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O Woman! with these ills in view,

To human aid why fondly cling?
What help may mortal courage shew--
What succour to thy spirit bring?

Upon thy heart's own courage call,
On thy immortal hopes rcly,
And turn to Him, whose love to all
In sorrow's hour is ever nigh.

THE APPROACHING CENSUS.

Not the least important and interesting of the subjects brought before the attention of Congress, in the Annual Message of the President, is unquestionably that of the Census for 1840, for which the proper provision and arrangements must be made at the present session. It is well, too, that it is one of those subjects that afford a neutral ground on which all parties may cordially meet, without the intrusion of any of those disturbing influences of interest or feeling which must bias the judgment, on the one side or the other, on almost every other conceivable subject of a public nature. For the sake of variety, it will be quite refreshing to meet in truce on such a common ground, undistracted by a jealousy, an alarm, or an interest, of a partisan character, to unite in carrying out this important measure on the most liberal and enlarged principles, and in the most efficient manner, with a single eye to the interesting national objects involved in it.

The idea appears to be pretty generally entertained, that advantage will be taken of the opportunity afforded by the Census, on the present occasion, to perform the duty properly incumbent on our Federal Government, which it is a subject of just reproach and regret has heretofore been unaccountably neglected; namely, that of making some portion at least of those general statistical observations, over the whole surface of the Union, of the principal subjects of national interest, to the proper collection of which it alone is competent. The American Almanac for last year held the following language in relation to it:

"All intelligent and judicious legislation must be founded, in a great measure, on statistical knowledge. If the statistics of all the United States, collected and digested on a judicious and uniform plan,-embracing, among other matters, a view of the Population, with the different classes and divisions-Commerce, Manufactures, and

Agriculture, with their various branches-works of Internal Improvement, as Canals, Railroads, &c,-Crime and Pauperism-Education and Religion, with their condition, means of support, and the institutions connected with them,-were, at regular periods, laid before the public, a mass of information would be presented, which would be of immense advantage to the national government and to the gov ernments of the several States; and the wide diffusion of such information among the citizens at large would be attended with the most salutary consequences. 'Knowledge is power;' and such knowledge as this would greatly increase the ability of the national and State governments, as well as of societies and individuals, to promote the interest, and advance the moral civilization and improvement, of the people.

"The volumes of the American Almanac contain a good deal of statistical information, which has been collected with much labor and expense. In conducting the work, we have frequently found it impossible to procure the information wanted. The statistics of the whole country can never be collected by one individual, nor by a society formed for the purpose. If the work is ever accomplished in a suitable manner, it must be done under the direction of the government of the United States. And, if the national government should connect this object with the taking of the next Census, the design would certainly commend itself to every man of enlightened views; and it would redound to the lasting honor of the administration that should first introduce the system."

It is greatly to be regretted, that at the last session of Congress a joint resolution, introduced by Mr. Legare, of South Carolinato refer the subject to a select committee, to collect information and to submit a plan to carry these views into effect, at the next (the present) session-shared the fate of the hundreds of bills which were lost for want of time to act upon them. The necessity of prompt action is now imperative, and does not admit of a similar postponement for another year; and compensation for the advantages which might have resulted from the labors of such a committee, must be sought in the diligent and liberal attention which it behoves Congress to bestow upon the measure without delay. We are surprised that, in the excitements which have thus far engaged the time and attention of that body, it seems to have been overlooked, no committee having yet (at the date of the present Article) been appointed in either branch to consider it—not. withstanding its introduction to their notice by the following passage from the President's Message:

"In recommending to Congress the adoption of the necessary provisions at this session for taking the next census, or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States, the suggestion presents itself whether the scope of the measure might not be usefully extended, by causing it to embrace authentic statistical returns of the great interests specially intrusted to, or necessarily affected by, the legislation of Congress."

At the session of 1835-6, it may be remembered, a memorial was addressed to Congress by a distinguished literary and scientific gentleman, Professor Lieber, of South Carolina College, invoking the patronage and aid of the Government, for the preparation and publication of a general work on the Statistics of the United States; which, it was correctly urged, was entirely beyond the ability of

any private individual, whether in reference to its necessary expense, or to the requisite facilities and means of observation. The application proved unsuccessful-from what causes we are not exactly informed. Probably the consideration was influential in the minds of many, that the approaching Census would furnish a convenient opportunity-in a mode not liable to the same exception as might perhaps apply to that thus proposed-for attaining much of the benefit, of an unquestionably important and national character, contemplated in such a work. At any rate, the considerations suggested in the following extract from the memorial referred to, are fully applicable, at the present period, to recommend the course pointed out to us, equally by the liberal example of all other civilized countries, and by an enlightened regard to the true principles of political science:

