in this
volume.
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