Willie Blount (April 18, 1768September 10, 1835) was an American politician who served as the third
Governor of Tennessee
The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The governor is the only official in Tennessee state government who is directly elected by the voters of the entire state.
The current governor is Bill Lee, a ...
from 1809 to 1815. Blount's efforts to raise funds and soldiers during the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
earned Tennessee the nickname, "Volunteer State."
He was the younger half-brother of
Southwest Territory
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...
governor,
William Blount
William Blount (March 26, 1749March 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, statesman, farmer and land speculator who signed the United States Constitution. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention of ...
. He was a member of the
Democratic-Republican Party
The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...
.
Early life
Willie (pronounced "Wiley") was born at Blount Hall in
Bertie County
Bertie County ( , with both syllables stressed) is a county located in the northeast area of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,934. Its county seat is Windsor. The county was created in 1722 as Berti ...
in the
Province of North Carolina
Province of North Carolina was a province of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712(p. 80) to 1776. It was one of the five Southern Colonies, Southern colonies and one of the Thirteen Colonies, thir ...
, to Jacob Blount and his second wife, Hannah Salter Blount.
He studied at the College of New Jersey (modern
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
) and King's College (modern
Columbia). He read law with Judge John Sitgreaves in
New Bern, North Carolina
New Bern, formerly called Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 29,524, which had risen to an estimated 29,994 as of 2019. It is the county seat of Craven County and t ...
, in the 1780s, and was admitted to the North Carolina
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
.
[Anne-Leslie Owens,]
Willie Blount
" ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2009. Retrieved: July 10, 2012.[Mary B. Clark, "Willie Blount," ''Governors of Tennessee'', Vol. 3 (Memphis State University Press, 1979), pp. 79–95.]
In 1790, Willie's brother, William, was appointed governor of the newly created
Southwest Territory
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...
, and Willie accompanied him to the new territory to serve as his private secretary. When Tennessee was admitted as a state in 1796, the state legislature appointed Willie Blount to the Superior Court of Law and Equity (the state's highest court at the time), though he either declined the appointment or resigned before issuing any opinions.
Following William Blount's death in 1800, Willie Blount took charge of the family finances, and quickly discovered that his brother's risky land investments had left the family deeply in debt.
In 1802, he moved to
Montgomery County, Tennessee
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 220,069. The county seat (and only incorporated municipality) is Clarksville. The county was created in 1796. Montgomery Count ...
, where he established a large plantation, and gradually began restoring the family's financial affairs. He represented Montgomery County in the
Tennessee House of Representatives
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.
Constitutional requirements
According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...
from 1807 to 1809.
Governor
In 1809, Blount ran for governor against former U.S. senator and frontiersman,
William Cocke
William Cocke (1748August 22, 1828) was an American lawyer, pioneer, and statesman. He has the distinction of having served in the state legislatures of four different states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, and was one of t ...
(the incumbent,
John Sevier
John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...
, was term-limited). Population shifts had begun to favor
Middle and
West Tennessee
West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions (Tennessee), Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee River, Tennessee and Miss ...
over Cocke's home of
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
,
and Blount won the election, 13,686 votes to 8,435.
[Our Campaigns – Willie Blount]
Retrieved: January 19, 2013. He was reelected without opposition in 1811 and 1813.
Like his predecessors, Sevier and
Archibald Roane
Archibald Roane (1759/60 – January 18, 1819) was the second Governor of Tennessee, serving from 1801 to 1803. He won the office after the state's first governor, John Sevier, was prevented by constitutional restrictions from seeking a fourth ...
, much of Blount's governorship was spent dealing with conflicts between Indians and white settlers.
He persistently sought to acquire land from the
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
and
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...
, and attempted to suppress the activities of hostile
Choctaws
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
and
Creeks. Early in his term, he suggested in a letter to Secretary of War
William Eustis
William Eustis (June 10, 1753 – February 6, 1825) was an early American physician, politician, and statesman from Massachusetts. Trained in medicine, he served as a military surgeon during the American Revolutionary War, notably at the Bat ...
that the Cherokee be relocated to lands west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
, an act carried out two decades later by President
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
.
He also blamed northern tribes for encouraging the Creeks to harass white settlers, and at one point requested Eustis send troops to sever communications between northern and southern tribes.
