(1749-1800)
William Blount was the eldest son of a well-established North Carolina family.
He served in the Continental Army, the North Carolina state government, and the Continental Congress.
Blount missed more than a month of the Philadelphia Convention to serve in the Continental Congress and did not say much while he was there.
In 1790, he moved, settling in what is now Tennessee, and was one of its first U.S. senators.
He was expelled from the Senate in 1797 over a plan to raise forces to invade Spanish territory in Florida and Louisiana and hand the territory over to the British.
He was impeached by the House, but the Senate dropped the charges.
Despite this affair, Blount went on to a successful career in the Tennessee state senate.
