Background
Blount, William was born on March 26, 1749 in Bertie County, North Carolina, United States. The son of Jacob and Barbara (Gray) Blount.
Blount, William was born on March 26, 1749 in Bertie County, North Carolina, United States. The son of Jacob and Barbara (Gray) Blount.
William had little formal education.
Blount served in the North Carolina militia during the Revolutionary War. During the 1780s he was elected to six terms in the North Carolina legislature, represented his state in Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and was a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Later he was a member of the North Carolina convention that ratified the Constitution. Disappointed in his defeat for election to the U.S. Senate in 1789, Blount secured an appointment as territorial governor of the lands west of the Alleghenies ceded to the U.S. in 1789 by North Carolina. When this territory became the state of Tennessee, Blount was elected one of its first two senators.
Shortly thereafter, in financial difficulties arising from his speculations in Western lands, Blount became involved in a plan whose apparent aim was to organize an armed force of frontiersmen and Indians, and, with the help of the British fleet, to expel the Spanish from Florida and Louisiana and transfer control to Great Britain. When the plot came to the attention of Pres. John Adams, Blount was expelled from the Senate, and impeachment proceedings were begun, although they were dropped the following year. Blount returned to Tennessee, where his popularity was undiminished and was elected in 1798 to the Tennessee Senate, serving as speaker until his death.
William Blount was a member of the Democratic party of the United States Senator from Tennessee from 1796 to 1797.
Blount was a character strongly marked for integrity and honor. He was no Speaker, nor did he possess any of those talents that make Men shine; he was plain, honest, and sincere.
William Blount was married to Mary Grainger. They had two children.