150 The Winning of the West 



of the titles, and especially in view of the way the 

 Indians as well as the whites continually broke the 

 treaties and rendered it necessary to make new ones, 

 both Blount and Robertson were willing to place 

 claims on the Indian lands and trust to luck to make 

 the claims good if ever a cession was made. The 

 lands thus located were not lands upon which any 

 Indian village stood. Generally they were tracts of 

 wilderness through which the Indians occasionally 

 hunted, but as to which there was a question whether 

 they had yet been formally ceded to the govern- 

 ment. 16 



Blount also corresponded with many other men 

 on the question of these land speculations, and it is 

 amusing to read the expressions of horror of his 

 correspondents when they read that Tennessee had 

 imposed a land tax. 17 By his activity he became a 

 very large landed proprietor, and when Tennessee 

 was made a State he was taxed on 73,252 acres in 

 all. The tax was not excessive, being but $i 79.72. 18 

 It was of course entirely proper for Blount to get 

 possession of the land in this way. The theory of 

 government on the frontier was that each man should 

 be paid a small salary, and be allowed to exercise 

 his private business just so long as it did not inter- 

 fere with his public duties. Blount's land specula- 

 tions were similar to those in which almost every 



16 Robertson MSS., Blount to Robertson, April 29, 1792. 



11 Blount MSS., Thomas Hart to Blount, Lexington, Ky.. 

 March 29, 1795. 



18 Do., Return of taxable property of Blount, Nashville, 

 Sept. 9, 1796. 



