64 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning 

 even to the time appointed : and there died of the people from 

 Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. 



Whether the unhappy coincidence of this census with the 

 plague is responsible for the widespread aversion to the exact 

 enumeration of inhabitants which existed both among Chris- 

 tians and among Mohammedans for many centuries I am not 

 able to say, but such a feeling undoubtedly existed. As late 

 as 1753, when a measure for the institution of a census 

 was pending before the British parliament, a member who 

 opposed it placed his opposition on the following ground : 

 "The people looked upon the proposal as ominous, and 

 feared lest some public misfortune or an epidemical distemper 

 should follow the enumeration." 



In the tabulated results to which I am going to invite your 

 attention will be found many evidences of the astonishing 

 growth and power of the American people. Happily the 

 time has gone by when such evidences of greatness bring 

 superstitious fears. Such tabulated results, if accurate, must 

 serve not only to bring to our attention those things in which 

 we excel, but also those things in which we are falling be- 

 hind. They serve to remind us not only of our greatness, 

 but of our weakness ; not only of our relative growth, but 

 of our true position with respect to competitors ; and they 

 are therefore valuable not only in upholding our spirit of 

 pride and security, l)ut in pointing out also those sources 

 of weakness of which it is well to be reminded from time to 

 time, " lest we forget," 



The census, in the modern sense, as does the word itself, 

 comes to us from the Romans. With them it was a political 

 military and fiscal agency, and was taken every five years. 

 The enumeration and consequent registration were accom- 

 panied by religious ceremonials and sacrifices for purification 

 of the people, — an idea which is somewhat akin to that fear 

 of an enumeration to which I have just alluded. The census 

 was taken under the conduct of two oflScers whose powers 

 were the highest in the State, who were called " censors%" 

 Ultimately the powers of the censors were so extended as to 

 include the supervision and correction of morals, and even to 



