About the middle of October or first of November, the Indian summer commences, and continues from fifteen to twenty days. During this season the weather is dull and cheerless, the atmosphere is smoky, and the sun and moon are sometimes almost totally obscured. Notwithstanding, then, the varieties of her climate-its severity during the winter at the north, and the enervating heat of the summer at the south-Illinois may regarded as having one of the most desirable and favored climates of the States in the Union. be With all the advantages of her fine situation-an empire in extentthe richest portion of the richest country in the world-with navigable streams on every border, and penetrating her remotest sections-rapidly increasing her population with an industrious, enterprising, and educated class of citizens can any one doubt her future position of empire in that great valley fated to control the destinies of our republic? Art. III-PROGRESS OF POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER I. THE CENSUS OF 1850, BEING THE SEVENTH DECENNIAL ENUMERATION UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. THIS census differs from every other which preceded it in one important particular. Hitherto the population had been distributed into classes, according to age, sex, and race, by the officers who took the census, but by the act of Congress for taking the seventh census, the census-taker was required to return each individual by name, with his or her sex, age, color, occupation, &c., and left the classification to be made at the seat of government, in the office of the Secretary of the Interior. This mode was recommended by its promise of greater accuracy, and by its affording materials for additional classes of the individual citizens, according to other points of similarity. It has, however, been found to be attended with the disadvantages of adding largely to the expense, and of requiring a much longer time to complete a digest of the returns. These objections, which, if not obviated, must acquire additional force at each succeeding census, have given rise to a doubt whether the certain inconveniences of the new mode do not outweigh its presumed benefits. The act also greatly enlarged the field of inquiry. It appointed a Census Board which had the power of prescribing the objects of inquiry, not exceeding one hundred. In the exercise of its authority, this Board augmented the number of agricultural items from twenty-nine to forty-five. It required a valuation of each person's lands, improved and unimproved, and of their implements and machinery; the annual taxes levied in each district; the number of aliens, with the places of their nativity; of paupers; of convicted criminals; of church establishments, with the property of each; and of the public libraries; and, lastly, it aimed at copious details of medical statistics-as the number of deaths within the year preceding the census, the age and color of each person deceased, and the disease of which he died. Though this part of the census is not to be relied on, from the incompetency or carelessness of most of those from whom the census-takers received their information, the seventh census, on the whole, furnishes the materials for a greater stock of statistical information than has probably ever been afforded in a country containing more than twenty millions of people. The decennial increase in 1850, by multiplication and the accession of Texas, New Mexico, and California, was— The distribution of the different classes under this census, compared with that of 1840, was as follows: The whites amounted to The free colored.......... In 1840. In 1850. 84.32 per cent. 66 The slaves... The result of the census of 1850, as to the population of each State and Territory, distributed according to age and sex, white or colored, bond or free, may be seen in the four following tables : WHITE POPULATION IN 1850, CLASSED ACCORDING TO AGE and sex. 20 and under 30. females. males. females. Maine.... 36,408 35,188 33,352 83,439 51,456 48,279 New Hampshire 17,426 16,844 16,920 18,821 28,232 28,948 Vermont. 18,485 17,609 17,480 16,778 27,431 25,661 Massachusetts 49,129 48,634 48,868 55,044 101,306 107,856 Rhode Island....... 7,365 7,378 7,172 7,828 14,652 15,192 Connecticut. 19,373 18,534 18,527 19,486 35,239 35,050 New York. 170,053 167,472 157,151 171,592 308,816 308,392 New Jersey. 28,213 26,913 24,294 25,706 42,193 43,152 Pennsylvania.... 138,633 133,258 116,773 124,483 209,438 206,801 Delaware................ 4,581 4,342 3,814 3,954 6,354 6,335 Maryland. 25,307 24,608 20,767 22,461 40,164 38,173 District of Columbia 2,156 2,235 1,829 2,220 3,523 3,950 Virginia 59,955 57,485 47,638 50,015 77,492 77,559 North Carolina........ 37,577 35,722 30,178 81,777 46,618 49,630 South Carolina. 18,842 18,132 14,732 15,530 23,474 23,833 Georgia 37,075 35,674 28,497 30,085 44,873 43,527 Florida 3,077 2,812 2,338 2,412 4,778 3,727 Alabama.. 30,145 29,059 24,548 25,215 36,360 35,732 Mississippi. 21,105 20,081 15,847 16,157 27,164 23,630 Louisiana. 14,103 13,857 10,620 12,498 30,729 24,569 Texas. 10,346 9,456 7,836 8,073 16,454 12,311 Arkansas 11,930 11,178 9,059 8,990 15,193 13,238 54,444 51,825 43,870 45,094 64,089 64,537 51,610 49,454 42,115 42,801 69,673 64,506 40,589 88,673 32,250 32,299 58,245 40,952 58,559 54,301 45,739 46,959 79,465 70,579 68,240 64,447 55,477 55,196 86,785 80,349 128,101 123,632 107,689 111,126 178,777 168,373 24,040 21,216 21,288 36,186 32,491 Wisconsin. 17,571 16,375 14,522 14,217 31,922 26,366 Iowa. 13,172 12,137 9,961 10,134 16,702 15,646 California 1,134 813 4,569 877 44,770 1,597 Minnesota. 209 231 1,154 565 Oregon. 677 525 2,375 802 Utah. 1,264 891 6,326 6,270 New Mexico.. States and Territories. Maine.... 1,225,575 1,176,554 1,041,116 1,087,600 1,869,092 1,758,469 40 and under 50. 50 and under 60. males. females. males. females. 27,436 25,802 17,644 17,460 New Hampshire 19,558 20,222 15,837 16,445 11,299 12.372 Vermont 19,766 19,262 15,860 15,212 10,679 10,397 Massachusetts 72,540 70,002 47,696 47,612 28,340 31,293 Rhode Island. 10,335 10,191 6,636 7,005 4,047 4,665 Connecticut 25,078 24,251 17,902 18,190 11,845 13,436 New York 216,542 197,333 144,496 128,561 85,440 78,911 New Jersey.. 30,181 28,151 20,887 19,631 12,796 13,039 Pennsylvania. 144,039 133,972 97,558 89,451 58,632 55,919 Delaware.. 4,605 4,481 3,106 2,948 1,713 1,805 Maryland. 29,460 26,685 18,740 17,414 10,647 10,802 District of Columbia 2,679 2,599 1,647 1,633 995 1,056 Virginia. 51,451 49,907 36,105 34,756 North Carolina.... 29,340 31,753 20,315 21,922 13,084 14,316 South Carolina. Georgia Florida.. Alabama 15,534 15,273 10,573 10,603 6,895 6,778 ...... 28,062 25.534 18,830 17,403 10,891 10,125 3,558 2,347 2,076 1,410 1,269 810 21,862 21,057 15,976 13,721 9,842 7,842 19,061 14,216 11,378 8,776 6,667 4,742 27,451 15,054 13,829 7,529 5,639 3,637 Texas 12,117 7,353 6,939 4,366 3,452 2,117 Arkansas 10,043 7,420 6,056 4,501 3,041 2,186 |