| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Buckner F. Melton, Jr. The First Impeachment: The Constitution's Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press. 1998. Pp. xiii, 344. $40.00.

The nation was outraged. The acts of the case went uncontested. After much fustian, the House of Representatives rushed to impeach. In the Senate, however, cooler heads prevailed and after sober deliberation, the managers of the impeachment were turned away empty-handed. Sound familiar? But Buckner F. Melton, Jr.'s detailed, thoughtful, fair-minded, and highly readable account concerns the first impeachment, in 1797, not the most recent case. 1

The facts in the impeachment of Tennessee Senator William Blount were straightforward; the evidence was overwhelming; the defendant fled; and the outcome was predictable. Blount, a North Carolina politician and land speculator who joined other go-getters (including Andrew Jackson) to exploit Tennessee lands, had conspired with other Americans and approached British officials to begin a war against Spain in the Southwest, in violation of the Pinckney Treaty. Blount's motives were as much pecuniary (he had over-extended himself and his speculation could not bear fruit until the Mississippi was cleared of foreign obstacles) as patriotic. But his machinations left the frontier ablaze with rumor and bands of armed men, making the threat of war realistic. . . .

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