America's Pioneering Wheeler Dealer by David Arthur Walters

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This great wheeler dealer was the first man impeached by the U.S. Senate

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AMERICA¶S PIONEERING WHEELER DEALER
by David Arthur Walters

A great wheeler dealer was the first man impeached by the U.S. Senate

"For William Blount, especially, a new era had opened. Though his interests in merchandising, trade, and politics continued, the never-ceasing pursuit of acreage, and the search for profit in every acre from town lots to imperial domains became his paramount, life-long interest." William H. Masterson Vice President Thomas Jefferson presided over the Senate during the first impeachment trial in the United States, that of Senator William Blount. Jefferson was convinced that the Tennessee senator had done nothing wrong, and concluded that impeachment itself is a political farce. Nonetheless, Senator Blount had scant personal support during either the expulsion and impeachment proceedings other than that provided by his attorneys, and his protege, U.S. Representative Andrew Jackson - Jackson took Blount's senate seat. The Senate factions vigorously and sometimes eloquently debated their respective interpretations
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of the great fulcrum of controversy, the Constitution. There were fireworks on the side to alight the dryer patches: on one memorable day, Matthew Lyon of Vermont grabbed the fire tongs, rushed Federalist Roger Griswold, knocked him down and tried to beat his head in over an insulting remark - they were separated, and neither were expelled. Yet, given the Blount Affair as an occassion to argue over the liberal or strict construction of the Constitution, nary a soul in the administration nor in Congress would have much to do with Senator Blount himself: Federalists and Republicans alike distanced themselves from him, denounced him, sought to punish him The impeachment was brought by the House after a mere five days, on the basis of a single letter which Senator Blount had written in conspiratorial tone to Indian-interpreter, one James Carey, with instructions to destroy it after it was read. In brief, Blount wanted to grab some Indian land, by misinterpreting a treaty, and blame former President Washington for the purported misunderstanding. Of course a much grander plot than the parcel of land, a conspiracy involving alien powers, was implied and was seemingly afoot in the context of the letter. The representatives of both parties made haste to impeach Blount because they believed their young nation was immediately endangered by a ominous conspiracy. The writing of such a letter might not have constituted an indictable offense in itself: it takes more than one person to conspire; there was no concrete evidence that anyone else was actually involved. The conspiracy countenanced, even if were executed, might not have been a crime under current law. But all that was beside the point at the time - and whether or not impeachment requires an indictable criminal offense or not remains irrelevant to this day, at least according to a one-sided interpretation of the impeachment clause. The nonpartisan point was obvious: Senator Blount was privately scheming, apparently for his personal profit, to engage in activities that might embarrass the nation and provoke a bloody war with a world power. Congressmen who had the Constitutional duty to judge Blount's conduct had themselves framed the Constitution, hence they were most intimate with "the intent of the framers." Blount appeared to be guilty as sin, of malfeasance in office. Since his perceived misconduct seemed to pose an immediate threat to the existence of the infant nation, the congressmen did not immediately proceed to quibble over the definition of "office," but set about employing their powers to expell Blount from the Senate forthwith, and only then to uncover and defeat the conspiracy and to make sure Blount could not return to office - ever popular in Tennessee, Blount would have been re-elected to the Senate short of impeachment. This was not the first time William Blount had been accused of malfeasance in office, nor was the Carey letter the sole cause for congressmen to fear so much for their nation's safety. They knew the author of the letter quite well. He was a powerful and clever man. He had cut his teeth on the mercantile business of his father in North Carolina. He had served the nation as a merchant-soldier during the Revolution. His public duties then as a paymaster gave him immediate access to crucial information and vital commercial facilities, and dovetailed with his private pursuits - to his credit after he become a U.S. Senator, he kept his business separate from politics and voted against his private interest. The wartime economy was an unusual opportunity for shrewd, well-placed speculators: races
