eacli portion of it, is a. purpose of the census, then all statistical facts essential 

 to such develnpraent should be embraced in the census. The objects of statisti- 

 cal information, their extent, and relations to each other, should be systematized 

 with reference to the purposes sought to be accomplished. But as our censuses 

 have been taken, this process has been reversed. Certain fticts ai-e ascertained, 

 and then they are looked into to discover what principles may be deducsdfrom 

 them. Some focts are wanting ; others imperfectly developed, and thus im- 

 portant principles are obscurely seen. The utility of the census is thus impaired, 

 and its completion delayed to gather additional facts. 



Again ; statistics relate to information expressed, not in words, but in figures. 

 Few persons have the taste to ponder over their dry columns, studying out the 

 great economical and political truths which lie hidden within them. Hence 

 when persons are hastily selected to collect statistics, as has been the case with 

 deputy marshals to take the census, but few either appreciate the purposes of 

 such census, or have any skill to bring to the right discharge of their duties. 

 Most regard is paid to the per diem allowance. So that the different colunms 

 are filled with figures, it is immaterial to them what ones of the nine digits they 

 are, or what their combination may express. Their returns are deceptive. Let 

 any one acquaint himself with the returns made to the Census bureau, and the 

 steps necessary to be taken by it to correct the most glaring of the errors, and 

 he will see in them both expense and the cause of that delay which makes so 

 impatient over it those who look for the census reports. The necessity for such 

 correction should be a%'oided, and a greater approximation to focts reached. This 

 cannot be done except in the employment of more competent persons. 



If these remarks are true, then in what Department can the power over the 

 census statistics be better lodged than in that of Agriculture ? \Yith authority 

 to collect the annual statistics of production, accustomed constantly to search 

 out the relation of its parts and unfold their mutual dependence, what Depart- 

 ment exercises powers which so well fit it to adopt such a system for the census 

 as alluded to? Or what agents so well qualified for the duty of collecting cen- 

 sus statistics as its regular correspondents 1 Accustomed every month to ex- 

 amine into questions similar to those embodied in the census, and to see their 

 application to great purposes in the reports of the Department, they learn to ap- 

 preciate statistics, and a skill in understanding them that enables each one to 

 sift out that which is true from that which is false. These qualifications would 

 secure a speedy and correct discharge of duty. 



These advantages would enable this Department to take a census every fifth 

 year, unattended with the expense and delay now experienced in the decade 

 census. A census every fifth year by the general government would render 

 unnecessary any census by the States, and as direct taxes are now levied by 

 the former, a saving to the latter would more than compensate any additional 

 expenditures created by such fifth year census. 



But e\'en should the additional cost be unattended with any such compen- 

 sating advantages, the general good accomplished by it, in exhibiting the pro- 

 gress of the industrial pursuits ; in providing a basis for correct estimates of the 

 crops, and other production, in due time to guide commercial transactions, justify 

 and demand such fifth year census. But add to these its necessity in unfolding 

 the great internal trade of the country from year to year, and by such an expo- 

 sition to show its vastness, its necessity to all parts of the country, and its needs ! 

 That trade is the representative of the industrial pursuits in all their produc- 

 tion, exchanges, and consumption. It exhibits the harmonious and mutual de- 

 pendence of every State, and it binds the prosperity of each State indissolubly 

 to the prosperity of the other. Heretofore the government has aided but little 

 in scattering aliroad knowledge of the details and the extent of that trade. It 

 permitted, by its inaction, statemiiuts of political traitors to take the place of 

 the certain knowledge it should have promulgated. It allowed southern com- 



