![[BLOUNT, William (1749-1800)]. A fine collection of works relating to the impeachment and life of William Blount, including a manuscript document signed, various 8o sizes (208/235 x 125/147 mm). (A few minor marginal repairs, some occasional pale spotting.) Modern cloth; cloth slipcase. Provenance: Thomas Francis Bayard (bookplate). All FIRST EDITIONS, as follow:](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01614_0132_000(102407).jpg?w=1)
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[BLOUNT, William (1749-1800)]. A fine collection of works relating to the impeachment and life of William Blount, including a manuscript document signed, various 8o sizes (208/235 x 125/147 mm). (A few minor marginal repairs, some occasional pale spotting.) Modern cloth; cloth slipcase. Provenance: Thomas Francis Bayard (bookplate). All FIRST EDITIONS, as follow:
COMPRISING:
Report of the Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, Appointed to Prepare and Report Articles of Impeachment Against William Blount, A Senator of the United States, Impeached of High Crimes and Misdemeanors. [Philadelphia:] John Fenno, [1797]. Provenance: J. Williams (signature on contents leaf). Howes B-549; Sabin 6003; Streeter III:1526.
Further Report from the Committee, Appointed on the Eighth of July Last, to Prepare and Report Articles of Impeachment Against William Blount. [Philadelphia, 1797]. 4 pages. See Howes B-549. Howes notes that the Further Report... is contained in some copies of the preceding, but he makes no distinction between this and the following, which, though similar in title, differ textually, the second bearing the imprint of John Fenno. His only remark to distinguish them is that this first Further Report was published in the same year (1797) as the preceding. Sabin 6000.
Further Report of the Committee, Appointed the Eighth July Last, to Prepare and Report Articles of Impeachment Against William Blount. [Philadelphia:] John Fenno, 1798. 11 pages. Sabin 6000.
CLARK, Elijah. Deposition of Gen. Elijah Clark, of the State of Georgia, Respecting a Letter from him to Don Diego Morphy, Consul of His Catholic Majesty, At Charleston, South-Carolina. 1798. 8 pages. Sabin 13276.
Proceedings on the Impeachment of William Blount, A Senator of the United States from the State of Tennessee, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Philadelphia: Joseph Gales, 1799. 102 pages. Provenance: James Madison, Jr. (signature on front wrapper). Howes B-548; Sabin 6002.
WRIGHT, Marcus J. Some Account of the Life and Services of William Blount. Washington, D.C.: E.J. Gray, 1884. 142 pages. Original wrappers bound in (a few restorations). Howes W-704.
[Bound in at front:] BLOUNT, William. Manuscript document signed ("Wm. Blount"), Knoxville, 14 July 1795. 1 page, folio, folded, taped to flyleaf. Blount, identified as "Governor in and over the Territory of the United States south of the river Ohio," orders David Henley, agent for the Department of War, to pay $503.25 to William Rickard, Master pro tem to the troops of the territory. "The money in your hands appropriated for the defensive protection of the frontiers for the pay of a Company of Mounted Infantry of the Miro District, Colonel Isaac Roberts' Regiment under the command of Captain Thomas Harney from the twentieth of August to the thirtieth of August 1794."
Blount's impeachment was the first of its kind. One of the first two senators from Tennessee and an avid speculator in western land, Blount was caught in a scheme with the British minister to incite the Creeks and Cherokees to aid the British in an effort to take Florida and Louisiana from the Spanish. "Blount emerged as the linchpin of a growing western land speculation that eventually led to state making and national political activity. The firm of John Gray and Thomas Blount, which he'd established with his brothers, sought to achieve economic advantage and influence on the national level. William Blount, the firm's political agent, served in the Continental Congress in 1782-1783 and again in the critical years of 1786-87. While in that body, Blount sought to protect the firm's extensive western land investments by calling for expanded national control over the American Indian tribes in the area, and he cultivated good relations with Spanish and other foreign diplomats to protect navigation of the Mississippi River. Additionally, Blount was in constant motion seeking investors in company lands and developing well-placed friends among the powerful such as George Washington," with whom Blount became acquainted while at the Continental Congress (ANB). Following ratification, Blount unsuccessfully sought election to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina; in 1790 Washington appointed him territorial governor of the territory south of the Ohio River.
