1828 John Quincy Adams - Recommendations for the 1830 Census

When John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State in 1820, he had responsibility for the 1820 census which did not go over very well.   Adams described it in 1828 as having "considerable inconveniences".  In some cases, especially regarding the records of manufacturers, or what we today might call employment and wages, it was terribly incomplete and inaccurate.  It was so bad the Niles' Weekly Register in 1820 wrote "that it would have been better if the subject of inquiry had been altogether omitted".  Now, as President, he was urging Congress to take steps to prepare and improve the process for 1830.  The census was still 2 years away, but in 1820 Congress waited until the session immediately prior to enact laws, causing legislative delay.  Adams blamed these legislative delays and the short  6 month term of the marshals "considerable inconveniences".

Manufacturing data was first enumerated in 1810, but the questionnaire was too simple to provide much useful information, so Adams expanded it in 1820 to include information on the state, parish, township, town or city where the manufacture existed along with the following information (census.gov).

Raw materials employed;

I. The kind.
2. The quantity annually consumed.
3· The cost of the annual consumption.

Number of persons employed;

4. Men
5. Women
6. Boys and girls.
Machinery;
7· Whole quantity and kind of machinery.
8. Quantity of machinery in operation.
Expenditures;
9· Amount of capital invested.
10. Amount paid annually for wages.
11. Amount of contingent expenses.

Production:

12. The nature and names of articles manufactured.
13· Market value of the articles which are annually manufactured.

14· General remarks concerning the establishment, as to its
actual and past condition, the demand for, and sale of,
its manufacture.
Adams, had good intentions, but his marshals were unable to follow through.  On August 26, 1820 the Niles' Weekly Register contained an editorial that explained why the results of the returns were very incomplete and inaccurate.  Just a few weeks after the census began, the editorial argued "that it would have been better if the subject of inquiry had been altogether omitted".  The author explained that "this has been brought about by the mistaken economy of congress" who allowed the interviews to be delegated to deputy marshals or simply paid workers.  According to the editorial, census takers did not "call and call again" until they met with the heads of families, but instead they often just interviewed the housewives who generally knew little of what their husbands did in the manufactures.  (Niles Register - August 26, 1820).  Another reason for such incomplete and inaccurate information, was the reluctance of certain manufactures to supply the data either for fear of taxation or because the perceived it as a invasion of their privacy.  Keep in mind, that in 1820 men did not work in big corporations, rather these were small businesses and often time individually owned.   The federal government was asking for annual wages and capital investments in the days before IRS.  So, for many patriots of the day this did not go over well.

Adams hoped to avoid these headaches in the 1830 census, so in his final State of the Union Address, Adams urged Congress to begin enacting legislation now for the 1830 census.   Adams had a few recommendations.  His first recommendation was to begin the census enumerating in the Spring, rather than wait  until August 1st.  He mused that this was especially needed, since the population had grown by at least 3 million since 1820.   Second, Congress needed to find some "supplementary provision of the law" to render the collection of manufacturing information more effective.  But Adams, stopped short of forcing Americans to provide information about their livelihood and wages.  One can only surmise, that in 1828, Adams and most of Congress would probably have considered that to be unconstitutional. 

In addition, Adams recommended that the census be expanded to include information about children and young adults under the age of 45.  In Adams opinion, gathering this information would not take much more effort and would provide very useful information over time.  Adams suggested that the ages start at infancy and be grouped in intervals of 10. 

Here is the full excerpt of President John Quincy Adams' final State of the Union address on the subject of the 1830 census.

"Among the important subjects to which the attention of the present Congress has already been invited, and which may occupy their further and deliberate discussion, will be the provision to be made for taking the 5th census of enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States. The Constitution of the United States requires that this enumeration should be made within every term of 10 years, and the date from which the last enumeration commenced was the first Monday of August of the year 1820.
The laws under which the former enumerations were taken were enacted at the session of Congress immediately preceding the operation; but considerable inconveniences were experienced from the delay of legislation to so late a period. That law, like those of the preceding enumerations, directed that the census should be taken by the marshals of the several districts and Territories of the Union under instructions from the Secretary of State. The preparation and transmission to the marshals of those instructions required more time than was then allowed between the passage of the law and the day when the enumeration was to commence. The term of 6 months limited for the returns of the marshals was also found even then too short, and must be more so now, when an additional population of at least 3,000,000 must be presented upon the returns.
As they are to be made at the short session of Congress, it would, as well as from other considerations, be more convenient to commence the enumeration from an earlier period of the year than the first of August. The most favorable season would be the spring.
On a review of the former enumerations it will be found that the plan for taking every census has contained many improvements upon that of its predecessor. The last is still susceptible of much improvement. The 3rd Census was the first at which any account was taken of the manufactures of the country. It was repeated at the last enumeration, but the returns in both cases were necessarily very imperfect. They must always be so, resting, of course, only upon the communications voluntarily made by individuals interested in some of the manufacturing establishments. Yet they contained much valuable information, and may by some supplementary provision of the law be rendered more effective.
The columns of age, commencing from infancy, have hitherto been confined to a few periods, all under the number of 45 years. Important knowledge would be obtained by extending these columns, in intervals of 10 years, to the utmost boundaries of human life. The labor of taking them would be a trifling addition to that already prescribed, and the result would exhibit comparative tables of longevity highly interesting to the country. I deem it my duty further to observe that much of the imperfections in the returns of the last and perhaps of preceding enumerations proceeded from the inadequateness of the compensations allowed to the marshals and their assistants in taking them."

Note:  In the end, Congress decided to limit the 1830 census to information about the population youth and young adults as Adams recommended.   Information on manufactures was excluded.  The 1840 census did include information about manufacturers along with farms and mines as well, but was limited to quantitative data.  Unfortunately, the data collected in the 1840 census was little better than that of 1820. 

References

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). John Quincy Adams: Fourth Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29470 [Accessed 9 Jul. 2018].

Census.gov. (2018). Census of Manufacturers 1810-1890. [online] Available at: https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/manufactures1810-1890.pdf [Accessed 14 Jul. 2018].

Niles, H. (1820). Niles' weekly register, Volume 18. Baltimore: Printed for the editor by William Ogden Niles, at the Franklin Press, p.450.