Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-10-27

l brother. He was elected Governor
2 of Tennessee in 1909 and by two
5 successive reflections continued to
: hold the office till 1915.
J During this time he lived in
t Knoxville, then the seat of Govern
: ment, renting his place in Mont
/ gonery county to Col. Bryan, father
of:Henry Bryan, Esq, now residing
in GAINESVILLE.
. His term of office was not less
eventful than that of his brother, for
. he had the war with England and the
Creek war, excited by the massacre
at Fort Minis, to deal with, as well
as negotiations for the extradition
of the Cherokee and Chickasaw In
dams and the opening up for settle
ment of the country which they left
open.
If Jackson was the Napoleon of
this period, Willie Blount was the
Carnot organizing victory at home.
We cannot better record his servi-
ces in aiding the outfit of the expe-
dition of Gen. Jackson to New Or
leans than it is done in Gov. Porter's
address of last Wednesday,:
On the 18th of June, 1912, war with
England was declared by the Fede-
raj Government. Thirteen days
thereafter this intelligence reached
the Capitol of the State, and without
a moments delay or doubt Gov.
Blount responded to the declaration
of war by rendering to President
Madison twenty-five hundred vol
unteers, to be commanded by Gen.
| Andrew Jackson, of the State mill
tia; their services were accepted.
The Governor ordered Gen. Jackson
to New Orleans, at the request of
| the President, to the assistance of
Gen. Wilkinson. Hull had failed
in Canada, and the people of the
/ South became alarmed for the safety
of the lower Mississippi. There were
no ordnance stores in Tennessee; no
quartermaster stores; no paymaster,
no money; but in spite of all this
three regiments were called for and |
organized, under this order of the |
Governor to the volunteers: s'TO |
arm and equip themselves with their
own arms, including rifles as far as
practicable, and to furnish them
selves as fully as may be cOnven-
ientiy in their power to do with am
munitiOn, camp equipage and blan-
kets," and he supplied himself the
army chest with fifteen thousand |
dollars, borrowed on his own account |
to meet the immediate wants of his
little army.
His action in the Creek war was
not less energetic, but he was better
supported by the State, which voted
$500 volunteers and 100000 to de-
fray the expenses of the war which
succeeded, in which the Indian out
RACES and depredatiOns were finally
set at rest by the battles of Talla-
hatchee, Talladega, Emuckfan and
the Horse Shoe. The State has never
made good to Blount or to his fam
lily the money for which he bound
himself in his cOuntry's emergencies,
and he impoverished himself and
his descendants in liquidating these
obligations after the termination of
his career as Governor.
1t was at this time (1815), on his
return to his home in Montgomery
county, that our kind informant,
John r. Elliott, Esq, first became
acquainted with him. The liabili-
ties incurred as above described were
too much for his estate and he was
soon compelled to sell his property,
now owned by Mr.. Elliott. After
this he resided first with his son-in-
law, DIR. Dabrey, and after his death
with Mr.. Baker Dortch, and finally
with Wylie johnson, Esq, at his
house near Nashville, at which Mrs.
Mcclure now lives. Here he died
in 1885 at the age of 81.
Our kind informant remembers
him as kindly, CHEEKY old man,
fond of the society of the young, to
whom his society was always de-
lightful, Astounding as he did in an
ecdotes of the stirring times in which !
he lived, and in jOcose stories of
which he himself was generally the
subject. There is something to us
very touching in this account of the !
old man who had passed through !
and taken a leading part in the most {
noted events in the history of Ten |
nessee; afterwards broken in for
tune by his own liberality and patri- !
otism, never complaining in his adj
versity, but rather a source of de-
light to old and young through the
winning cheerfulness of his declin-
ing days.
In 1884 he was again summoned :
from his privacy by the people of
Tennessee to take part in the con-
ventiOn for the revision of the State
Constitution. =,
The memory of such men is too i.
precious to be forgotten, and we are
grateful to our fellOw-citizen and :
representative, the Hon. Charles G.
for his instrumentality in re-
Viving it. But on this head Gov. I
Browns address must speak for us
more ably far than we could do it: d
Give to the youth all the force of ,
past examples, and all the weight of =,
present precepts and eXhOrtatiOns,
and all the hopes of a boundless fu- t
ture, and we may preserve our in j
from the evils that beset '
them from within and without. Go
to France, with all her misfOrtunes,
and you will find that gallant people
fully imbued with these sentiments.
Monuments and statues to the heroes
who fought her battles, and to the =
who led her Senates, are
to be found on every boulevard and I
in every cemetery, towering in ma L
jestic grandeur and proclaiming the V
of the names they COM 9
So in Germany-in ev- 7
cry Capitol of that mighty empire.