Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1846-01-01

o. Here is picture Of old Virginia of DEM
oaotc virgna-the very mother, as it were, of
what is almost deidod as Democracy Alas the
picture is Il true one too But better days are
coming. The abused Wings, the Grcemen of the
mountains, whose rights have so long been trodden
under foot by the wealthy and arstocratic Demo-
Gratis and Slayocrots of the plains will have their
day speedily.
MISUNDERSTANDING the troubles and difficulties
of the age, Virginia appears destined to come in
Tor her share Hitherto she has been 80 busily en-
gagged in preserving the Constitution Of the United
States nvolate from the ruthless hands Of the spoil
or. that 1t has occupied all her leisure time to devise
means for the avoidance of giving her owitpe0pea
good constitutions For fifteen years previous to
1880 the people of the West wete clamorous for
on amendment of the Constitutions that would give
them something approaching to Il fair proportion of
representation; and in that year Convention was
held for the purpose, which adopted a Constitution
no better than the they had before. 1t prescrl-
bed arbitrarily, without reference to population,
how many Senators and how many Representatives
should be elected from East and Nest of the Blue
Ridge, and that every ten years an apportionmcnt
should he made two-thirds Of each House concur.
ring. In 1910 the first apporonment was TO have
taken place. At that time the majority Of popuiG-
ton was on the Vest of the Blue Ridge; but us
about two-,hirds of tho representation in each House
was from the East, it was most singularly decided
by the adoption OF report to that effect, that al
though the West had the majority Of numbers yet,
the East paid the majority of rcuenue, no appor-
tionment was needed and ever since matters nave
continued without change or moestatlon.
We o)seye by the papers, however, that the
subject of a Convention is to be agitated at the
approaching session. AS the West Is powercss in
the Legislature, and the East will not yield in such
! Nvo lool E,r Eko ciyJ
bloodless' revolution in that State at distant
/ period after such failure.
In 1880, when their present, and, to the West,
0diOuS Constitution was adopted, it was an idea not
only verbally expressed, but even cyluen and pub
HShed, for the West to hold Convention, form "A
Constitution for themselves, draw off from the East
and pray to be admitted as Il State into the Union
and if, at the coming session, the West demand the
passage Of law authorisng the call of a Conven-
ton, and it be reiusedor, If such a law be passed,
but withhods from the West representation i'll
Convention based upon free white population, a
movement similar to that above mentioned, as sag
gested in 1880, may be looked for with good deal
of confidence.
Another circumstance will tend powerfully as an
incentive to such a movement on the part of the
hWest. On the subject of National Poicn there
is great discordance as between Tariff for pro-
lection and Free Trade. The West is for the for
mcr, the East for the latter; and the West knops
that she has been kept back at least half century
behind what she wonld have been by the narrow,
nggardy, selfish, dog-in- the manager policy of the
East; that the former has been studously and de-
lberately retarded by the latter, from the ignobe
feelings Of Jealousy as TO local prosperity and po-
litlcal power to which the West will not much lon
ger submit.
The West, also, is opposed to slavery. In $780,
when there was a majority of slave population in
the East, there was only about $4,000 in the West
and, but recently, in the separation of the Meho
dist Church into North and South, the conference
Of Western Virginia ceaved to the North
'Al things considered, therefore, it is difficult to
sec how that ancient Commonwealth can much
longer continue "one and ndviSible" In the
Senate of the United States the West ever has
:, been n,iSrepreSented; and in the Congressional ap
portionment the State is laid off into Districts &C.
cordng to Federal numbers, which gives the white
population of the East nearly double the repre-
sentation of an equal population in Vest, in the
other House OF Congress grievance of itse
too we.ghty to be borne much longer.-S. Loui,
.Netc Era.