I have never seen and with whom I have had no communication either direct or circuitous. I did not even know

until I read his letter that he was one of the persons concerned in the plan. Mr. Chisholm used to mention him as a man of weight and influence in the back country whom

it would be essential to gain but he seemed to doubt the 1185 possibility of securing him.

The British Minister further claimed that he

knew nothing about the "man of consequence" referred to in

consideration of the relations that existed between the Senator and Romayne.

85. Doc. on the Blount Conspiracy, p. 594.

86. Ibid., p. 595.

PART II

The whole element of speculation in the

1780's and 1790's went into wild lands, and nearly all of the prominent frontiersmen were involved. Blount was one of the number who tried to make quick money in land speculation. His interest in land can

be traced to the early 1780's. In 1783, he and James Robertson agreed to purchase military warrants amounting to 50,000 acres. Where possible, Robertson was

88

to enter these claims on land cleared of Indian title, but on some occasions the claims were placed on Indian lands, with the hope of securing the land when the Indian titles were cleared. In 1784, Blount was the head of a company of land speculators who planned to 89 settle at Muscle Shoals. Throughout Blount's cor

88. Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West (4 vols., New York, 1896), IV, p. 117. 89. See letter from Blount to John Donelason, dated

90

91

respondence, there are continual references to his purchase of land warrants. On February 26, 1795, he advised Robertson to reserve the military lands on the Cumberland in case he decided to buy them. In the same letter he wrote, "I yet mean to purchase many warrants now remaining in Learcy's office". When Tennessee was 92 admitted to the Union, Blount was taxed on 73,252 acres. It was interest in the military lands on the Cumberland that led Blount to develop a friendship with Romayne in the 1780's. The two men talked of forming a company in Europe to purchase the lands. Romayne on his trip to Europe in 1796 hoped to establish such a company but was unsuccessful. He did interest certain people, who immediately proposed that Tennessee pass a law allowing aliens to hold land in Tennessee. When Romayne returned to New York in October, 1796, he notified Blount that nothing further had been done about the business. The matter rested until Blount visited Romayne in February, 1797, at which time the value of lands was discussed. Blount had speculated in the Tennessee lands and was, there

90. See letter from Blount to Robertson, dated January 2, 1792 in American Historical Magazine, I (1896), p. 281; See also letter of April 29, 1792, Ibid., p. 393.

91. "Correspondence of Robertson", in American Historical Magazine, IV (1899), pp. 174, 175.