Career

Blount spent most of his life in public office. His duties included:

• Sat in the lower house of the North Carolina legislature (1780-84), including service as speaker.
• He took part in national politics, serving in the Continental Congress in 1782-83 and 1786-87.
• Sat in the upper house of the North Carolina legislature (1788-90).
• Appointed as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention at the age of 38. Blount was absent for more than a month because he chose to attend the Continental Congress on behalf of his state. He said almost nothing in the debates and signed the Constitution reluctantly--only, he said, to make it "the unanimous act of the States in Convention." Nonetheless, he favored his state's ratification of the completed document.
• In 1790 he pushed westward beyond the Appalachians, where he held speculative land interests and had represented North Carolina in dealings with the Indians.
• Washington appointed Blount as Governor for the Territory South of the River Ohio (which included Tennessee) and also as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Department, in which positions he increased his popularity with the frontiersmen.
• First governor of Tennessee (territory and state) 1790-1796, where he selected Knoxville as capital of Tennessee, appointed his half brother, Willie, one of three secretaries, established the first 9 counties in the state, and started military organizations and courts in each county.
• Blount hoped to be elected to the first U.S. Senate. He was elected as one of its first U.S. senators (1796-97).
• In 1796 he presided over the constitutional convention that transformed part of the territory into the State of Tennessee. During this period, Blount's affairs took a sharp turn for the worse. In 1797 his speculations in western lands led him into serious financial difficulties.
• That same year, he also apparently concocted a plan involving use of Indians, frontiersmen, and British naval forces to conquer for Britain the Spanish provinces of Florida and Louisiana. A letter he wrote about the plan fell into the hands of President Adams, who turned it over to the Senate on July 3, 1797. Five days later, that body voted 25 to 1 to expel Blount. The House impeached him, but the Senate dropped the charges in 1799 on the grounds that no further action could be taken beyond his dismissal.
• The episode did not hamper Blount's career in Tennessee. In 1798 he was elected to the senate and rose to the speakership.