Blount, William, 1749-1800

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>08/01/1796 TN US Senate Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>06/08/1790 SW Territory Territorial Governor Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/08/1789 NC US Senate - Initial Election Lost 29.96% (-9.70%)</li>
<li>12/31/1786 NC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1785 NC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>10/25/1784 NC State House Speaker Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>08/00/1784 NC State House - Craven County Won 50.00% (+0.00%)</li>
<li>03/00/1784 NC State House - Craven County Won 50.00% (+0.00%)</li>
<li>03/00/1783 NC State House - Craven County Won 50.00% (+0.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1782 NC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

<p>William Blount (March 26, 1749 – March 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, statesman, and land speculator who signed the United States Constitution. 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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>An aggressive land speculator, Blount gradually acquired millions of acres in Tennessee and the Trans-Appalachian West. His risky land investments left him in debt, and in the 1790s, he conspired with Great Britain to seize the Spanish-controlled Louisiana in the hope of boosting western land prices. When the conspiracy was uncovered in 1797, he was expelled from the Senate and became the first federal official to face impeachment. However, Blount remained popular in Tennessee and served in the state senate during the last years of his life.</p>

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 Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and one of the signers of the Constitution; 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.