Senator William Blount
Not only nos he
оно
of the nio.st prominent
citizens of North Carolina during his day
and time hut he enjoyed the same distinc¬
tion in the State of Tennessee.
FEW names loomed larger in the
Colonial life of Carolina than
(lint of Blount, one of the most
ancient and influential families of
the Revolutionary era, members of
which took a leading part in the
events leading up to the struggle for
American independence, and long
thereafter continued t«< OCOUpy prom¬
inent positions in the life of our
state. There is scarce n county in
North Carolina in which some mem¬
ber of this family was not a large
land owner, their holdings totaling n
veritable empire.
William Blount was a sou of Cap¬
tain Jacob Blount of Pitt County,
and the careers of father and son
were alike in several respects. When
Governor Tryon moved with two
thousand militia against the Regu¬
lators and fought the battle of Great
Alamance Creek, William Blount and
his father were both officers in Tryon’s
army. During the Revolution both
served as officers of the Continental
Line, being paymaster* in different
regiments.
Large Landowner
William Blount was a brother of
John Gray Blount, the largest land¬
owner of the state, who was a resi¬
dent of Beaufort County, which lie
represented many terms in both
branches of the General Assembly.
The land holdings of John Gray
Blount totalled many hundreds of
thousands of acres, usually being in
large tracts and embracing territory
which extended from the Atlantic to
the Mississippi.
After his academic days were over,
William Blount came to the bar and
settled in Craven County, where ho
became one of the most distinguished
lawyers of his day. lie frequently
represented Craven in the House of
Commons and became a notable figure
at a bar which included John Sit-
graves, later Federal District Judge,
Governor Abner Nash, Governor
Richard Dobbs Spaight, Francois
Xavier Martin, who later became
Chief Justice of Louisiana, and other
distinguished lawyers. Ho had an ex¬
tensive practice and possessed per¬
suasive powers as an orator.
By II. C. LAURENCE
He soon acquired more than a local
reputation, and in 17S2 was elected by
the legislature as a member of the
Continental Congress, in which body
he was a colleague of his townsman,
Abner Nash, as well as Governor
Samuel Johnston. Col. Benjamin
Hawkins, our first United State*
Senator, and other eminent men of
that. day.
Signer of Constitution
In
17ЯС
he entered upon a second
l*eriod of Congressional service which
lasted for two years. When the Con¬
vention wn* called to be held at Phila¬
delphia to frame a constitution for
the new Union, the General Assembly
elected the state’s primate, Governor
Richard Caswell, as one of the de-le¬
gates thereto, but ns that elder states¬
man was then in poor health and it
was not known whether he would be
able to attend, the General Assembly
conferred upon him the extraordinary
power of choosing some other person
in his place, the only such instance in
our legislative history. Blount’s attain¬
ments were such that he wn* selected
by Caswell, and be therefore been mo
a member of the convention, and his
name is signed to our Federal Consti¬
tution, along with those of Governor
Richard Dobbs Spaight and Dr. Hugh
Williamson. General William R.
Davie and Governor Alexander Mar¬
tin wore also delegates to this conven¬
tion. but were forced to leave Phila¬
delphia before the completed Consti¬
tution could bo engrossed and signed.
The constitution thus adopted bail
many foes in our state, and when the
first convention was held at Hillsboro
in 17SS to consider whether that docu¬
ment should be ratified, the eonven*
A JEFFERSON STANDARD
POLICY
If a Declaration of Independence
far the Family
tion refused to ratify it by an over¬
whelming majority. However, another
convention was called to again con¬
sider the question, and when this con¬
vention met at Fayetteville under the
presidency of Governor Caswell, Wil¬
liam Blount was n prominent mem¬
ber of that body and played an im¬
portant part in teenring the ratifica¬
tion of the famoii* document to which
his name was signed. When the first
election was held to elect members
of the United States Senate, Blount
became a candidate for that honor,
but was defeated; the two elected
l>cing Col. Benjamin Hawkins and
Governor Samuel Johnston.
By this time the reputation of
Blount had become known on the na¬
tional field, and in 1700 he was
appointed by President Washington
as Governor of the Territory South
of the Ohio. This embraced the pres-
cut State of Tennessee, which bad
then been ceded back to the national
government by North Carolina.
Service in Tennessee
Having passed a distinguished
career in North Carolina. Blount now
was to enjoy a similar distinction in
Tennessee. He reached that state soon
after his appointment, where he be¬
came one of the founders of the city
of Knoxville, which was named in
compliment to General Knox, who
was at that time Secretary of War.
When Tennessee was admitted a- a
state in the Union, and a convention
was called to frame its constitution.
Blount became the president thereof,
and his pen framed many of the pro¬
visions of that instrument. In 170
в
he was elected a* n member of t In-
United State* Senate from Tennessee,
from which body he was later expelled
for participating in a plan to take
possession of the Spanish dominions
along the Mis-issippi for the benefit
of Great Britain. The ascendancy of
the English along the Mississippi
would have l--.-n of great benefit to
the people of Tennessee, and the
action of the Senate in expelling
Blount was hotly resented by the peo¬
ple "f that state, and ho became the
most popular of the men in the public
(Continued on page thirty-one)
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