During Blount's tenure, Tennessee was divided into five judicial districts. He signed anti-counterfeiting measures, and enacted legislation to settle conflicting land claims from Tennessee's pre-statehood period.
Blount also sought navigational improvements, overseeing the completion of the Cumberland Turnpike (connecting Nashville and Knoxville), and calling for a navigable waterway from Tennessee to
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...
.
During his second and third terms, Blount was occupied with the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
. During the first few months of the war, he struggled with a lack of communication with the War Department as he awaited permission to order the militia (led by an increasingly impatient Andrew Jackson) south to New Orleans. Following the
Fort Mims massacre in 1813, a call to arms issued by Blount was met by 3,500 volunteers. These were divided into two divisions led by Jackson and
John Cocke, and ordered south to suppress the hostile Creek tribes. Blount managed to raise over $300,000 for the expedition, an astonishing sum of money for the time.
The surprising number of volunteers earned Tennessee the nickname, "Volunteer State."
At the end of the War of 1812, Blount was at the height of his popularity. Historian
J. G. M. Ramsey
James Gettys McGready Ramsey (March 25, 1797 – April 11, 1884) was an American historian, physician, planter, slave owner, and businessman, active primarily in East Tennessee during the nineteenth century. Ramsey is perhaps best known for h ...
wrote, "Willie's popularity with the masses has rarely been equalled."
In 1815, constitutional term limits prevented him from seeking a fourth consecutive term.
Later life
In 1827, Blount ran for governor against Congressman
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...
and ex-Congressman
Newton Cannon
Newton Cannon (May 22, 1781 – September 16, 1841) was an American politician who served as the eighth Governor of Tennessee from 1835 to 1839. He also served several terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1814 to 1817, and fr ...
(the incumbent,
William Carroll, was term-limited), but placed a distant third, winning just 1,784 votes to 44,243 for Houston and 32,929 for Cannon.
In 1834, Blount represented Montgomery County at the state
constitutional convention, which drafted a new document to replace the one in effect since the state had been admitted in 1796, and which has many similarities to the 1870 constitution which is still in effect.
One of the chief differences between the 1834 constitution and its predecessor was considerably greater powers being granted to the executive branch than in the earlier document.
Blount died in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
on September 10, 1835, and is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in
Clarksville.
In 1878, the state placed a large monument on his grave.
Family and legacy
Blount married Lucinda Baker in 1802. They had two daughters, Eliza Ann Blount and Lucinda Blount.
Blount was the younger half-brother of
William Blount
William Blount (March 26, 1749March 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, statesman, farmer and land speculator who signed the United States Constitution. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention of ...
, a signer of the
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
and governor of the
Southwest Territory
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...
. Another half-brother,
Thomas Blount, was a congressman from North Carolina, and a nephew,
William Grainger Blount
William Grainger Blount (1784 – May 21, 1827) was an American politician who represented Tennessee's 2nd district in the United States House of Representatives from 1815 to 1819. He is the son of Southwest Territory governor William Blount ...
, represented
Tennessee's 2nd district in Congress from 1815 to 1819. Willie Blount was the great-great grandfather of
Harry Hill McAlister
Harry Hill McAlister (July 15, 1875 – October 30, 1959) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 37th governor of Tennessee from 1933 to 1937. He also served as Nashville's city attorney in the early 1900s, and as Tennessee's sta ...
, who served as Governor of Tennessee in the 1930s.
In 1803, Blount published a school textbook, ''A Catechetical Exposition of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee'', which was printed by early Knoxville newspaper editor George Roulstone. Blount later made plans to write a comprehensive history of the state, but this work was never completed.
Blount County, Alabama
Blount County is a county located in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 59,134. Its county seat is Oneonta.
Blount County is a moist county. In the November 6, 2012 elections, a countywide ballot initiative t ...
, is named in Willie Blount's honor for his assistance during the Creek War.
References
External links
Finding Aid for Governor Willie Blount Papers– Tennessee State Library and Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blount, Willie
1768 births
1835 deaths
People from Bertie County, North Carolina
People from Montgomery County, Tennessee
Tennessee Democratic-Republicans
Governors of Tennessee
Members of the Tennessee House of Representatives
Princeton University alumni
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Blount County, Alabama
Democratic-Republican Party state governors of the United States
19th-century American politicians