Again, it must not be overlooked that the constitution of 1796 in Tennessee was drafted by a committee of very able statesmen, among whom were such distinguished men as Andrew Jackson, William Cocke, Joseph Anderson, William Blount, W. C. C. Claiborne, and John Rhea.[53] Andrew Jackson was a very prominent leader in the Convention; William Cocke had participated in founding the Franklin State, and was, also, one of the founders of the Transylvania Republic, twice a Senator of the United States from Tennessee, and a leader in the Mississippi Territory. Joseph Anderson was one of the territorial Judges for sixteen years, United States Senator and Comptroller of the Treasury of the United States. William Blount had been governor of the Southwest Territory. William C. C. Claiborne was Judge of the Superior Court of the State, the successor of Andrew Jackson in Congress, first Governor of the territory of Mississippi, Governor of Louisiana, and United States senator-elect at the time of his death. John Rhea was for eighteen years a member of Congress. It is unreasonable to suppose that these men together with their colleagues did not know the meaning of the word “freemen” in the Constitution of 1796.[54] They certainly knew that the free negro had been voting in Colonial North Carolina, that he continued to vote under her constitution of 1776, and that he would vote in Tennessee as he had been doing before the separation from North Carolina unless he was disfranchised. The contention of this thesis is that the free negro was intentionally and deliberately enfranchised by the Convention of 1796. The proof may be summarized as follows: 1st, that the terms “freemen” and “freeholders” were the subject of discussion throughout Colonial North Carolina with thorough understanding as to their meaning; 2nd, that the act of 1715 specifically excepted the negro from the term “freemen,” thus disfranchising him; 4th, that the act of 1735 re-enfranchised him; 5th, that the North Carolina constitution of 1776 enfranchised him; 6th, that the convention of 1796 in Tennessee used the terms “freemen,” “freeholders,” and “free white persons,” showing that it must have knowingly used these terms; 7th, that these terms were carefully used in contemporary constitutions; and 8th, that it is inconceivable that the able and experienced statesmen that framed the Tennessee Constitution were not conversant with these terms. C. _Suffrage from 1796 to 1834._ From 1796 to 1834 there was a complete revolution in the attitude of Tennessee people toward the negro. This has already been pointed out in the discussion of the churches, manumission societies, and the policy of exclusion adopted in 1831. Attention has already been called to the growing economic importance of slavery in the period and the consequent opposition to the free negro.