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

| IDent was TIlaL very ldWloSSH0S
which the imperfect development
of new government rendered in
evitable. Steadily, firmly, and will
good temper, the Governor met al
these demands. Forts were estab
lished, militia organized, and the
Indian met at every point; courts o
Justice set on foot, in which Willie
Blount, at the age of twenty-five
and a half years, was made Judge O.
of the Supreme Court. 1t is infer
red that less law and more equity
was demanded for the position than
in the present day. The latest of
fetal duties incumbent upon the
Governor were the preliminaries fol
the admission of the State of Ten
nessee in the Union, and when
this was accomplished he relin-
pushed the government of the
State to that tried and stanch public
servant, John Sewer, and himself
became the representative of the
new State in the Senate of the United
States.
While William Blount was in the
United States Senate, his action
there was determined to his own
detriment by a conflict which arose
between the Federal Government
and the States of North Carolina
and Tennessee; this was, mainly
brought about by two causes. First,
the Federal Government had made
land grants in Tennessee while in
the territorial condition, which con-
fiicted with previous patents issued
before North Carolina had joined
the Federal Union; and, Secondly,
the encrOachments of Spain were
resisted by the people of Tennessee
rather more promptly and with less
diplomatic ceremony than accorded
with the action of the Federal pow
ers. 1t is certain that Blount was,
through these two causes, in hot
water with the Federal Govern
ment, and especially the Federal
party, which was at this time pre-
dominant, throughout his Congress
sional career. The precise nature
and form of the collisions can never
be stated now, but it is recorded
that on July s, 1897, during the sec
ond session of the Fourth Congress,
he was expelled from the Senate.
He was soon after impeached, the
of impeachment charging
that civilian BlOunt did cOnspire
to set on foot military hostile eX-
petition against the territory of
his Catholic Majesty in the FlOridas
and Louisiana, for the purpose of
wrestling them from his Catholic
Majesty, and for cOnquering the
same for the King of Great Britain"
1t is extremely improbable that
there was any ground for the last
clause of the indictment, while it is
extremely possible that in some of
the border raids constantly going on
between the Spanish settlers in
and the American settlers
in Tennessee, the sanctity of treaties
between Spain and the Federal Gov
was but loosely observed.
But, however this may be, BlOunt
was idOlized inTennesseef for the very
acts for which he was impeached in
the metropolis, and when the Serge
came to Tennessee to
arrest him on his Impeachment, he
had to return with his GRAND unac-
The cOurtly Governor
him with distinguished
courtesy at his own house, but when
he appraised Blount that he would
have to accompany him to the Cap
itol, the Senator, with a smile, as
Sured him that he would have to re-
turn alone. The Sergeant regretted !
to say that he would have to sum-
mon a posse and take him there by !
force, and the Senator, admitting
that it was his duty to do so, pro-
posed that they should proceed to
the town to do so. Man after man
was summoned; one threatened the |
another laughed in his
face, a third called some neighbOrs
together in p. rage, and it soon be-
came manifest that a movement |
was going on not conducive to the !
safety or comfort of the Sergeant-at-
Arms. This was soon quelled by |
Senator BlOunt, who took the Serge
mt by the hand and babe him an |
farewell, repeating his |
regrets that he would have to travel |
alone. This the Sergeant proceeded |
10 do, quite satisfied that an arrest |
n Tennessee in the name of the
United States Senate was a thing
easier said than done.
The trial, however, did afterwards
come off in his absence, and it is
singular that his counsel got it set
aside on precisely the same grounds
Is were insisted upon in the trial
If Secretary Belknap last year; viz,
hat Senator BlOunt was no longer
If the United States Government,
md therefore not liable to impeach-
nent.
To evince their dissent from the /
United States Senate, the people of
Knox county Immediately elected
him to the State Senate, a vacancy
)eing made for him by the resigna-
ion of General James White. The
at its first meeting thereafter
elected him their Speaker. He died
;oOn after, retaining the undated es-
eem of the whole people of Ten
lessee, at Knoxville, March q,
800. His grave is near the entrance
If the burial ground of the First
Church in Knoxville,
covered bY a plain marble slab in