This first repealing act was “class legislation” so rank and rotten that the poor fellows who had money to loan--and who had it passed--became, no doubt, exceedingly solicitous for the well-being, prosperity and “business interests” of the “merchants, physicians and inn-keepers” and therefore came forward at the next meeting of the general assembly, in 1805, with an act repealing the whole of the second section of the original act; and then they breathed easy and praised the Lord because they had entirely relieved the “merchants, physicians and inn-keepers” of this odious act, which had for its object the prevention of requiring payment in “specie” where money should be stipulated for. This last full and final repealing act deserves to be further noted, and to be remembered with reverence--so to speak--for the reason that it is the first act passed in Tennessee in which the term “in the year of our Lord” is used. What an intellectual treat it must have been to hear the man (not the member of the general assembly) who prepared this last repealing act, explaining its provisions to the members of the general assembly, and pointing out to them the great benefits that were to accrue to the “merchants, physicians and inn-keepers” of the country by its passage; and also to note with what reverential humility he bowed his head, and with what unction he read, “‘in the year of our Lord,’ who has put it into my mind and heart to prepare this great measure and ask you to pass it”; and (aside) “has also made me a shining light in the church and the community”--while, all the time and every minute, his greedy, covetous little soul was becoming more contracted, and visions of dollars or pounds in “specie” were blinding him to the great truth that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for such as he ever to enter the domain of “our Lord,” where “specie” is used only to pave streets. The county court records at Jonesboro show that, early in the nineties of the last century, slave-holders were emancipating their slaves. On October 2, 1797, an Act was passed by the General Assembly of Tennessee entitled, “An Act to confirm the emancipation of a black man named Jack.” The preamble recites that, “Whereas at July sessions One thousand seven hundred and ninety seven, John Stone, of Knoxville, in the State of Tennessee did apply to the County Court of Knox, for a license to emancipate, and forever set free a certain negro man slave, named Jack,” etc., “which license hath issued to said John Stone, and whereas the said John Stone, on the thirty-first day of August 1797 ... did emancipate, discharge and forever set free from all manner of servitude and slavery whatever, the said negro Jack.” The Act then confirms the emancipation, and confers upon the liberated slave “the name of John Saunders.”