Counting house

“ Moreover the District Court held that use of the county unit system in counting the votes in a statewide election was permissible 'if the disparity against any county is not in excess of the disparity that exists * * * under the equal proportions formula for representation of the several states in the Congress.' Ibid. ”

“ A man shall not by virtue of this Act be entitled to be registered as a voter or to vote at any election for a county in respect of the occupation of any dwelling-house, lodgings, land, or tenement, situate in a borough. ”

“ In the cities the safety of the census lies in the fact that the special inquiries are taken out of the hands of the ordinary enumerators and placed in those of men especially qualified for the work. Paying by the name in large cities has, however, this weakness, that where an enumerator meets with unusual obstacles, as in a tenement house inhabited by foreigners who do not understand English, or a house when all the adult members of the family are absent, he is tempted to pass such places by and devote his energies to easier cases. ”

“ In apportioning the Senators among the different counties, the fraction that may be lost by any county or counties, in the apportionment of members to the House of Representatives shall be made up to such county or counties in the Senate as near as may be practicable. When a district is composed of two or more counties, they shall be adjoining, and no county shall be divided in forming a district . ”

“ Overcrowding from a census point of view means that more than two persons live in a room, counting the kitchen as a room, but not the scullery. “Thus,” as the Editor of the Land Inquiry Report tells us, [Pg 246] “if a tenement or cottage consists of two bedrooms and a kitchen, the Census Authorities would only describe it as overcrowded if there were more than six persons living in it, no matter how small the rooms. The Census test of overcrowding is, in fact, quite inadequate to measure the full extent of the evil, and there is great need for the adoption of a more accurate one. ”

“ The occupiers of houses and other buildings in the streets shall mark their houses with such numbers as the commissioners [150] approve of, and shall renew such numbers as often as they become obliterated, or defaced; and every such occupier who fails within one week after notice for that purpose from the commissioners to mark his house with a number approved of by the commissioners, or to renew such number when obliterated, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 40s. ”

“ It is estimated that the next census will give seven millions two hundred thousand souls, which, according to the present ratio of representation, would give to this House two hundred and eighteen members—a greater number than could be accommodated within these walls, and a greater body of men than could progress with the business of the House. ”

“ An actual census or enumeration of the people must furnish the rule, a circumstance which shuts the door to partiality or oppression. In addition to the precaution just mentioned, said he, there is a provision that all duties of imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. ”

“ Well, as you know, and I think as they know, the census is a department -- or an entity within the Department of Commerce that will administer the census. The Commerce Secretary will oversee that, and obviously in consultation with Congress and the White House. The President understands the benefit of an accurate and independent census count, and I think the American people can be assured that's what they'll get. ”

“ Every person whose name is in the jurors' book for the county, and who is legally entitled to be called an esquire or is a person of higher degree, or is a banker or merchant, or occupies a private dwelling-house rated or assessed to the poor rate or to the inhabited house duty, on a value of not less than £100 in a town containing 20,000 inhabitants or upwards, or not less than £50 elsewhere, or who occupies premises, other than a farm, rated or assessed at not less than £100, or occupies a farm rated or assessed at not less than £300. ”

“ Out of nearly 31,500 enumeration districts formed for the purpose of this census, complete returns have been received from all but 7 small districts, in which unavoidable accidents, such as the loss of matter in the mails, deaths of enumerators, or the delinquency of individual officials, have thus far prevented the completion of the work, which, however, it is expected will be brought to a conclusion within the course of the next few days. ”

“ Du Flore explained to the countess how the two youths would enter her house, and then departed.
Along about six o'clock in the evening, a poor-looking old man applied at the door of the house of the countess. He was admitted, and a little later quite a stylish young [Pg 35] man also sought an entrance, and a little later still the poor-looking old man and the stylish youth were alone with the countess, who was disposed to ask them a great many questions. The lads were sorely tempted to give the countess a little initiation, but concluded to reserve their didos for the two thieves. ”

“ By the creation of the system of internal revenue and the enactment of the election law the officers to whom the act of 1850 commits the supervision of the census work have been charged with duties so numerous and engrossing as to render it impossible for them to give to the census the time and attention absolutely necessary to its proper completion. ”

“ The county electoral divisions shall be arranged with a view to the population of each division being, so nearly as conveniently may be, equal, regard being had to a proper representation both of the rural and urban population, and to the distribution and pursuits of such population, and to the last published census for the time being, and to evidence of any considerable change of population since such census. ”

“ The legislature, by law, shall provide for the making and tabulation by state authorities of an enumeration of the inhabitants of the entire state to be used for such purposes, instead of a federal census, if the taking of a federal census in any tenth year from the year nineteen hundred thirty be omitted or if the federal census fails to show the number of aliens or Indians not taxed. ”

“ The census which a police quietly makes has an object of general safety. It has its one pursuit. It has its particular game, and we may well give it its license. By it we sleep safely in our beds. It does its complicated but defined work silently; whereas the other census is perpetually knocking at every man’s door, to ask impertinent questions. ”

