208 



History of the New York Census, 



for its overthrow; nay, further, that they are as inexhaust- 

 able as they are vast, and that with elastic energy they 

 will rise to equal any emergency which our national safety 

 or honor may demand. 



The state census of 1855 adopted the schedule of the last 

 Federal census, with the addition of columns for recording 

 the material and value of dwellings, the relation of each 

 person to the head of the family, civil condition, years 

 resident in present locality, native or naturalized voters 

 and aliens. jSeparate blanks were provided for recording 

 marriages and deaths occurring during the year previous, 

 with their collateral incidents of date, names, late civil 

 condition and place. Other schedules provided for the 

 entry of agricultural and manufacturing statistics, more 

 fully than upon any previous occasion, and for a class of 

 records relating to places of public worship, school houses, 

 unincorporated literary and benevolent institutions, news- 

 papers and magazines, &c, a part of which were now first 

 introduced in the census. 



The census marshals in 1855 were appointed by the sec- 

 retary of state, and usually one in each election district. 

 Their number was 1,744. The enumeration was begun 

 on the 1st day of June, and all the inquiries referred to 

 that date. The labor should have been finished in one 

 month, and in most cases was perfected within that time, 

 but instances occurred from unusual population, and other 

 causes, which delayed some returns till December. The 

 labor of summary and classification was all done in a cen- 

 tral office, and begun on the 1st day of August. A Pre- 

 liminary Eeport embracing by towns, counties and wards, 

 the political portion necessary to a new arrangement of 

 senate and assembly districts, was printed and laid on the 

 members' tables on the 1st day of the session of the legisla- 

 ture of 1856, and the final report, embracing as full a sum- 

 mary as the data collected allowed, was completed in the 

 summer of 1857. 



