A few weeks ago, I was identifying to some friends the various founders in an online photo of Howard Chandler Christy’s famous painting, Signing of the Constitution of the United States.
I knew all three North Carolina delegates attended the convention and were signatories. But I was reminded that all three were featured prominently in the portrait.
George Washington is the commanding figure, standing on the platform, behind the desk. Benjamin Franklin is prominent, too, although sitting down. Alexander Hamilton is depicted leaning forward as Franklin lends an ear to the junior statesman’s opinion — something Hamilton shared with whoever would listen. The South Carolina delegation, including Charles Pinckney and John Rutledge, are at the back of Independence Hall, with outstretched arms, indicating they are ready to sign the Constitution.
So, who is signing the document in that massive portrait that now hangs in the Capitol? North Carolinian Richard Dobbs Spaight. Standing behind him is William Blount. And stepping up to the platform is Hugh Williamson.
At age 30, Spaight was one of the youngest delegates, yet he may have been the most dependable: He attended every session of the convention. He was the one who suggested state legislatures should elect U.S. senators. This was the case until passage of the 17th Amendment, and the office became a popularly elected one. Spaight also wanted Congress to elect the president; however, his peers preferred the electoral college.
Of the Constitution signers, two died in duels. One was Hamilton, and the other was Spaight, who first battled John Stanly, a political opponent, in a war of published essays. The quarrel ended in an 1802 duel in New Bern. In duals, the offended often found satisfaction on the field without killing his rival. Stanly, however, aimed to kill — four times. Barely able to lift his pistol, a sickly Spaight continually missed, but Stanly’s aim was true on the fourth and final round. The next day Spaight died.
When doing genealogical research, you must be prepared to uncover the bad along with the good. So it is with studying the nation’s founding fathers. On that note we discuss William Blount.
As a land speculator, Blount mishandled money and amassed a fortune by deceitful means. He and his brother, John Gray Blount — under various aliases — owned millions of acres of western land. (Western land was located in what is now the North Carolina mountains and modern-day Tennessee.)
Blount said little, if anything, at the Constitutional Convention, and some historians claim that he signed the document simply to prove that he was present. In fact, he didn’t appreciate the Constitution’s value and believed the nation, as one historian puts it, would one day “disintegrate into various separate and independent governments.”
Blount later played an instrumental role in the budding state of Tennessee. He was a territorial governor and then served in the U.S. Senate. In the Senate, he worked to incite war among various Indian tribes and the Spanish. His shenanigans were uncovered, and he was impeached, and removed from the Senate. Charges of treason and other crimes eventually were dropped.
Even though Blount tarnished the Old North State’s reputation, it was polished and revived by the most esteemed of North Carolina’s signers, Hugh Williamson. Williamson was a Renaissance man: an ordained Presbyterian minister and an accomplished doctor, philosopher, and scientist. During the Revolutionary War, he had served as North Carolina’s surgeon general, and he had inoculated the state’s troops against smallpox.
At the Philadelphia Convention, Williamson was the most vocal of the North Carolina delegation and one of the most vocal in all the assembly. The convention adopted his suggestion for a six-year senatorial term, and he was influential in drafting the impeachment process in the Constitution.
Dr. Troy Kickler is director of the North Carolina History Project (northcarolinahistory.org).