The Real Estate Crash

Senator William Blount, the first man to be impeached by the House of Representatives, had good reason to be anti-Federalist given the arrogant treatment he had suffered at Federalist hands when he tried to take a seat in the U.S. Senate for the new state of Tennessee. Moreover, Blount was favorably disposed toward some of the republican notions of the French Revolution while the Federalists were enamoured of English traditions. Wherefore Blount's political affiliation with Jefferson's Republican (Democratic) party.

Blount, in his former capacity as Governor of the Southern District, was too beholden to the Federalists who had appointed him, hence he led a crusade to bring statehood to Tennessee in order to save himself and like-minded Tennesseans from Federalist domination. The regional demands for statehood after the Revolution, which if met would provide independence from the federal government, alarmed the Federalists - too many states would rock the Federalist boat and water down its stock.

After Blount achieved statehood for Tennessee and took his Senate seat, he was politcally a Republican (i.e. democrat) through and through. As for business, business is business, and sometimes the good of private business conflicts with publicly held political persuasions. Senator Blount the real estate speculator was facing financial ruin. That alone gave him due cause to side with the British where his own business was concerned. On the other hand, he faithfully sided with the French in the political arena.

Blount and his fellow speculative patriots had their eyes on the Spanish plums in America: Florida and Louisiana. His Majesty of Spain had allied himself with France against England. The American speculators feared that Spain would concede the plums they sorely wanted to France in return for protection; that would spell disaster for the financial plans of Blount et al.

The most convenient solution: make a deal privately with England to grab the plums from Spain. The scheme: American settlers could get together with some Indian allies; backed up by British privateers, they would occupy the coveted lands. Such an alliance with the British would be in accord with the Anglo-American proclivities of most of the Southerners involved. Not that any affection for the British would preclude an alliance with Spain if it were convenient. William Blount, Andrew Jackson, and John Sevier among others had already participated in or condoned a flirtation with the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Esteban Miro, in a previous scheme (the Daniel Smith affair) that would have separated the District of Mero - prime real estate in the middle of the Cumberland region- from North Carolina and handed it over to Spanish Louisiana, that "the West be one people." But that deal had fallen through; this was now, and the speculators were in an awful fix now that values were plummeting and notes were being called in. So to hell with Spain.

William Blount was on the hook for a million acres in 1796. He was involved in his brother John Gray Blount's deals for another million and six hundred thousand acres. Prices in 1795 were around a quarter per acre for large tracts of two or more million acres. War ensued between Britain and Spain in October of 1796 - Spain was probably about to hand Florida and Louisiana over to France. In Tennessee, it appeared that the Federalists would draw the Holston line fairly - as the Cherokees had expected to begin with. Land values out West dropped to a dime an acre when credit collapsed. The dominoes tumbled one after another. Andrew Jackson was deeply indebted. David Allison, a wealthy easterner whose I.O.U. was once as good as gold, and who was one of Blount's partners in Indian land deals, wound up in debtor's prison. Senator Blount was virtually bankrupt; fortunately, his senatorial immunity saved him from debtor's prison.

Surely something must be done or all would be lost as far as the troubled real estate speculators were concerned. Help from the federal government would not be forthcoming if asked for: the Federalists were behaving diplomatically, hoping that the fledgling United States would not be strangled in its crib by foreign entanglements. An "incriminating" letter in Senator Blount's hand came to light, and the question as to whether or not his conduct rose to a high crime or misdemeanor for which impeachment arose and was quickly answered in the affirmative.