“ But the census has long outgrown that clause, and it would be impossible to justify even the questions on the population schedule as necessary to an enumeration of the people. With the employment of special agents the necessity for a uniform date has ceased, and it is the opinion of such men as General Walker and Commissioner Wright that it would be better to make these special inquiries at some other time, when the Census Office is less overwhelmed with work. ”

“ And the poor can generally be better cared for by the county than by the individual towns, for the county can erect and maintain a poor-house.
4. To secure certain local officers not needed in every town; for instance, a register of deeds, the coroner, the judge of probate, the superintendent of schools (in most states) , and the surveyor.
5. To serve as a territorial basis for the apportionment of members of the legislature. ”

“ You shall do well during the time of her abode in the house she is taken to, to cause some substantial watches to be kept both about the house as also in the town next adjoining; wherein we doubt not but you will have a special regard to use the service of such of the Justices and gentlemen in that county as are well affected, giving them special orders to choose well-affected men as watchers, and not such as are known to be recusants. ”

“ A census of these persons shall be taken under the direction of the President, and the selections shall be made so as to include the improvements of each person within his selection, if the same can be so made, and if not, then all the persons belonging to the same town, entitled to selections, and who cannot make the same, so as to include their improvements, shall take them in one body in a proper form. ”

“ No fewer than one hundred and ninety eight families left home rather than be enumerated, regarding the census as an intrusion into the privacy of their family life and as a raid upon their houses with the object of imposing fresh taxes upon them. ”

“ It is said, in the first place, that so small a number cannot be safely trusted with so much power. The number of which this branch of the legislature is to consist, at the outset of the government, will be sixtyfive. Within three years a census is to be taken, when the number may be augmented to one for every thirty thousand inhabitants; and within every successive period of ten years the census is to be renewed, and augmentations may continue to be made under the above limitation. ”

“ To make such preparations that it should, to some extent, embody the spirit of the time and furnish us with a correct statement of our condition under the new impulses and burdens of the nation, an act was passed March 3, 1849, creating a census board, whose duty it should be to prepare, and cause to be printed, forms and schedules for the enumeration of the population, and also for collecting "such information as to mines, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, education and other topics as will exhibit a full view of the pursuits, industry, education and resources of the country ”

“ A county may elect a magistrate for the execution of its administrative affairs and elect representatives for the deliberation and making of its laws in order to become a completely self-governed county, when a census of the whole county has been properly taken ”

“ While the census will always remain of value for purposes of comparison with preceding periods, its first and greatest service is its immediate use not only for determining the distribution of political power, according to the provisions of the Constitution, but also for directing State and national legislation, and for guiding individual and social effort for the promotion of public interests, and for the amelioration of the condition of the criminal, afflicted, and dependent classes. ”

“ A desire simply to locate a county seat, in a particular town or neighborhood—thus enhancing four-fold the property of a few individuals, while it imposes greatly increased burdens on the balance of an over-taxed community--is surely no good reason for the division of an old county. ”

“ In each collection of precincts which make the smallest electoral district, like a ward in a city or a township in the country, there must be a mesne lord whom the captains obey. In larger election districts, such as a city or a county, or a combination of counties, there must be tenants in chief over the mesne lords. ”

“ Common assessments are held at times, throughout the counties, by itinerant justices whom we call deambulatory or wandering judges; the assessments are called common because, when the sum is known which is required in common from those who have estates in the county, it is distributed according to the hides of land, so that when the time comes for payment at the exchequer, nothing of it is lacking. ”

“ If the department is to remain uncertain whether the census is to be taken under the act of 1850 or under a new law till the February of the census year — as was the case in 1870 — the work must suffer both through enhanced cost and through impaired value. ”

“ The countess, a lady of honor to the young dauphine, Marie Antoinette, bore the well-merited reputation of being the most charming woman at the court of the king, Louis the Fifteenth. Count and countess, wealthy as they were and happy as they seemed to be, were not overmuch so, because of their desire for a son; for one thing, which is not seen in this country, you will not doubt, dear girls, exists in France and other countries of Europe: it is the eldest son, and never the daughter, who inherits the fortune and titles of the family. ”

“ If universality and magnitude of cost count for anything, yes. Nearly all the inhabitants of the United States live in a county and nearly every voter takes part in the affairs of one. There are over three thousand such units. ”

“ It has, of course, not been found practicable to eliminate every error from the material which was brought into the Office by the enumeration, or from the results as compiled in the Office, but certainly all who have taken part in the labors or responsibilities of the Ninth Census may well feel repaid for their exertions by the gratifying reception which these volumes have met from the people and the press of the country. ”

“ The only difference worthy of notice is that in each of these cases the single fact required to be shown by the public record was the valuation of the property of the county, whereas here two facts are to be so shown,-the valuation of the property, and the amount of the county debt. But, as both these facts are equally required by the statute to be entered on the public records of the county, they are both facts of which all the world is bound to take notice, and as to which, therefore, the county cannot be concluded by any recitals in the bonds. ”

“ A political subdivision may petition the Attorney General to terminate listing procedures or to authorize the necessary census, and the District Court itself shall request the census if the Attorney General's refusal to do so is arbitrary or unreasonable. ”