ileges that they
possessed. Some of Eastern Virginia and a great majority of the people
in Western Virginia were opposed to slavery. They believed still in
the principles advocated by the fathers of the country as set by
George Mason, who, while deploring the institution, had formerly said:
"Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor
when performed by slaves. They prevent the immigration of whites, who
really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce the most
pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty
tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. By an
inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national
sins by national calamities."[13]

A memorial presented to the convention in October in 1829, said that
Virginia was in a state of "moral and political retrogression" and
proceeded to specify:

"That the causes heretofore frequently assigned are the true ones
we do not believe.... We humbly suggest our belief that the
slavery that exists and which with gigantic strides is gaining
ground among us, is, in truth, the great efficient cause of the
multiplied evils we deplore. We cannot conceive that there is any
other cause sufficiently operative to paralyze the energies of a
people so magnanimous, to neutralize the blessings of Providence
included in the gift of a land so happy in its soil, its climate,
its minerals and its waters; and to annul the manifold advantages
of our republican system and geographical position. If Virginia
has already fallen from her high estate, and if we have assigned
a true cause for her fall, it is with the utmost anxiety that we
look to the future to the fatal termination of the scene. As we
value our domestic happiness, as our hearts yearn for the
prosperity of our offspring, as we pray for the guardian care of
the Almighty over our Country--we earnestly inquire what shall be
done to avert the impending ruin. The efficient cause of our
calamities is vigorously increasing in magnitude and potency,
while we wake and while we sleep."[14]

The able men in the convention saw that no permanent agreement could
be reached between the two sections until the basic cause of the whole
conflict had been settled. The power of the big planters, however, was
too great and there was made no constitutional provision having the
purpose t