{{Short description|American lawyer, author, editor and politician (1792–1860)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Joseph Blunt | image = | order = | office = New York County District Attorney | status = Acting | term_start = 1858 | term_end = 1860 | predecessor = Peter B. Sweeny | successor = Nelson J. Waterbury | party = Republican Party | birth_date = February 1792 | birth_place = Newburyport, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = June 16, 1860 | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | spouse = | profession = attorney, politician | signature = | children = | relations = Edmund March Blunt (father)<br>N. Bowditch Blunt (brother) }}'''Joseph Blunt''' (February 1792{{spaced ndash}}June 16, 1860) was an American lawyer, author, editor, and politician from New York. In 1858, he was appointed New York County district attorney.

==Early life== Blunt was born in February 1792 in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He was one of four sons of Edmund March Blunt.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web|title=A New Chart of Part of the North Pacific Ocean Exhibiting the Various Straits, Islands and Dangers|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/348/|publisher=World Digital Library|accessdate=23 May 2013}}</ref> In 1802, Edmund published the ''American Practical Navigator'' by Nathaniel Bowditch, the man who became the godfather of Joseph's younger brother Nathaniel Bowditch Blunt.<ref> {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPoUAAAAYAAJ&q=Edmund+March+Blunt&pg=PA333 |title=Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States], Volume 1|author=John Howard Brown|year=1900}}</ref>

== Career == Joseph Blunt first came into notice by writing on the Missouri question in 1820. Soon afterward he wrote an article on the Laibach circular, published in the ''North American Review'', which attracted the attention of politicians. In 1825, he published a ''Historical Sketch of the Formation of the American Confederacy'' (8 vol.), and from 1827 to 1835 he edited the ''American Annual Register''. He also published ''Speeches, Reviews, and Reports'' (1843) and ''Merchants' and Shipmasters' Assistant'' (1829 and 1848).{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}}

He was long a leading Whig and protectionist. In 1851, Millard Fillmore appointed him Commissioner to China, but he declined to take office.<ref>[https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/11393.htm List of State Department officials]</ref>

In September 1855, he was a delegate to the Anti-Nebraska state convention in Syracuse which merged with the Whigs to form the Republican Party in the State of New York.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F00E7DE1238EE3BBC4A53DFB667838F649FDE ''THE ANTI-NEBRASKA CONVENTION.; Remarks of Joseph Blunt, Esq., on the Nomination of a State Ticket''] in the ''New York Times'' on October 2, 1854</ref><ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1855/09/28/76449798.pdf ''REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION''] in the ''New York Times'' on September 28, 1855</ref>

In 1858, he was appointed by Gov. John A. King New York County District Attorney to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Peter B. Sweeny.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=r_xLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA531 ''The New York Civil List''] compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough, Stephen C. Hutchins and Edgar Albert Werner (1867; page 531)</ref>

==Personal life== Joseph's youngest brother, N. Bowditch Blunt, was New York County district attorney from 1851 to 1854. The other two brothers, Edmund (1799&ndash;1866) and George William (1802&ndash;1878)<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1878/04/20/80681180.pdf ''DEATH OF GEO. W. BLUNT''] in the ''New York Times'' on April 20, 1878</ref> followed their father's steps and got involved in nautical affairs. Edmund assisted Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler in surveying the port of New York for the United States Coast Survey in 1817.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=F0MIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PT211 ''A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, and British and American Authors, Living and Deceased''] by Samuel Austin Allibone (page 211; Vol. 1; Childs & Peterson, Philadelphia, 1859)</ref> George W. Blunt was for decades a member, and later secretary, of the Board of Pilot Commissioners, and in 1857 was appointed to the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}} Joseph Blunt's nephew was Capt. Edmund Blunt.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/01/25/104105872.pdf Obit] of Capt. Edmund Blunt, Joseph Blunt's nephew, in the ''New York Times'' on January 25, 1894</ref>

Blunt died on June 16, 1860, in New York City.

==References== {{reflist}} '''Attribution''' * {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Blunt, Edmund March|year=1900}}

{{Manhattan DA}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blunt, Joseph}} Category:1792 births Category:1860 deaths Category:New York County district attorneys Category:Politicians from Newburyport, Massachusetts Category:New York (state) Whigs Category:New York (state) Republicans Category:Writers from Newburyport, Massachusetts