and scathingly denounced the
Committee of Thirteen for its attitude toward slavery.

The pro-slavery faction, however, successfully contended that the
emancipation party had no definite plan for emancipation, as those in
Washington County and other districts were divided in their ideas on
this subject. There were about thirty memorials besides the one from
this county, one half of them asking that all children born in the
State after 1835 should be free and that all slaves should be freed in
1855 and sent out of the State. The other half of the memorials
favored making the slaves free in 1866 and having them colonized. As
a matter of fact, Tennessee did emancipate its slaves three years
earlier than this date. By the Committee of Thirteen these statements
were given to show that there could be no virtue in acting in accord
with the wishes of the memorialists, as they were hopelessly divided
in their recommendations. The report of the committee was tabled, but
the debate was by no means ended. Further detail is not of use to us
here save to point out that there was no vote in the matter and that
Stephenson bitterly upbraided the convention as a whole, stating that
it had not made an effort to answer the prayer of the memorialists.
The survey of this prolonged and unprofitable struggle shows how
divided were the people of Tennessee on the question of abolishing
slavery.[40]

Later in the convention there occurred some incidents which throw
light on the situation of the Negro. The Bill of Rights in the amended
constitution, sec. 26, provided: "That free white men of this state
have a right to keep and bear arms in their own defence."[41] A
delegate from Sevier County objected to the word "white" and moved
that it be stricken from the record. Another member from Green County
moved that the word "citizens" be inserted instead of "free white
men," but this was rejected by a vote of 19 to 30, Stephenson and and
others from East Tennessee voting with the ayes, and the Committee of
Thirteen with others defeating the motion. A resolution was then
brought forward by a delegate from Dyer County intended to prohibit
the general assembly from having power to pass laws for the
emancipation of slaves without consent of owners.[42] Immediately a
memorialist sympathizer moved to lay this on the table until January,
1835. His effort was lost, and the resolution passed. Thus was the day
completely won for the anti-emancipation faction.