While this committee was absent for deliberation, Gen. Thomas D. Arnold, of Greene County, a veteran in politics as well as the law, was introduced to the convention. He spoke at considerable length in opposition to “the schemes of the Governor and Legislature of Tennessee to plunge the people against their own will into a ruinous and unwarranted revolution.” His speech was “bold, pointed, earnest and eloquent.” On the morning of the second day of the convention, the general committee submitted their report, which after discussion by various members and amendment, was unanimously adopted. It was as follows: “In the enumeration of rights of citizens which have been declared under the solemn sanction of the people of Tennessee, there are none which should be more warmly cherished or more highly estimated than that which declares that ‘the citizens have a right in a peaceable manner to assemble together for their common good.’ And at no time since the organization of our Government has there been an occasion which called so loudly for the exercise of that inestimable right, as that upon which we are now assembled. “Our country is at this moment in a most deplorable condition. The Constitution of the United States has been openly contemned and set at defiance, while that of our own State has shared no better fate and by the sworn representatives of the people has been utterly disregarded. “Constitutions, which in other days were wont to control, and give direction to our public councils and to those in authority by the fiat of the people, have been wholly supplanted; and fanaticism, passion and prejudice have assumed an arbitrary sway. Law and Order seem to have yielded their beneficent offices for the safety of the country and the welfare of the people: and in their stead, Revolution, despite its attendant horrors, has raised its hideous head. The condition of the country is most perilous,--the present crisis most fearful. “In this calamitous state of affairs,--when the liberties of the people are so imperilled and their most valued rights endangered, it behooves them in their primary meeting and in all their other accustomed modes, to assemble, consult calmly as to their safety, and with firmness to give expression to their opinions and convictions of right. “We, therefore, the delegates here assembled, representing and reflecting, as we verily believe, the opinions and wishes of a very large majority of the people of East Tennessee, do resolve and declare: “That the evils which now afflict our beloved country, in our opinion, are the legitimate offspring of the ruinous and heretical doctrine of secession; and that the people of East Tennessee have ever been and we believe still are opposed to it by a very large majority.