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and creeds clashed; mobs were pillaging; Tories and Whigs were making savage raids; inflation was soaring over floods of depreciated paper; finished goods were in short supply. Meanwhile, paymaster Blount, having official access to goods and warehouses, procured and disposed of supplies; issued warrants to pay the soldiers; speculated on paper and real estate; mastered currency trading and the like. He handsomely profited by his salary, private trading in goods and currencies, and paying off Loyalist debts with depreciated currency. Furthermore, in the Camden disaster of August 16, 1780, he somehow managed to lose $300,000 of the payroll. In any case, his business methods were not greatly appreciated by persons who got the short end of the stick. Thomas Hart's facetious letter to Blount, dated January 25, 1780, is a bitterly made case on point: "I have (Once more) Sendt a waggon and two Hhds tobe your place, and what will you send me in Return, I Suppose as half Bushl Salt, or Galls of Rum for a 100wt Tobe, Something like this, I make no doubt, - What a Sett of Atheistical fellows must there be in Newbern that thinks there is Neither God nor Devil to punish them in a Nother World, for their usury to us in this, I must send down Debow Once more to preach up the Doctrine of Regeneration or the New Birth to you, for If there ever was a Sett of men on the face of this Globe, who stood more in need of being Regenerated, and Born anew, I wonder trully how many poor Sons of Bitches with tears in their Eyes have I Seen with these Six weeks past, Coming from your place. Some with 5 or 6 Bushls Salt in their waggons, Some [with?] 8 or 10 Galls of Rum, and others with Cargoes [or less?] Value, all declaring themselves Broken [miserably] but None of them without a Good Store of [curses which] they bestow (with a very Liberal hand) on the Good folks of Newbern... can you expect to thrive Under the Heavy Curses of the Rightious folks of this Country, had Not you better try to do Something that may entitle you to Our Blessing. Instead of Our Curses, come do (for Godsake) begin with me, and let us See what you can do...." (sic) Blount entered politics after the war - in 1780 at age 31 - becoming New Bern's representative to North Carolina's House of Commons. As one of several self-interested speculator-legislators, he devised and pushed through legislation to grant certain 'unclaimed' Tennessee land over the mountains to North Carolina veterans. Well, the soldiers needed money more than the distant land. Blount and his fellow speculatorlegislators were kind enough to buy the land from the veterans, with an issue of brand new money they had legislated for that very purpose - the affair was dubbed The Land Grab of '83. Then Blount sponsored legislation to have the Western land ceded to the federal government, hoping that would serve to secure the land grants - the cession eventually took place, in 1790, after considerable controversy. At the same time, Blount was involved in an effort to secure a big chunk of the prime real estate of East Tennessee and have it recognized as the State of Franklin Benjamin Franklin gave it his blessing but declined the invitation to move there due to reasons of advanced age. Blount was re-elected to the North Carolina legislature in 1784. He briefly served in the Continental Congress in 1785, then returned to North Carolina. In 1790, President Washington appointed him Governor of and Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the Territory of the United States South of the Ohio. The appointment gave him ample opportunity to deal in vast tracts of land, including tracts rightfully belonging to the Indians.
