48 Mr Harvey on the Increase of the Population 
lation returns of America would afford; and to endeavour to 
trace through all its states and territories, the degrees in which 
their diversified rates of increase have prevailed; and, by exa- 
mining the various ages, and following all the shades and va- 
rieties which their different increments and decrements afford ; 
and comparing, as far as circumstances will allow, the situation 
of the sexes, in their opposite states of slavery and freedom ; — 
to form some estimate of the actual condition of the American 
population, as far, at least, as statistical tables, like those under 
review, are capable of affording. 
In order to place the subject in a clear point of view, I have 
found it necessary to compute several tables, which will be in- 
troduced in their proper places. The sources from which these 
have been derived, are the “ Tables of the American Census,’ 
contained in Godwin’s “ Enquiry concerning Population,” and 
which that author obtained from u Pitkin’s Statistical View of 
the United States ;” and an account of the census for 1880, 
contained on a single sheet, kindly furnished me by my friend 
and townsman, Mr Wills. 
Before entering on an analysis of these tables, it may not be 
uninteresting to offer a few remarks respecting the different sur- 
veys which have been taken of the population of the United 
States. 
The first authorised census took place in August 1790, the 
returns for which, when contrasted with those lately published 
as the result of the census of 1880, will not only furnish the 
most evident proofs of the rapid increase of the American popu- 
lation, but also of the advancement which has been made by the 
government of that country, in enlarged and proper views of the 
objects of statistical science. Previous to the year 1790, no in- 
formation existed respecting the precise amount of the American 
population. In 1781 it was supposed, by Dr Franklin, to amount 
to a million; and Mr Pitkin estimates it at 1,046,000, for the 
year 1749. If these accounts can be relied on, it would seem 
as if little or no increase was made in the population during 
eighteen years ; a supposition certainly not to be reconciled with 
the rapid increments which succeeding years have disclosed. 
In the census of 1790, the inhabitants were divided into the 
following classes, viz. 
