That no member vote for governor, or any legislator, unless we believe him to be in favor of emancipation. Article III That we convene twelve times a year at Lost Creek meeting-house; the first on the 11th of the 3rd month next; which meeting shall proceed to appoint a president, clerk and treasurer, who shall continue in office for twelve months. Article IV The requisite qualifications of our members are true republican principle, patriotic, and in favor of emancipation; and that no immoral character be admitted into the society as a member.”—P. of V. S. H. S., No. 2, p. 12. [6] The Friends were the moving spirit in the organization of these early societies. [7] The Genius of Universal Emancipation, IV, 184. [8] These societies were distributed as follows: 8 in Virginia; 11 in Maryland; 2 in Delaware; 2 in District of Columbia; 8 in Kentucky; 25 in Tennessee, and 50 in North Carolina. Poole, William Frederick, Anti-Slavery Opinion before 1800, p. 72. [9] The Genius, October 13, 1827. [10] P. of V. S. H. S., No. 2, p. 13. [11] Article 2, Constitution of the Tennessee Manumission Society. [12] Temple, O. P., East Tennessee and the Civil War, 109ff. [13] Annals of Congress, 17th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 642 and 709; the 18th Congress, 1st Session, p. 931. [14] The Genius, I, 142; Ibid., IV, 66. [15] Ibid., I, 173-4. [16] This is one of the most important documents in the history of slavery in Tennessee. The committee reported, “that they have had that subject (slavery) under examination, and on the first proposition contained in said petition, to-wit: allowing masters, convinced of the impropriety of holding the man of color in slavery, to emancipate such, on terms not involving masters or their estates, provided such slave offered for emancipation is in a situation to provide for him or herself, express it as their opinion that it is consistent with the rights of freemen, guaranteed by the Constitution, to have, and exercise the power of yielding obedience to the dictates of conscience and humanity. “That in all cases where chance or fortune has given the citizen dominion over any part of the human race, no matter of what hue and whose reflection has taught him to consider an exercise of that dominion inhuman, unconstitutional, or against the religion of his country, ought to be permitted to remove that yoke without the trammels at present imposed by law. “Your committee beg leave to state that, while they feel disposed to amend the law and guarantee the right, they wish it not to be perverted to the use of the unfeeling and avaricious, who, to rid themselves of the burden of supporting the aged slave whose life has been devoted to the service of such a master would seize the opportunity of casting such on the public for support.