419] FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE I9TH CENTURY 121 



the " new constitution went into effect, and under it was 

 added to the evils of the old political ostracism in the 

 West." During a quarter of a century, Lewis writes, " but 

 one man — General Andrew Moore, of Rockbridge — had 

 ever been chosen from a county west of the Blue Ridge to 

 represent Virginia in the United States Senate, and in the 

 same period but one man — Joseph Johnson, of Harrison 

 — had ever been selected from the counties west of the 

 Alleghenies to fill the Gubernatorial chair." And thus he 

 continues, "men in the West having political aspirations, 

 saw in the supremacy of the East the impossibility of their 

 realization, and smarting under what they deemed to be the 

 greatest injustice, they began to dream of a time when con- 

 ditions should exist under which a separation from the 

 mother state would be made possible, and in the territory 

 thus separated they, themselves, should assist in establish- 

 ing a new common-wealth." The majority, however, still 

 hoped that such a separation need not be resorted to in order 

 to change conditions. They finally, in 1850, succeeded in 

 wresting from the Assembly another act " providing for the 

 submission to the people the question of calling a conven- 

 tion to revise the Constitution." A favorable vote brought 

 the new convention and, through it, a new constitution, 

 with the redress of many evils, but it came too late to bring 

 happiness to the West and peace to both. West and East. 



It was the slave question which now became the real 

 bone of contention. The predominance of the freeholders 

 in the East, spelled, of course, opposition to the policies of 

 the North of the Union and led to the victory of the move- 

 ment favoring the secession of the whole State of Virginia 

 from the Union, while the predominance of the non-free- 

 holders in the counties west of the Alleghenies signified 

 opposition to such an act, resulting in the separation of the 

 western counties from the Old Dominion. 



In both the eastern and western counties, spirited meet- 

 ings were held in which the people gave expression to their 

 respective, that is, opposing, views. In Preston county, a 