At the state Constitutional Convention in 1796 Blount drew up the fundamental document for the state of Tennessee. The legislature chosen under the new state constitution elected him a U.S. Senator in 1796. Blount and his brothers entered the "raging mania of speculation," according to his biographer Thomas H. Winn, that swept the nation in the 1790s. "They made commitments to purchase millions of acres before western land values collapsed when war broke out between Great Britain and Spain in 1796. Fearing that France would gain control of the Mississippi, Blount entered into a conspiracy that sought to join the western Mississippi area with Britain, a party to the Treaty of 1783 guaranteeing navigation of that river" (ibid.). Senator Blount put his design into a letter that fell into the hands of his opponents and was publicly revealed. He resigned his Senate post to avoid impeachment. "Returning to Tennessee, he received a hero's welcome and was elected to the state senate and to the Speakership, the state's second highest office. Blount's career ended at Knoxville, where he died of chills and possibly a stroke in 1800" (ibid.).
COMPRISING:
Report of the Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, Appointed to Prepare and Report Articles of Impeachment Against William Blount, A Senator of the United States, Impeached of High Crimes and Misdemeanors. [Philadelphia:] John Fenno, [1797]. Provenance: J. Williams (signature on contents leaf). Howes B-549; Sabin 6003; Streeter III:1526.
Further Report from the Committee, Appointed on the Eighth of July Last, to Prepare and Report Articles of Impeachment Against William Blount. [Philadelphia, 1797]. 4 pages. See Howes B-549. Howes notes that the Further Report... is contained in some copies of the preceding, but he makes no distinction between this and the following, which, though similar in title, differ textually, the second bearing the imprint of John Fenno. His only remark to distinguish them is that this first Further Report was published in the same year (1797) as the preceding. Sabin 6000.
Further Report of the Committee, Appointed the Eighth July Last, to Prepare and Report Articles of Impeachment Against William Blount. [Philadelphia:] John Fenno, 1798. 11 pages. Sabin 6000.
CLARK, Elijah. Deposition of Gen. Elijah Clark, of the State of Georgia, Respecting a Letter from him to Don Diego Morphy, Consul of His Catholic Majesty, At Charleston, South-Carolina. 1798. 8 pages. Sabin 13276.
Proceedings on the Impeachment of William Blount, A Senator of the United States from the State of Tennessee, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Philadelphia: Joseph Gales, 1799. 102 pages. Provenance: James Madison, Jr. (signature on front wrapper). Howes B-548; Sabin 6002.
WRIGHT, Marcus J. Some Account of the Life and Services of William Blount. Washington, D.C.: E.J. Gray, 1884. 142 pages. Original wrappers bound in (a few restorations). Howes W-704.
[Bound in at front:] BLOUNT, William. Manuscript document signed ("W
Blount's impeachment was the first of its kind. One of the first two senators from Tennessee and an avid speculator in western land, Blount was caught in a scheme with the British minister to incite the Creeks and Cherokees to aid the British in an effort to take Florida and Louisiana from the Spanish. "Blount emerged as the linchpin of a growing western land speculation that eventually led to state making and national political activity. The firm of John Gray and Thomas Blount, which he'd established with his brothers, sought to achieve economic advantage and influence on the national level. William Blount, the firm's political agent, served in the Continental Congress in 1782-1783 and again in the critical years of 1786-87. While in that body, Blount sought to protect the firm's extensive western land investments by calling for expanded national control over the American Indian tribes in the area, and he cultivated good relations with Spanish and other foreign diplomats to protect navigation of the Mississippi River. Additionally, Blount was in constant motion seeking investors in company lands and developing well-placed friends among the powerful such as George Washington," with whom Blount became acquainted while at the Continental Congress (ANB). Following ratification, Blount unsuccessfully sought election to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina; in 1790 Washington appointed him territorial governor of the territory south of the Ohio River.
At the state Constitutional Convention in 1796 Blount drew up the fundamental document for the state of Tennessee. The legislature chosen under the new state constitution elected him a U.S. Senator in 1796. Blount and his brothers entered the "raging mania of speculation," according to his biographer Thomas H. Winn, that swept the nation in the 1790s. "They made commitments to purchase millions of acres before western land values collapsed when war broke out between Great Britain and Spain in 1796. Fearing that France would gain control of the Mississippi, Blount entered into a conspiracy that sought to join the western Mississippi area with Britain, a party to the Treaty of 1783 guaranteeing navigation of that river" (ibid.). Senator Blount put his design into a letter that fell into the hands of his opponents and was publicly revealed. He resigned his Senate post to avoid impeachment. "Returning to Tennessee, he received a hero's welcome and was elected to the state senate and to the Speakership, the state's second highest office. Blount's career ended at Knoxville, where he died of chills and possibly a stroke in 1800" (ibid.).