There began during the two decades from 1830 to 1850 a period of
internal improvements because of a rapid increase in the population
and wealth of Western Virginia. The construction of turnpikes and
local railroads in the trans-Allegheny country and the projection of
other improvements attracted there immigrants, and served also to
interest speculation in its cheap lands and natural resources. English
and eastern capitalists purchased large tracts of land and sold them
in small parcels to settlers who occupied them.[26] Capitalists from
the Middle West and New England States established small manufactories
there, and immigrants coming thither chose between working therein and
becoming farmers or teachers. A considerable German population was
numbered among these immigrants. The census of 1850 showed an excess
of 90,372 white population in the West over that in the East. The
lands in the transmontane country had risen to a value of only fifteen
million dollars less than the cash value of the lands east of the Blue
Ridge.[27]

It is significant that the improvements during this period had tended,
altogether, to connect the commercial interests of Western Virginia
more definitely with those of the Free States to the north and west.
Not a single railroad connected the western part of the State with the
Tidewater. The proceeds of bond issues floated to promote internal
improvements in the State had not been used to effect commercial ties
between the two sections of the State, nor had any considerable
portion thereof been used to improve the western districts. On the
other hand, the interest of the people at the foot hills of the
Piedmont had become more definitely aligned with those of the other
eastern sections of the State. The chief grievance of the former had
been remedied by the compromise convention of 1829-30, which gave
them a larger representation in the House of Delegates. Likewise, the
pursuit of intensive agriculture in the Valley had led to the
introduction of many slaves there, thus tending to create a bond of
interest between this region and the slave-holding east. In the
Constitutional Convention of 1850, therefore, the people of the
transmontane country found themselves arrayed against the three other
sections of the State.[28]

It has been herein noted that the Convention of 1829-30 settled
nothing. A compromise had been effected which relieved somewhat the
tension that existed over the matter of repres