the slave population to go to
that market. The commercial and industrial interests developed there
found their outlets west and north. There was little intercourse of
any kind and practically no commerce with Eastern Virginia. No
railroad connected the west with the east. Burning political
differences manifested themselves, and these, with the lack of
commercial and social intercourse already noted, accentuated strife
between the two sections,[5] as was manifested in every State
constitutional convention held prior to the Civil War.

The Constitutional Convention of 1829 at Richmond was one of the most
important conventions in the history of the Virginia dissension. The
transmontane people, the people of the Valley and some of those of
the Piedmont were arrayed against the aristocratic land owners of the
Tidewater, demanding a greater share in the government of the
Commonwealth. The leading issues before the convention were: (1) the
question of extension of suffrage, (2) a more equitable basis of
representation in the legislature, and (3) the question of taxation as
a minor problem.

The right of suffrage was then conditioned upon the ownership of land.
The law regulating this matter had remained the same since 1776,
except that the number of acres of improved land, the possession of
which entitled one to vote, had been reduced from 50 to 25.[6] Thus
all those persons who were not attached to land or who did not possess
land in sufficient quantities were denied the ballot. The west, whose
white population, in 1829, was 319,516, argued and fought for
citizen-suffrage, while the east, whose white population was 362,745
at this time, representing a fifteen per cent increase since 1790, as
compared with one of 150 per cent for the west, opposed this
measure.[7]

The question of the reapportionment of representation was one of the
greatest importance. Here again, just as suffrage was based upon the
ownership of land, representation was based upon interests. In 1828
the House of Delegates consisted of two hundred and fourteen members;
the Senate of twenty-four." Of these numbers the transmontane country
had but eighty delegates and nine senators.[8] This section, then
proposed that the basis of apportionment should be the white
population. The cismontane people opposed this, since any change in
this direction would tend to place too much political power in the
hands of the westerners.

After a discussion on the white an