The United States the various guesses at colonial population• and the methods of arriving at them, see UNITED STATES (Popu lation). It may be mentioned here as germane to this subject that when Governor Hunter of New York in 1712 attempted to take a census, the biblical prejudice before mentioned com pelled him to leave it unfinished; and that when the New Jersey government a few years later wished to do so, it did not dare begin. An accurate &kr-in:nation, however, became• vital early in the independent life of the country. To apportion equally the burdens of the Revolu tionary War, the Congress of the Confederation agreed t defray the charges out of a common treasury, to be supplied by the States in propor tion to the value of all the land in each; and to requisition the quotas of land forces according to the quotas of white inhabitants. Under the constitution of 1787 the question of number be came exigent, as direct taxes and representa tives in Congress were apportioned according to the number of free inhabitants in each State (including bound servants and excluding In dians not taxed) and three-fifths of all others. Censuses, therefore, became part of the ordi nary running machinery of the government ; and the first one was taken in 1790. Nine months were allowed for the work, but the time was extended the next year, as regularly for many a decade thereafter. The scope of inquiries simply included families: the name of the head alone being set down, with the number of others included, and slaves as a property item, the sex and color of free persons, the number of free white males of 16 and upward, number of free white females, and of all other free persons. The enumeration• was committed to the marshals of the judicial districts of the United States (16 in all), who were to employ assistants as needed. No form of schedule was provided, each enumerator using any sheets or blank book he chose. This continued till 1830. There was no central bureau to receive or supervise returns, which were put together by the marshals and transmitted to the President. A penalty of $200 was imposed for false re turns or delay beyond a certain time; and the same on individuals for giving false informa tion or refusing any. The returns in the North were given by counties, cities and towns; in the South by counties only. Two copies of the enumeration of each district were to be posted in some public place therein. The cost of this census was $44,377.28. The result, as usual, pricked many local bubbles; and as the country was not used to this, there was not only gen eral disappointment but distrust of the census, and the United States officials carefully ex plained to foreigners that the returns were very defective. This is not now believed.
The second census, that of 1800, was spe cifically entrusted to the Department of State. There was no change in methods, except that the Secretary was to instruct the marshals as to schedules and interrogatories. The only changes in scope were to classify the ages of free white males rather more minutely, extend the classi fication to females and insert the name of county, city or town where the family resided. Memorials by Thomas Jefferson and Timothy Dwight, under the names of learned societies, wisely suggesting that Congress utilize the oc casion by having the census include statistics of mortality, nativity and industries, were ignored; but took root in later censuses. There were 19 districts and the cost was $66,109.04.
The third census, that of 1810, improved• somewhat on the loose methods of the two for mer. The enumerators now had to be residents of their districts, which could not be more than one county or city, but might be several contig uous towns, and must be plainly marked off by natural or political boundaries; and they must make personal inquiries at each dwelling-house or of the head of each family in their district.
In Territories the secretary, or if there was none, the governor, replaced the marshal. At tested copies of the returns must be filed with the Secretary of State. An attempt at a manu facturing census was made, and the Secretary of the Treasury was empowered to give in structions for it. But the time was too short; the inquiries were too many and injudiciously framed; the manufactories in a district were generally so few that the returns would disclose their private business, and there was no penalty for refusal to answer; and the returns were scattering and valueless for volume, though they had some value as indicating variety and distribution of industries. There were 26 dis tricts and Territories, and the cost was $178,444.
The fourth census, that of 1820, for the first time introduced the valuable feature (suggested by Jefferson and Dwight) of distinguishing be tween natives and foreigners, naturalized or otherwise. It also discriminated the free col ored and the slaves by sex and age, and the free whites between 16 and 18. It reduced the manufacturing interrogatories to 14, of much the same scope as now, and a digest was or dered made and prihted. This department was a failure as before, however. There were 31 districts and the total cost was $208,525.99.
The time of taking the fifth census, that of 1830, was changed on John Quincy Adams' sug gestion to 1 June, as it has ever since remained. A very significant provision in the act was to prevent the marshals from blackmailing their subordinates, by exacting either bribes in ad vance or part of their pay later. Printed sched ules were sent out, of uniform size, 18x15. The industrial statistics were dropped alto gether. But inclusion was made of the deaf and dumb— white, free colored and slave — classified by age but not by sex, and of the blind, not classified at all. Ages were also very minutely classified. There were 36 districts and Territories, and the cost was $378,545.13.
The sixth census, that of 1840, was in one respect the beginning of a new era; in most others, the close of an old one. It first at tempted health statistics — those of the insane and idiotic, at public and private charge; educa tional — scholars in colleges, academies and public schools, illiterates over 20, etc.; besides Revolutionary pensioners, an item wholly aside. Industrial statistics were also restored, and much matter collected. In a word, it was the first systematic and connected attempt to make the census a general body of usable statistics in the larger sense, a comparative survey of the life and changes of the country. But the effort is all that can be praised; its execution was a national scandal. The errors were so teeming and so monstrous that various bodies sent pro tests to Congress against its publication, and urged that it be either corrected, or if that were not possible, entirely disowned. This result was due partly to inadequate pay and ignorant enumerators, but partly also to the dislike in many sections to the new questions as °inquisi torial)) and offensive. The old dislike to gov ernmental °prying° was strong enough to war rant a prominent paper in becoming its spokes man, insinuating that the census was a &pre cursor to direct taxes," and that it was un worthy of °the dignity and the high functions of the Federal government to pursue such petty investigations .° There were 39 districts, and the cost of the census was $833,370.95. It was published in three volumes.