in the United States in Fifty Years. 



15 



It is the purpose of the following pages to profit by the informa- 

 tion which the several censuses have furnished, so as not only to 

 make us better acquainted with the progress of our Federal Repub- 

 lic during the half century it has existed, but also to give us a 

 glimpse of the yet more important future which awaits us. 



Before we consider the inferences to be deduced from all the 

 censuses together, let us take a brief notice of each of them in 

 succession. 



The first census was taken in 1790, and its enumeration referred 

 to the 1st of August of that year. It distributed the population 

 under the following heads : 



1st. Free white males, sixteen years of age and upwards. 



2d. The same under sixteen. 



3d. Free white females of all ages. 



4th. Slaves. 



5th. All other persons ; by which was meant free persons of colour. 



The result is exhibited in the following 



Table of the Population of the United States on the 1st of August, 1790. 



*Maine, 



New Hampshire, 

 Massachusetts,... 

 Rhode Island,.... 



Connecticut, 



Vermont, 



New York, 



New Jersey, 



Pennsylvania,.... 



Delaware, 



Maryland, 



Virginia, 



North Carolina,.. 

 South Carolina, .. 



Georgia, 



Kentucky, 



Tennessee, 



* Maine was then a part of Massachusetts, and so continued until 1820, but as its census was taken 

 separately, it has always properly held a separate place in statistical tables. 



By this census the population of the United States was first 

 ascertained by actual enumeration, together with its several parts, 

 white and coloured, free and servile, and the comparative numbers 

 of the different States. As the result somewhat disappointed expec- 

 tation, the census was supposed by many to be inaccurate, and the 



