1838 Martin Van Buren - Expanding the Scope of the US Census

In 1838, several members of Congress with the help of President Martin Van Buren endeavored to expand the scope of the US census.  The suggestion was to include information related to the employment, industry, education and resources of the country. Census takes would collect data regarding the great interests of the nation including mines, agriculture, commerce, manufacturing and schools. Such data would then be gathered into statistical tables and made available to Congress for review as they consider future legislation. It was the first real effort to expand the census. In his 1838 second state of the union address, President Van Buren recommended that Congress not only move forward with the adoption of the provisions needed for the sixth census, but with this expansion as well.

"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."

Unfortunately, these efforts were not as successful as they had hoped. There were complaints that the data collected was inaccurate. Organizations like the American Statistical Association sent formal letters to Congress stating that they had discovered gross errors in the printed edition of the Census.   

References

"Second Annual Message." Second Annual Message | The American Presidency Project, 3 Dec. 1838, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/second-annual-message-4

The History and Growth of the United States Census Prepared for the Senate Committee on the Census by Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor (pgs 35-37), https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1900/history-growth-census.pdf

picture courtesy of Family Search, https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/1840-us-census