The republic., 1852-01-14

Mr. SMITH moved to I'LL the blank in hi.
amendment with $4,000.
! Mr.. BADGER moved to fill the blank with
/ 6O,OOO, but modified his motion to % COO.
| Mr., BORLAND considered the whole proceed
ing as premature. The Senate could not order the
printing until the plans and returns are laid before
them How was the Senate TO order printing when
no one knew what II was intended TO print-whe-
ther compendium, the full returns, or what else!
The law required the Superintendent Of the Census
to lay before Congress his plans, in order that Con
gress may determine whether they should be print
! ed or not.
Mr.. DAVIS wanted TO sec something of the re-
| turns. and the manner OF their arrangement, be-
| fore he could vote understandingly the motion
TO print None OF those plans had yet been laid be
fore them. Who knew any thing of what had been
done, or what the Supern endent had prepared for
printing? The Senator from Indiana had been fur
nished with plan OF part OF the returns of the State
OF Maryland. No other Senators had seen it. That
part shown to the Senator from Indiana contained
history OF the State of Maryland, and it pro-
posed 10 add the to the returns Of every other
State, The history of every State and county, and
possibly towns in the United States, entirely
out OF place in the census returns. The law con-
templaled no such thing How could he vote, them
10 print In large numbers document which he
had never seen and of which he wholly unin-
formed? He thought the subject ought to be post
poned
Mr.. COOPER considered the Senate as yet in the
dark on this subject; and could not with proprety
tell what ought to be done with regard to ordering
the printing OF the census until such time il had
been furnished with a sample Of the work lie re-
erred TO the many attempts made by gazetteers to
compile history of States, and TO their great in
accuracies This historical part of the work must
Of necessity be very inaccurate and he could not
vote for its printing. He was entirely opposed 10
this history of the United States got up in this way
and thought Congress ought to postpone the sub
jcct till 1t had had an opportunity of examining
what 1t was proposed to print.
MIR HAMI4IN said he held in his hand q portion
OF the census returns; 1t contained what pnrpored
to be history of the State of Maryland. This was
the first information that he had that the Census
Bureau had turned historians The law providing
for taking the census could not be tortured into
authorizing any such thing. No power for this
proceeding could be derived from the law. Ii was
a rnonstrous stretch OF power, and furnished the
key TO the fact that there one hundred and six
ty-three persons employed in the Census Office
engaged perhaps in getting up history of the
several States and counties. Such work could
hardly be trusted to any man He knew no man
whom he would entrust the writing of the history
OF the State he represented.
If the Senate should impose the duty, the burden
upon him, as u member OF the Committee on Print
ing, TO make this contract, he would make no con-
tract for printing any such thing this history
unless positively instructed so TO do by the Senate
Judging from this return of the State of Mary
land, he computed the historical part of the census
returns would make a book of about seven hundred
pages.
Mr.. PEARCE thought the discussion premature
II the Senate would wait for two or three weeks.
ne was informed the Supern ntendcnt of the Census
would be able TO lay before them a sample of the
work. That portion of the work including the re-
turns from Maryland was now in press and when.
lad before them they could judge of II better than
at present. He moved the further consideration of
the subject be postponed for three weeks.
After some further debate, by Mcssrs BUTLER
ATCHlSON, BRADBURY, and BRIG HT, the mo-
ton to postpone was agreed to.
And then the Senate adjourned