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Blount and his fellow schemers wanted to secure a U.S. route to the Gulf of Mexico - Spain had possession of the Mississippi and New Orleans. They figured The Bend - the great southern bend of the Tennessee River - and further on down, by river and land to the Gulf, would serve their purpose nicely. The spectre of possible Spanish attacks was raised to scare off the competition and drum up patriotic support. The possibility of enormous profits was vaunted to obtain financing - a Mennonite company already wanted to buy some land in the Bend. It was necessary to deal, first of all, with South Carolina, and then to buy off the Georgia legislature to gain legitimate access to the vast tracts of land. A commission was set up to manage the land - the commission also had the power to grant warrants on the land. Some of the official land commissioners were, quite naturally, also members of the private Bend of Tennessee Company. We can easily guess who the mastermind was - none other than William Blount. On May 31, 1784, Blount sent an excerpt from the Mennonite community's offer to purchase Bend lands, to his partners - North Carolina land commissioners John Donelson, Joseph Martin, and John Sevier - along with his letter stating that the North Carolina cession of lands to Congress would boost the value of the land. He further advised them as follows: ".... If you should think proper to open the .... [land office] to grant Warrants at 1/8 of a dollar per Acre enter as much as you can and make use of any Names fictitious ones will do I suppose, If not you may use the Names of Blount, WIlliam Johnson Allen, Winnan, Ogden and almost any other Name you please ading such Christian Names to them as You please and You need not fear but I can find the People to transfer their Rights to the Company.... May it not be good Policy [to] set some new Scheme on foot in Partnership with the Gentlemen of Georgia to make futher Purchases over the Tenesee or on the Missisippi in on down near the Natches for they must if possible be fixed with a thirst for back lands to effect which no Pains must be spared...." On the same day, Blount wrote to Georgia commissioners James McIntosh, Stephen Heard, John Morrell and William Downes: ".... The Object of the Tenesee Company in purchasing the Bend and (I suppose) your's in Accepting the appointment as commissioners must have been the same, I mean private Emolument and in Order that we may both obtain our purposes it is Necessary, We should understand eath Other and that our Acts should tend to our mutual advantage.... You have power, to make the company such, compensation as may be deemed Adequate and satisfactory. No Bond nor no Oath has been required nor no Instructions, given you... and if you accede to my Proposition of our Interest being the same you will have a share of your own liberty..... Such Another oppertunity may never present itself of Making a Spec and there's an old Proverb which says "make Hay while the sun shines," of which I wish you to be mindfull.... I wish you an agreeable Journey and greate Choice and Great plenty of Cheekamagga Squaws." (sic) William Blount soon led the fight for the admission of Tennessee to the Union. Once Tennessee became a state, Blount, the Federalist-appointed territorial governor, would no longer be beholden to the Federalists in Philadelphia, nor would other Tennesseans for that matter. Wherefore the Federalists tried to prevent Tennessee Senators Blount and Cocke from taking
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their Senate seats. Blount, who had once been a moderate if not a conservative, was now a confirmed Republican (democrat), and so were the rest of the conservative holdouts in liberal Tennessee - they were embittered by the Federalist obstruction to their ambitions. Blount was not as popular in Tennessee as his longtime ally, the famed John Sevier, but he was popular enough to the settlers who had due cause to appreciate his land deals and to despise the Federalist government. Blount had a reputation for getting things done by disreputable means. All of the above was not lost on his fellow senators when they expelled him and proceeded to try him for high crimes and misdemeanors. Blount, by the way, was not the only great person to resort to deceitful business and political methods - we need not name other Names here since many several qualified academics are busy taking the shine off our historical idols as we speak. Today the name William Blount is barely known by U.S. citizens outside of Tennessee. History buffs remember him as the ignominious Senator who was impeached by the House, jumped bail, and fled on horseback - the esteemed senators eventually decided that senators could not be impeached. Blount deserves considerable credit for being the founding father of the State of Tennessee. But the state was just one of his deals. William Blount was a pioneer wheeler-dealer, perhaps one of the greatest wheeler-dealers America has ever known. I suppose somebody had to do what he did, else we would not be here, nor would the United States of America as we know it.

