Tennessee is really the mother of abolition literature in the United States. She was the original home of The Manumission Intelligencer and The Emancipator, became the seat of The Genius of Universal Emancipation, and sent out Osborn who established The Philanthropist in Ohio. Of course, Lundy was the inspiration of Garrison, who decided to establish The Liberator after his association with Lundy, and this publication is just as truly a continuation of The Genius as it was the prolonged life of The Emancipator. Instead of assigning first place to the work of Garrison, as Johnson’s Life of Garrison, Greeley’s History of American Conflict, Wilson’s History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, and Von Holst’s Constitutional and Political History of the United States do, it seems that this pioneer work of Embree really made possible the work of Lundy and Garrison. IV. PETITIONS TO THE LEGISLATURE FOR ABOLITION. From 1815 to 1834, the legislature was constantly petitioned by the abolitionists of the state. These petitions prayed for easier conditions of emancipation, better treatment of slaves, prevention of separation of husband and wife, prohibition of the entrance of slaves into the state, and some plan of disestablishment of slavery. The Scriptures, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and the laws of nature were usually made the basis of these petitions. In 1817, one of the most suggestive of these petitions was presented. This petition proposed that the courts be empowered in granting petitions for freedom to require the master to “give to those he is discharging a lease on lands for years, free of rent, charge and taxes, with provisions adequate for the first year, with a limited portion of stock and articles of husbandry.”[44] “For years,” it states, “we have seen monied aristocracies rising in our land; and wealth attaching reverence, and creating distinction; in proportion as these evils shall increase, will men’s consciences be seared and their minds turned against the rights and liberties of those, who constitute an essential part of their wealth.” It also called attention to the need for additional protection for free negroes, and suggested that it be made a felony to steal and sell a free negro into slavery. It also pointed out that the young free negroes with neither father nor mother alive or free should be attached to suitable persons, preferably their emancipators, to be “reared to habits of industry, and prepared for the duties of life.”[45] This petition was signed by eighty-eight citizens, among whom was Jno. H. Eaton, later Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of War.