Evening star., 1943-01-10
BY WILL P. KENNEDY.

Senator McKellar, Democrat, Of
Tennessee, serving his 34th con-
secutive year in Congress, has just
published his first book, volume
OF 625 pages which sets forth
his long fight to do justice to an
earlier predecessor, Senator William
Blount, the first Senator ever ex-
PEELED. The book was the result of
Senator McKellar's determination to
study the original records whereby
Senator Blount in 1897 was expelled
by a vote of rs to /.
In his book Senator McKellar
takes to task Labor Secretary Per-
kins and DR.. A. E. Morgan, former
Tennessee Valley Authority chair
man, for their aspersions on the
Eastern Tennessee mountaineers,
especially those residents of counties
in the lost State of Franklin"
This book-a labor of love"-is
"affectionately inscribed to the
memory Of my beloved mother, Car
oline Howard McKellar, whose ten
der and ever present devotion, whose
careful training, and whose teach
ing from vast storehouse of learn
ing and knowledge, have ever been
an inspiration to me-"
1t is entitled Tennessee Senators"
as seen by one of their successors
and contains biographies of the 80
Senators from Tennessee who have
died. Regarding them as group
Senator Mcclellan writes: Il do not
believe any other State has had
more gifted or more unusual repre-
sentatives in the Senate. The lives
of many of them read like romance.
Nearly all of them have attained
most enviable places in the countrys
history"
This list includes two, Jackson
and johnson, afterward Presidents
of the United States; three were
Presidents pro tempore of the Sen
ate-Anderson, White and Harris:
five were later Cabinet members
Campbell, Eaton, Cave Johnson,
Grundy and Key; one, Howell E.
Jackson, was subsequently Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United
States.
Has Historic Value.
Senator McKellar has made a
valuable contribution to history in
his summary and conclusions re-
garding the Blount incident Mr.
Blount had been a paymaster of
the Continental troops, a member
of the Continental Congress Q782-
178O, member of the convention
that framed the Constitution, was
appointed by Washington Governor
Of the Territory South OF the Ohio
River, and served as chairman of
the convention that framed the
Constitution of Tennessee.
He was found guilty "of a high
misdemeanor entirely inconsistent
with his public trust and duty as q
Senator" He was charged with
conspiring and intending to set
on foot military expedition
against the territories and dominion
of Spain while a treaty Of friend
ship existed between Spain and the
United States.
1t all happened years before Con-
gress had passed its first neutrality
act, and many Americans were
needing Washington's warning to
avoid entangling alliances.
Florida, Southern Alabama and
Southern Mississippi were owned
by Spain. Louisiana, which COM
prised Arkansas, the. Indian Ter
ritory. Missouri, Iowa. Nebraska,
Kansas, Minnesota, North and
South Dakota and parts of Wyo-
ming and Montana, was claimed by
the French, and also by Spain
America did not own any Of it. The
only way Tennessee had of getting
its products and merchandise to
world markets was down the Ten
nessee or Cumberland rivers to the
Ohio and on down the Mississippi
to the port of New Orleans. France
had closed this port to the great
injury of all the Western Country,
as it was then called.
Gov. Blount was interested in
having New Orleans, in the hands
Of the French, made a free port
and Mobile and Pensacola. in the
hands of the Spanish, made free
cities.
Through his influence while Gov
ernor and chairman of the Consti-
tutional Convention. it was written
into the constitution of Tennessee
as the 29th section of its Bill of
Rights: That an equal participa-
ton in the free navigation of the
Mississippi River is one of the.
inherent rights of the citizens of
this State; it cannot, therefore, be