Note: I utilized numerous sources for this article. The best popular source available is William Blount, by William H. Masterson, Baton Rouge: Lousiana State Press 1954. Masterson had access to the Blount papers: the letters above are quoted in his book. The Incriminating Carey Letter On April 21,1797, Senator Blount wrote a letter to Indian interpreter James Carey at the Tellico station in Tennessee, enlisting his participation in the conspiracy against Spain and certain Indians, the execution of which would be enormously profitable to himself and other real estate speculators not to mention ordinary pro-American squatters on Indian lands south of the Ohio river and pro-American settlers in Florida and Louisiana. Blount warned Carey against the discovery of the plot by pro-Federalist officials on the scene, particularly Mr. Dinsmoor, an interpreter; Mr. Byers, the storekeeper; and Benjamin Hawkins, the Indian superintendent. Unfortunately for Senator Blount, Carey showed the letter to James Byers, the government factor at Tellico; Byers took the letter to Blount's mortal enemy, David Henley; he in turn expressed it to Secretary of War James McHenry and Secretary of State Timothy Pickering in Philadelphia. Of course Pickering turned the letter over to President Adams, who approved its disclosure to Congress. The incriminating letter was the main evidence which led to the quick expulsion and impeachment of Senator Blount.

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The Carey Letter Col. King's Iron Works, April 21, 1797 Dear Carey: I wished to have seen you before I returned to Philadelphia, but I am obliged to return to the session of Congress which commences on the 15th of May. Among other things that I wished to have seen you about was the business Captain Chisholm mentioned to the British Minister last winter at Philadelphia. I believe, but am not sure, that the plan then talked of [at a conference between Blount henchman John Chisholm and British minister John Liston] will be attempted this fall, and if it is attempted, it will be in a much larger way than then talked of, and if the Indians act their part, I have no doubt but it will succeed. A man of consequence [Dr. Nicholas Romayne] has gone to England about the business; and if he makes arrangements as he expects, I shall myself have a hand in the business; and probably shall be at the head of the business on the part of the British. You are, however, to understand that it is not yet quite certain that the plan will be attempted, and to do so will require all your management. I say will require all your management, because you must take care in whatever you say to Rogers or anybody else, not to let the plan be discovered by Hawkins, Dinsmoor, Byers or any other person in the interest of the United States of Spain. If I attempt this plan, I shall expect to have you and all of my Indian friends with me, but you are now in good business, I hope, and you are not to risk the loss of it by saying anything that will hurt you until you again hear from me. Where Captain Chisholm is I do not know. I left home in Philadelphia in March, and he frequently visited the Minister and spoke about the subject; but I believe he will go again into the Creek nation by way of South Carolina or Georgia. He gave out that he was going to England, but I do not believe him. Among things that you may safely do, will be to keep up my consequence with Watts and the Creeks and the Cherokees generally; and you must, by no means, say anything in favor of Hawkins, but, as often as you can with safety to yourself, you may teach the Creeks to believe he is no better than he should be.
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Any power or consequence he gets will be against our plan. Perhaps Rogers, who has no office to lose, is the best man to give out talks against Hawkins. Read the letter to Rogers, and if you think best to send it, put a wafer in it and forward it to him by a safe hand; or perhaps, you had best send for him to come to you, and to speak to him yourself respecting the state and prospect of things. I have advised you, in whatever you do, to take care of yourself. I have now to tell you to take care of me too, for a discovery of the plan would prevent the success, and much injure all parties concerned. It may be that the Commissioners may not run the line as the Indians expect of wish, and in that case, it is probable the Indians may be taught to blame me for making the Treaty. To such complaints against me, if such there are, it may be said by my friends, at proper times and places, that Doublehead confirmed the treaty with the President at Philadelphia, and received as much as five thousand dollars a year to be paid to the Nation over and above the first price; indeed it may with truth be said that I was by the President instructed to purchase much more land than the Indians would agree to sell. This sort of talk will be throwing all the blame off me upon the late President, and as he is now out of office, it will be of no consequence how much the Indians blame him. And among other things, that may be said for me is, that I was not at the running of the line, and that if I had been, it would have been more to their satisfaction. In short, you understand the subject, and must take care to give out the proper talks to keep up with my consequence with the Creeks and Cherokees. Can't Rogers contrive to get the Creeks to desire the President to take Hawkins out of the nation? for, if he stays in the Creek nation, and gets the good will of the nation, he can and will do great injury to our plan. When you have read this letter over three times, then burn it. I shall be at Knoxville in July or August, when I will send for Watts and give him the whiskey I promised him. I am, &c., WM. BLOUNT
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Source: Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, 5th Congress, 2nd Session, 2349-2350; full letter also appears in ANDREW JACKSON and EARLY TENNESSEE HISTORY by S.G. Heiskell, Knoxville: Ambrose 1918

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