Social conditions in western Virginia were entirely unlike those existing in the eastern portion of the State. The population was not homogeneous, as a considerable part of the immigration came by way of Pennsylvania and included German, the Protestant Scotch-Irish and settlers from the States farther north. During the Revolutionary War the movement to create another State beyond the Alleghenies was revived, and a petition (1776) for the establishment of "Westsylvania" was presented to Congress, on the ground that the mountains made an almost impassable barrier between the west and the east. The rugged nature of the western country made slavery unprofitable, and time only in creased the social, political and economic differences between the two sections of the State. The convention which met in 1829 to form a new Constitution for Virginia, against the protest of the trans-Allegheny counties, continued to require property qualifica tion for suffrage, and gave the slave-holding counties the benefit of three-fifths of their slave population in apportioning the State's representation in the lower Federal House. As a result every county beyond the Alleghenies except one voted to reject the Constitution, which was nevertheless carried by eastern votes. Though the Virginia Constitution of 185o provided for white manhood suffrage, the distribution of representation among the counties was such as to give control to the section east of the Blue Ridge mountains. Another grievance of the West was the disproportionate expenditure for internal improvements at State expense in the east.
The Civil War merely furnished the occasion for separation from the mother State. In 1861 when the Virginia convention adopted the Ordinance of Secession only nine of the 46 delegates from the present State of West Virginia voted to secede. After the ordinance had been ratified by the people, a convention of newly elected trans-Allegheny members of the legislature, and other delegates, met at Wheeling (June 1861) and declared the acts of the Secession Convention void, and declared vacant the offices of those in the Virginia government which adhered to it. A second Wheeling convention formed the "reorganized" gov ernment of Virginia, chose Francis H. Pierpont as governor and provided for the election of other officials and a legislature. In August the convention reassembled at Wheeling and adopted an ordinance providing for a popular vote on the formation of a new State. At the subsequent election there were 18,489 votes cast for a new State and only 781 against. A constitutional conven tion (delegates to which were elected on Oct. 24) met at Wheeling in Nov. 1861, and in Feb. 1862 submitted a Constitution which was ratified by the people in April. In May 1862 the legislature of the "restored Government" voted its consent to the erection of the proposed new State. Application for admission to the Union was then presented to Congress, which granted its permission subject to the insertion of a Constitutional provision for the gradual abolition of slavery. On June 20, 1863, following the addition of this provision the State was admitted.
During the Civil War trans-Allegheny West Virginia suffered comparatively little. McClellan's forces gained possession of the greater part of the territory in the summer of 1861, and Union control was never seriously threatened. In 1863, however, Gen.
Imboden, with 5,00o Confederates, overran a considerable por tion of the State. Bands of guerrillas burned and plundered in some sections and were not entirely suppressed until after the war ended. The State furnished about 36,00o soldiers to the Federal armies and somewhat less than io,000 to the Confederate. After the war partisan feeling ran high. In 1866 the State adopted a constitutional amendment disfranchising all who had given aid to the Confederacy. In 1871, however, even before the Democratic Party secured political control, the amendment was abrogated by the adoption of the Flick amendment. In 1872 an entirely new Constitution was adopted under Democratic control. The Dem ocrats continued to hold the State until 1896 when the Republicans triumphed and retained control for two decades. Although Wil son won a plurality in 1912 the Democrats only captured the gov ernorship in 1916. Renewed Republican dominance was ended by the sweeping victory of the Democrats led by Roosevelt in 1932, and again in 1936.
The largest chapter in the history of the State is doubtless that dealing with this great industrial awakening. The East had an increasing demand for timber, coal and oil and West Virginia was close at hand. The former handicap of lack of transportation was overcome after the Civil War by the rapid extension of rail way lines up the principal valleys. Petroleum, first obtained in large quantities on the Little Kanawha river in 186o, increased in production slowly until 1889 and thereafter, with the discovery of new sands and new drilling methods, rapidly until 190o when the State ranked second in the Union in output. Coal mining, which had scarcely begun bef ore the Civil War, increased slowly until the nineties when it responded to the demands of Pittsburg and other cities. It is now an important economic factor in the life of the State.