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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—North Carolina / TennesseeBLOUNT, William
(1749—1800)
Senate Years of Service:
1796-1797
Party:
Democratic Republican
BLOUNT, William, (father of William Grainger Blount and brother of Thomas Blount), a Delegate from North Carolina and a Senator from Tennessee; born near Windsor, Bertie County, N.C., March 26, 1749; pursued preparatory studies in New Bern, N.C.; paymaster of the Continental troops, North Carolina Line, in 1777; member, State house of commons 1780-1784; Member of the Continental Congress in 1782, 1783, 1786, and 1787; delegate to the convention that framed the Federal Constitution in 1787; member, State senate 1788-1790; appointed Governor of the Territory South of the Ohio river by President George Washington in 1790; Superintendent of Indian Affairs 1790-1796; chairman of the convention which framed the first State constitution of Tennessee 1796; upon the admission of Tennessee as a State into the Union was elected to the United States Senate and served from August 2, 1796, until he was found guilty “of a high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public trust and duty as a Senator,” because he had been active in a plan to incite the Creek and Cherokee Indians to aid the British in conquering the Spanish territory of West Florida; expelled from the Senate July 8, 1797; impeachment proceedings were instituted but dismissed; during the trial was elected to the State senate of Tennessee and chosen its president; died in Knoxville, Tenn., March 21, 1800; interment in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery.
Bibliography
American National Biography
; Dictionary of American Biography
; Masterson, William. William Blount
. 1954. Reprint. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969; Melton, Buckner F., Jr. The First Impeachment: The Constitution’s Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount
. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1998.
Eigelsbach, William B. “The Blount Conspiracy: Notes of Samuel Sitgreaves on the Questioning of Dr. Nicholas Romayne on July 13 and 14, 1797, Before the House Impeachment Committee. The Journal of East Tennessee History
66 (1994): 81-96.
Goodpasture, Albert V. “William Blount and the Old Southwest Territory.” American Historical Magazine and Tennessee Historical Society Quarterly
8 (January 1903): 1-13.
Hamer, Philip M., ed. “Letters of Governor William Blount.” East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications
4 (January 1932): 122-37.
Keith, Alice B. “William Blount in North Carolina Politics, 1781-1789.” In Studies in Southern History
, edited by J. Carlyle Sitterson, pp. 47-61.James Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science
, vol. 39. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957.
___, and William H. Masterson, eds. The John Gray Blount Papers
. 3 vols. Raleigh, N.C.: State Department of Archives and History, 1952-1965. Volume 3 includes correspondence of William Blount, his brothers and associates regarding Blount’s expulsion from the Senate and subsequent impeachment trial.
Masterson, William H. William Blount
. 1954. Reprint. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969.
McKellar, Kenneth. “William Blount,” in Tennessee Senators as Seen by One of their Successors
. Kingsport, Tenn.: Southern Publishers, Inc., 1942: 49-73.
Melton, Buckner F., Jr. “Federal Impeachment and Criminal Procedure: The Framers’ Intent.” Maryland Law Review
52 (1993): 437-57.
___. “The First Impeachment: The Constitution’s Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount.” Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1990.
___. The First Impeachment: The Constitution’s Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount
. Macon, GA.: Mercer University Press, 1998.
Posey, Walter Brownlow. “The Blount Conspiracy.” Birmingham-Southern College Bulletin
21 (December 1928): 11-21.
Thompson, Isabel. “The Blount Conspiracy.” East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications
2 (1930): 3-21.
Turner, Frederick J. ed. “Documents on the Blount Conspiracy, 1795-1797.” American Historical Review
10 (April 1905): 574-606.
Williams, Samuel C. “The Admission of Tennessee into the Union.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly
4 (December 1945): 291-319.
Wright, Marcus Joseph. Some Account of the Life and Services of William Blount.
Washington: E.J. Gray, 1884.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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