William Blount - Southwest Territory

Southwest Territory

Congress accepted North Carolina's western cession, which consisted of what is now Tennessee, on April 2, 1790. In May, the Southwest Territory was created from the new cession, and was to be governed under the Northwest Ordinance. On June 8, President George Washington appointed Blount governor of the new territory. Blount visited Washington at Mount Vernon on September 18, and was sworn in by Supreme Court justice James Iredell two days later. In October 1790, he set up a temporary capital at William Cobb's house, Rocky Mount, in what is now Piney Flats, Tennessee, and began organizing a government for the new territory.

The western frontiersmen were initially skeptical of Blount, who came across as an aristocratic easterner. Blount managed to gain their trust, however, by recommending John Sevier and James Robertson as brigadier generals of the territorial militia, and appointing Landon Carter, Stockley Donelson and Gilbert Christian as colonels. Former Franklinites appointed to lower government offices included Joseph Hardin, William Cage, James White, Dr. James White and Francis Alexander Ramsey. Others receiving appointments included future president Andrew Jackson, future governor Archibald Roane, and naval officer George Farragut. Blount hired his half-brother, Willie Blount, as a personal secretary, and recruited Fayetteville, North Carolina, publisher George Roulstone to establish a newspaper for the new territory, known as the Gazette.

In December 1790, following his trip to the Cumberland territories, Blount's family joined him at Rocky Mount. The following year, he chose James White's Fort, near the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers, as the territory's new capital. He named the capital "Knoxville" after his superior, Secretary of War Henry Knox. Following the initial sale of lots in October 1791, he began construction of his mansion in the new city.

Throughout his term as governor, Blount was torn between angry western frontiersmen, who demanded war against hostile Indians, and a War Department that consistently pushed for peaceful negotiations with the Indians. In June 1791, he negotiated the Treaty of Holston with Cherokee leader John Watts and several other chiefs, resolving land claims south of the French Broad and obtaining permission for a permanent road between the territory's eastern settlements and the Cumberland settlements. In spite of this treaty, Chickamauga attacks increased the following year. Frustrated settlers demanded federal troops intervene, but the War Department refused, blaming settlers for intruding on Indian lands.

William Cocke, an ex-Franklinite, blamed Blount for the lack of action against the Chickamaugas, and began publishing attacks against Blount in the Gazette. Blount responded with a series of articles (published under pseudonymns) rejecting Cocke and calling for patience. Following attacks by the Chickamaugas against Ziegler's Station in 1792 and against Cavet's Station in 1793, however, Blount was unable to contain the rage of frontiersmen, and called up the militia. Sevier led the militia south into Georgia, and attacked and destroyed several Chickamauga villages. Knox blasted Blount for the invasion, and refused to issue pay for the militiamen. Blount finally negotiated a truce with the Chickamauga at the Tellico Blockhouse in 1794.

Toward the middle of his term, Blount began implementing the steps stipulated in the Northwest Ordinance for a territory to gain statehood. One of these steps was to call for the election of a legislature and submit nominees for appointments to a territorial council, which Blount did in 1794. On September 15, 1795, he directed county sheriffs to conduct a census. The census placed the territory's population at 77,000, substantially more than the 60,000 required for statehood. Blount ordered a state constitutional convention to be held at Knoxville in January 1796, which he personally attended as part of the Knox County delegation. The government of the new state, Tennessee, convened in late March 1796, before it had been officially admitted to the Union.

Blount realized he had little chance of defeating Sevier in a race for governor of the new state, so he instead sought one of the state's two United States Senate seats. He received this appointment (along with William Cocke) on March 30, 1796, and headed to Philadelphia to campaign for Tennessee's statehood. Blount's brother, Thomas (then a Congressman from North Carolina), along with James Madison, convinced the house to vote for Tennessee's admission to the Union on May 6. The Senate voted to admit the new state on May 31.