Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/351

Rh CENSUS B39 founded on the number of the natural militia, the arms- i bearing population, or on the number of horses, or on the records of births and deaths, might long have answered all administrative purposes. On the other hand, had the Constitution of 1787 erected a single, self-sufficient government, a simple sovereignty, the census need not have been provided for in that instrument. Representa tive power might have been apportioned approximately according to common fame, or numbers might have been rejected as the measure of political power, as in England, and even as in Connecticut, alone of all the States of the American Union, to-day. But the mixed form of government established by that constitution, the only form of government which was then possible, by which the pre-existing States maintained their right to exist and to act for themselves in all strictly internal affairs, while for all national purposes political power was to be exercised by a double rule, partly through the States acting as equal bodies, and partly according to population irrespective of State lines, positively required, not aa a means of administrative efficiency, but as an essential condition of its own existence, that the inhabi tants of the United States should be periodically enumer ated. Accordingly, we find in the Constitution of 1787 a provision for a census to be taken every ten years, the first enumeration to be made &quot; within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States.&quot; It would appear from this brief review that the eulogium of Moreau de Jonnes was scarcely merited, when he declared that the United States present a phenomenon without parallel in history,&quot; that of a people who instituted the statistics of their country on the very day when they founded their government, and who regulated by the same instrument the census of inhabitants, their civil and political rights, and the destinies of the nation.&quot; As a matter of undoubted history, the provision for a national census was incorporated in the constitution solely from political, not at all from philosophical, considerations. Pending the actual accomplishment of the first enumera tion, an estimate of the population of the several States was adopted as a provisional basis of representation in Congress. The first census was taken in 1790, the returns all being referred to the 1st of August of that year, although the work of canvassing was extended over a considerable period. As was the casa with the first British census eleven years later, and as is likely to be the case with the first census of any community, great disappointment was felt at the result, and dissatisfaction at the methods of enumeration was loudly expressed. Mr Jefferson, then Secretary of State, was careful in sending abroad copies of the published tables, to impress it on the minds of his correspondents that the returns fell far short of the truth, and even went so far as to supply the omissions which he assumed to exist. The results of later censuses, however, have established the substantial accuracy of the first enumeration, and shown that the dissatisfaction felt at the time was but the inevitable disappointment of over-strained anticipations. &quot; To count,&quot; says Dr Johnson, &quot; is a modern practice ; the ancient method was to guess ; and where numbers are guessed, they are always magnified.&quot; General censuses were taken in 1800, 1810, and 1820, with exact intervals of ten years. In 1830 the date of enumeration was fixed on the 1st of June. This change made the interval between the fourth and fifth censuses nine years and ten months only, reducing the nominal ratio of increase between 1820 and 1830, by about two-thirds of 1 per cent. The succession of census was then resumed with exact intervals of ten years. The ninth census was taken aa of date June 1, 1870. Peculiarities of the Constitution of the United States have been spoken of which rendered the census a political necessity, and secured its adoption there earlier than in countries far more advanced in statistical science and in the arts of administration. To the same peculiarities are at tributable the features by which the census of the United States has come to differ from the census of other countries. The reservation by the States of all rights not granted to the general Government makes it fairly a matter of question whether purely statistical inquiries, other than for the single purpose of apportioning representation, could be initiated by any other authority than that of the States themselves. That large party which advocates a strict and jealous construction of the constitution would certainly oppose any independent legislation by the national Con gress for providing a registration of births, marriages, and deaths, or for obtaining social and industrial statistics, whether for the satisfaction of the publicist, or for the guidance of the legislature. Even though the supreme court should decide such legislation to be within the grant of powers to the general Government, the distrust and opposition, on constitutional grounds, of so large a portion of the people, could not but go far to defeat the object sought. In this political difficulty, the unquestionable provision of the constitution for a decennial census has been taken advantage of by all parties to secure much statistical information, which is not usually, and perhaps is not properly, connected with a census. Nor can there be any doubt that the introduction of new schedules of inquiries has, since 1850, somewhat impaired the efficiency of the census in its original constitutional function of making a count of the inhabitants of the several parts of the country for the purpose of distributing representation in Congress. As the census has widened, it has weakened. More has been put upon the enumerator than he could well carry. His attention has been distracted by the multiplicity of objects presented ; the great number of inquiries has also perplexed and irritated the body of citizens ; while the result of protracting the canvass to obtain additional information has, in the incessant changes of population, especially in cities and in manufacturing villages, allowed not a few to escape enumeration altogether. The first enlargement of the scope of the census was in 1810, when the agents of the census were by law required to take an account of the several manufacturing establish ments and manufactories within their several districts. The same requirement was contained in the Act for the census of 1820 ; but the results proved of so little value that the attempt was altogether abandoned in 1830. In 1840 a manufacturers schedule was used, and inquiries respecting schools were incorporated. It was at the seventh census, 1850, however, that the main enlargement was effected. By the Act of May 23 of that year, the census was extended to cover the several subjects of mortality, agriculture, productive&quot; industry, schools, churches, newspapers, &amp;lt;fec., &c. The agencies and methods of enumeration in the census of the United States have been but little changed from the first, and are to-day antiquated and ineffective in a high degree. By the Act of 1790, it was made the duty of the marshals of the United States courts in the several judicial districts to take the enumeration, appointing therefor as many assistants as they should deem necessary. The enumeration was to commence August 1, and to close within nine calendar months thereafter ; the returns were to be filed with the clerks of the several courts, while the marshals were to forward to the president &quot; the aggregate amount of each description of persons within their respective districts.&quot; In 1800 the supervision of the census was placed with the Secretary of State. The