"It may be considered as one of the characteristic traits of our times, that, with regard to many branches of importance to the well-being of society, a careful collection of detailed facts, and the endeavour to arrive at general results by a comprehensive view and judicious combination of them, have been substituted for mere theorizing. Not only the strictly scientific portion of that great family of civilized nations, which part of Europe and America now constitute, has acknowledged the great importance to the legislator, and every one else who occupies himself with the welfare of his species, of statistical inquiries, when made on a large scale and used with proper caution, but several governments have shown how much they value accurate statistics, by ordering them to be collected and properly digested. The Prussian Government, which offers the peculiar and novel phenomenon of a polity, though absolute in its frame, yet, in various respects, administered upon highly liberal principles, established, several years ago, a 'Board of Statistics,' whose business it is to collect statistical facts with regard to agriculture, commerce, and industry, as well as to the manifold social and political relations of its subjects, and to lay the abstracts made of them before the respective authorities. Several publications of the greatest value have already been issued by this board. The French have likewise, paid much attention to the collection of statistical facts, and the results derived from them have, from time to time, been made public by authority. Some of them have shed an entirely new light upon subjects of the utmost importance to human society, such as the annual report of the keeper of the seals to the king, on every thing connected with the statistics of crime and police offences in France. The governments of Austria, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, and other countries, have caused accounts of a similar nature, and of more or less merit, to be given to the public, among which those of the Grand Duchy of Baden are particularly worthy of notice. Even some of the Italian governments have yielded so far to the spirit of our times, which prompts those who wield the helm of the state to make public what was once carefully hid from the eye of the people, as to publish, on several occasions, statistical accounts of some branches of government. The British parliament have instituted, on frequent occasions, statistical inquiries into various subjects of public interest, and, conformably to the spirit of the English government, have rendered them, by the press, accessible to the people at large. So likewise has the Congress of the United States diffused knowledge on some subjects of statistical interest among our people, by the ordering of large editions of certain reports and abstracts. They have, indeed, never been of a comprehensive nature, but they show sufficiently how great a value Congress have set upon some of them, and how important your body considers the collection of minute and faithful statistics.

"Statistics consist, in a great degree, in the collection and classification of a num

ber of isolated facts, which, thus isolated, have little value for human experience, or lead not unfrequently to views entirely erroneous. If they are patiently and faithfully collected, judiciously arranged and applied, and wisely digested, they lead to a more positive knowledge of the real state of things, with regard to all subjects of which we are able to collect statistics, than any other mode of inquiry. They often exhibit errors, though cherished for centuries, in their real light; unveil evils never suspected before, or show their roots where they were never expected to be found, thus enabling us to choose the most or the only efficient means of counteracting them. They are, therefore, of the greatest use to the legislator, and to every one whose duty it is to frame general measures for his community, in whatever branch.” The terms of the President's recommendation would seem to restrict within rather too narrow limits the proper scope of the proposed measure; for certainly many of the most valuable fields of observation would be excluded by confining it to "the great interests specially entrusted to, or necessarily affected by, the legislation of Congress." And the very definition of those terms would involve the whole question of that which is, and always has been, the great issue in controversy between the two parties of the country, namely, the extent of the proper action of the Federal Government upon the "great interests" of the country. It would be very difficult to trace a satisfactory dividing line, where the two opinions differ so widely as to the direction and the principle on which it should be drawn. But we see no necessity for any such rigid limitation. Though belonging perhaps to the strictest class of the strictest school of the State-Rights doctrine, and jealous of every attempt at extension of the federal action beyond the narrowest orbit within which its plainly prescribed functions can be performed, yet to the mere collection of general information, from the elevated central point of observation afforded by the relation of the federal government to the States-information designed, not as any basis for federal legislation, but for the benefit of the States themselves, and of the country and mankind at large-we cannot perceive that exception could be taken by any. In fact it is plain that there are a great many subjects on which it would be in a very high degree interesting and valuable to make a general statistical observation of the kind in question, which are not proper subjects of legislation at all, whether by the States or by the Federal Government-such as the Press, Religion, Benevolent Associations, Fine Arts, Health, &c. And when to these we add the subjects of Agriculture, Manufactures, Mechanic Arts, Commerce, in their various branches, Stocks and Banking, Internal Communi cation, Education, Crime, Social Life, the Political organization of the different States carried out through all its details, Elections, &c., an idea may be formed of the wide scope which it might be highly useful and important to give to the proposed inquiry, while a very small portion of the whole might be comprised within the proper sphere of federal legislation or influence.

These are all great national interests, though most wisely left by

us, either to manage and adjust themselves without governmental interference of any sort, or subject alone to the influence of State legislation, without the overshadowing control of any common, consolidated power of government, radiated in all directions from one common central point of absolute authority, as is the case with all the other great nations of the civilized world; while yet at the same time the value of the observations to be made of them must depend mainly on their universality. It is only out of the combination of the whole that the national value of the detailed observations that could be made by each State within its own borders, can proceed. For such a purpose as this, we conceive, we are a Nation, and something more than a mere league of separate and independent sovereignties. It is only by the statistics of these great physical and moral interests, that the practical working of our complex system of institutions can be fairly tested, or the whole, as a grand harmonious e pluribus unum, be fully understood, and its benefits made sensible to ourselves and demonstrated to other nations. It is only by an enlightened and comprehensive view of them, on a broader scale than within its own narrow limits,-in their mutual and comparative relations with each other and with other countries -that each State can intelligently legislate for itself in reference to them. And we feel well assured, that no application could be made of the central facilities within the competence of the Federal Government alone, more useful to the States individually, as well as to itself-more valuable, interesting, and satisfactory to the country at large, as one combined community of communities—or more fully in accordance with the general spirit of our institutions and the leading purposes of our union, according even to the views of the most severe anti-consolidationist-than to take the advantage afforded by this opportunity to make the most extensive statistical survey that may be found practicable, of the general character above indicated, over the whole surface of the Union.

The extent to which it may be thought proper by Congress to carry out this measure on the present occasion, we cannot anticipate. We hope it will be on a liberal and enlarged scale, this being a subject on which all parties and all opinions should unite. Mr. Adams' last General Message, at the session of 1828-'9, expressed regret at the inadequacy of the former provisions of law for the important objects which the Census might and should subserve, though directing his attention then only to the subject of Manufactures. At the third and fourth Censuses, some very imperfect, but still valuable, statistics of Manufactures were collected, but the fifth was again, we regret, confined to the mere enumeration of population, though considerably extended beyond that of former periods, by the more minute subdivisions of age, and by including returns of the blind and the deaf and dumb. But the mere collection of

VOL. V. NO. XIII —JANUARY, 1839.

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