William Grainger Blount

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title: "William Grainger Blount" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1784-births", "1827-deaths", "politicians-from-new-bern,-north-carolina", "politicians-from-knoxville,-tennessee", "people-from-paris,-tennessee", "secretaries-of-state-of-tennessee", "tennessee-lawyers", "democratic-republican-party-united-states-representatives-from-tennessee", "19th-century-american-lawyers", "19th-century-united-states-representatives", "19th-century-members-of-the-tennessee-general-assembly"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grainger_Blount" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	William Grainger Blount
district1	2nd
state1	Tennessee
term_start1	December 8, 1815
term_end1	March 3, 1819
predecessor1	John Sevier
successor1	John Alexander Cocke
office2	Secretary of State of Tennessee
term_start2	1811
term_end2	1815
governor2	Willie Blount
preceded2	Robert Houston
succeeded2	William Alexander
party	Democratic-Republican
birth_date
birth_place	Craven County, North Carolina, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Paris, Tennessee, U.S.
resting_place	City Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee
profession	Attorney, farmer
relations	William Blount (father)
Thomas Blount (uncle)
Willie Blount (uncle)
::

|name = William Grainger Blount |image = |order1 = |district1 = 2nd |state1 = Tennessee |term_start1 = December 8, 1815 |term_end1 = March 3, 1819 |lieutenant1 = |predecessor1 = John Sevier |successor1 = John Alexander Cocke |office2 = Secretary of State of Tennessee |term_start2 = 1811 |term_end2 = 1815 |governor2 = Willie Blount |preceded2 = Robert Houston |succeeded2 = William Alexander |party = Democratic-Republican |birth_date = |birth_place = Craven County, North Carolina, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = Paris, Tennessee, U.S. |resting_place = City Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee |spouse = |children = |alma_mater = |profession = Attorney, farmer |relations = William Blount (father) Thomas Blount (uncle) Willie Blount (uncle) |religion = William Grainger Blount (1784 – May 21, 1827) was an American politician who represented Tennessee's 2nd district in the United States House of Representatives from 1815 to 1819. He is the son of Southwest Territory governor William Blount and nephew of Tennessee governor Willie Blount, serving under the latter as Tennessee Secretary of State from 1811 to 1815.

Life and career

Blount was born near New Bern, North Carolina, in Craven County, the eldest son of William Blount and Mary Grainger Blount. He attended the New Bern Academy. In 1792, following his father's appointment as Governor of the Southwest Territory, he moved with his parents to Knoxville, which had been chosen as the new territorial capital. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1805. He was never married and had no known children.

Blount practiced law in Knoxville. He also engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1811, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. and certified the "Walker Line" as the boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky.

Following the death of John Sevier in 1815, Blount was elected to his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, narrowly defeating John Cocke by a vote of 1,583 to 1,355. He was reelected in 1817, again defeating Cocke by a narrow margin, 3,627 votes to 3,429. Blount consistently sought the creation of new postal routes throughout his district, including a route connecting Maryville and Sevierville, a route connecting Sevierville and Dandridge, and a route connecting Morganton, Tennessee, with Carnesville, Georgia. He voted in favor of an 1816 bill reaffirming the nation's neutrality,

Choosing not to run for a third term, Blount resumed his practice of law in Knoxville. In 1818, he became owner of Blount Mansion, the house his father had built in the city. He moved to Paris, Tennessee, in 1826, where he continued to practice law. He died on May 21, 1827, and is interred in the City Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee.

References

References

1. "Blount, William Grainger".
2. "William Grainger Blount". Ancestry.com.
3. Shortly afterward, the General Assembly elected him Secretary of State of Tennessee. Serving alongside his uncle, Governor Willie Blount, he helped coordinate the state's [[War of 1812]] efforts,Samuel G. Heiskell, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HuwTAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22william+g.+blount%22&pg=PA368 Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History]'' (Ambrose Printing Company, 1918), p. 368.
4. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PZRaAAAAYAAJ&q=%22william+g.+blount%22 Journal of the House of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky] (State Journal Company, 1815), p. 106.
5. [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=233172 Candidate: William Grainger Blount], ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved: 20 February 2013.
6. "William Grainger Blount". Govtrack US Congress.
7. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=zn09AAAAIAAJ&q=%22william+g.+blount%22 Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States]'' (Francis Childs and John Swain, 1816), pp. 89, 104, 270, 548.
8. and voted against the [[Bonus Bill of 1817]] (he also voted in favor of sustaining President [[James Madison]]'s veto of the Bonus Bill).Stanley Folmsbee, ''Sectionalism and Internal Improvements in Tennessee, 1796–1845'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1939), p. 42n.
9. Amy Young, ''Archaeology of Southern Landscapes'' (University of Alabama Press, 2000), p. 155.
10. "William Grainger Blount". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
11. "William Grainger Blount". The Political Graveyard.

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