BLOUNT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

BLOUNTAuthored

The Law Mind • 687 words

Definition

BLOUNT is a proper noun appearing in legal contexts primarily as a surname associated with notable figures in American legal and political history, and secondarily as a geographic place name (Blount County; a town in West Virginia). As a legal term of art, BLOUNT has no independent doctrinal meaning. Its significance in legal research derives almost entirely from its association with specific persons, proceedings, and jurisdictions bearing the name.

The most legally significant use is Blount as the name of William Blount (1749–1800), a U.S. Senator from Tennessee who was the subject of the first impeachment proceeding initiated by the United States Senate against a sitting senator, in 1797–1798. The Blount impeachment raised foundational constitutional questions about whether a U.S. Senator is a "civil Officer of the United States" subject to impeachment under Article II of the Constitution, and whether the Senate retains jurisdiction after expelling a member. These questions were not definitively resolved at the time and the case remains a landmark reference point in impeachment scholarship.

BLOUNT also appears in legal materials as a jurisdictional reference: Blount County exists in both Alabama and Tennessee, and legal documents, court filings, and statutory references to "Blount County" require context to disambiguate.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering BLOUNT in legal materials should immediately determine whether the reference is to a person, a jurisdiction, or a case name. The three contexts carry entirely different research trails.

For the Blount impeachment (1797–1798): this proceeding is heavily cited in constitutional law literature on the scope of the impeachment power, the definition of "civil Officer," and Senate jurisdiction. Historical sources from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries discuss it in connection with the impeachment clauses but reach varying conclusions. Researchers consulting historical legal dictionaries will find that entries on IMPEACHMENT from this period sometimes reference the Blount proceedings without fully resolving the constitutional questions the case raised. The Senate's ultimate action — dismissal for want of jurisdiction — is itself a contested precedent.

For jurisdictional references: Blount County, Tennessee and Blount County, Alabama both appear frequently in regional court records, deed books, and statutory compilations. Researchers working in southeastern U.S. legal history must confirm which county is intended. Alabama and Tennessee materials from the nineteenth century occasionally use "Blount" without the state designation.

The Rapalje & Lawrence entry in the source material does not contain a substantive entry for BLOUNT; the fragment reproduced is a continuation of the preceding entry for BLOCKADE and BLOOD, confirming that BLOUNT as a term did not receive dedicated treatment in that dictionary. Researchers should not expect historical legal dictionaries to provide doctrinal guidance on this term.

Historical Dictionary Support

Rapalje & Lawrence does not include a dedicated entry for BLOUNT. The fragment appearing in the source material is editorial residue from the preceding alphabetical entries (BLOCKADE, BLOOD), and the dictionary moves directly past any BLOUNT entry without comment. This is itself informative: nineteenth-century legal dictionaries treated BLOUNT as a proper name rather than a term of art and declined to assign it independent legal definition.

This omission is consistent across the historical dictionary shelf. Terms that derive legal significance from the persons or places they name, rather than from independent doctrinal content, are typically absent from or peripherally noted in historical legal dictionaries. Researchers should not interpret the absence as an indication that BLOUNT lacked legal significance in the period — the Blount impeachment was a live and contested constitutional event — but rather that the dictionaries of the era organized legal knowledge by doctrine, not by proper name.

Jurisdictional Note

Blount County appears as a jurisdictional unit in both Tennessee and Alabama. Tennessee's Blount County (county seat: Maryville) and Alabama's Blount County (county seat: Oneonta) each have distinct court systems, statutory histories, and deed records. Research into nineteenth-century southeastern land titles, probate records, or court decisions requires state-level confirmation before assuming which Blount County is referenced.

BLOUNTmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

(138) 2. De facto. - A blockade de facto is where the blockade has not been notified (as is usually done) by the belligerent to neutral governments, so that every approaching vessel has to be warned off by the squadron. Vessels attempting to pass a blockade are liable to confiscation (q. v.) Man. Int. Law, 400 et seq. 58. BLOOD, (in a will). 15 Ves. 107. (in statute of descent). 2 Pet. (U. 8.) BLOOD-MONEY.-(1) Money paid to the relatives of one killed by another. (2) Money paid as a reward for the con viction of one charged with a capital offence. BLOOD, NEAREST OF, (synonymous with "next BLOCKADE, (what is a lawful). 3 Ware (U. of kin"). 13 Sim. 290. S.) 276; 7 Johns. (N. Y.) 38. (to whom land descends). Dyer 333b; - Thomas Blount was born at Bordesley, in Worcestershire, about 1619, and was called to the bar at one of 1679. His principal legal works are (1) the Νομολεξικον, or Law Dictionary, "interpreting such difficult and obscure words and terms as are found either in our common or statute, ancient or modern laws" (London, 1671, fol.; reprinted with corrections and additions, 1691.) (2) Fragmenta Antiquitatis, Ancient Tenures of Land and Jocular Customs of some Manors, &c., (London, 1679, 8vo.; edited by Beckwith, 1784; reedited, 1815; and, lastly, by W. C. Hazlitt, 1874, but this last is not properly an "edition," for the whole matter is re-arranged BLOOD, (deed in consideration of). 2 Hill on Mr. Hazlitt's own plan.) See 2 Wood' (Ν. Υ.) 659. Ath. Ox. col. 73.