POPULATION. 
parish, shemld not be, as it is at present, 
encouraged by law. With this view he 
suggests a plan for the gradual abolition of 
the poor laws ; but, until the poor are more 
enlightened, and better instructed in moral 
duties, it is much to be feared that the 
total abolition of these laws would pro- 
duce much more vice and misery than at 
present exists among them. 
Although a knowledge of the state of 
the population has been deemed important 
in most countries, few attempts had been 
made to ascertain this circumstance with 
precision, till within a very late period. 
In the year 1757 a general enumeration 
was taken in the kingdom of Sweden, 
which has since been continued ; but most 
of the other governments of Europe were 
satisfied with returns of the number of 
houses, families, or persons paying particu- 
lar taxes. It remained for the new go- 
vernment of itie United States of America 
to set the example of a complete enumera- 
tion throughput a very extensive territory, 
and apparently made with as much preci- 
sion as the nature of the subject admits. 
The act of Congress, for the first census, 
passed the first of March, 1790 ; it directed 
the marshal of every district to superintend 
the enumeration of the state where he ex- 
ercised his functions, and authorised him to 
call in what aid and assistance lie might 
judge proper. He was ordered to make a 
return within nine months to the President 
of the United States, distinguishing in the 
return the number of free males under and 
above the age of sixteen years, the number 
of free females, and of slaves. The Indi- 
ans, who might live in the districts, were 
not to be included in the list of population. 
Every assistant in the enumeration was di- 
rected, before transmitting his account to 
the marshal, to affix it in two or three of 
the most frequented places of assembly 
within his bounds, that it might receive any 
corrections which the inhabitants might 
suggest. In this manner the census was 
completed, and the result announced a 
population of 3,929,326 inhabitants, includ- 
ing 697,697 slaves. The inhabitants of 
the north west territory were not in- 
cluded in this number, but the population 
of that part was then so inconsiderable, that 
it would have made no important difference 
in the total number. On the twenty-eighth 
of February, 1800, an act was passed for 
taking the second census, pursuant to which 
the returns were transmitted to the Presi- 
dent in December, 1801. The particulars 
of this enumeration, with the totals of the 
former, are given in the following state- 
ment : 
States- 
Total 1791. 
I'Vee white 
Males. 
Free white 
Females. 
All other 
fi ee per* 
SOILS. 
Slaves. 
Total 1801. 
96,540 
141,885 
76,832 
91,258 
74,069 
91,740 
818 
151,719 
183,858 
New Hampshire 
852 
8 
8l5,539 
378,787 
68,825 
79,328 
205,135 
31,858 
74.580 
2.11,258 
33.580 
5.^7 
154,465 
6,452 
422,845 
69,122 
Rhode Island 
3,301 
380 
Connecticut 
237,946 
121,193 
123,528 
5,330 
951 
251,002 
New York 
340,120 
287,094 
268,122 
10,374 
20,613 
686,203 
New Jersey 
184,139 
98,725 
95,600 
4,402 
12,422 
211,149 
Pensylvania 
434, 37o 
301,467 
284,628 
14,564 
1,706 
602,365 
Delaware 
59,094 
25,033 
24,819 
8,268 
6,153 
64,273 
Maryland 
319,728 
113,683 
108,310 
19,987 
107,707 
349,692 
747,61(1 
73,677 
264,399 
254,275 
20,507 
346,968 
886,149 
220,960 
Kentucky 
93,961 
85,915 
741 
40,343 
393,751 
249,073 
171,648 
166,116 
95,339 
7,043 
133,296 
478,103 
34.5,591 
.South Carolina 
100,916 
3,185 
146,151 
Georgia, 
82,548 
53,968 
48,293 
1,019 
59,404 
162,684 
Tennessee 
Territory N.W. of Ohio 
35,691 
47,180 
24,433 
44,529 
20,595 
309 
337 
13,584 
105,602 
45,365 
Mississippi territory ... 
2,907 
2,272 
182 
3,489 
8,850 
Indiana territory 
2,979 
2,318 
188 
156 
5,641 
3,929,326 
2,194,002 
2,109,886 
108,419 
893,331 
5,305,638 
