The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-10-21
1SG0...1S70...1SS0.
What superintendent Walker Has to say
of the Census.
WASHINGTON. October 6

What Superintendent Walker Has to sa
of the Census.
WASHINGTON, October 8.
Secretary Schurz has made public tht
report of ofSuperintendent Walker, Of th
census bureau, on the alleged census
frauds in South Carolina. After review
ing the statements made by the press
alleging frauds, and the action of th'
census bureau in investigating the same
Gen. Walker says: "The extraordinary
gains reported in certain of the countie:
of South Carolina and in the State as q
whole over the census of 1870, demanded
therefore investigation. TWAS notorious
that South Carolina had not profited
materially during the ten years since
1870 by immigration either from foreign
countries, or from other States of the
Union. With slight advantage from
immigration it was not possible that an
old State could have gained in popula-
ton in the interval since 1870 to de.
gree which is shown by comparison of
the two censuses. 1t follows as the con-
clusion of the highest authority either
that the census of 1870 was grossly de-
fective in regard to the whole OF the
State or some considerable parts thereof,
or else that the census of 1880 was fradu.
lent. The census of 1870 might have
been defective in high degree, without
fraudulent intention, through the incom-
petence or negligence of the enumera.
tors employed but the census of 1880
could not have exaggerated the popula-
ton of the State without absolute fraud,
inasmuch as the census law requires the
name of every person reported to be
written at length in the schedules with
score of particulars as regards their
age, sex, nativity, occupation, &c, so
that any illegitimate addition whatever
to the schedule must be in the nature of
conscious and purposed crime" Gen.
Walker then gives his reason for believ-
ing the report of 1870 incorrect, attribut-
ing it mainly to the defects of the law
under which it was taken, namely, that
of 1850, :and says there was moreover
lacking in 1870 throughout the general
region one very important subject Of
enumeration, viz: public interest in the
result
The interest generally manifested
throughout the United States in the
ninth census was far below that which
has been shown the present year, but
nowhere did the interest in the work of
the census fall so low as in the States
referred to in which political activity
under the Constitution of the United
States had scarcely revived. No specific
allegation of fraud in the enumeration of
South Carolina has ever beer made to
this office. The entire reason for i'm
peaching the integrity of the recent CEN
sus was based on the reported gain Of
population between 1870 and 1880. The
result of the investigation places beyond
possible question by any fair minded
man the entire fault upon the census of
1870. I know of no reason therefore
why any further charge should be made
against the enumeration recently brought
to conclusion by the commissioned and
sworn officers of the government in
South Carolina. The presumption
which existed against that work has
been completely overtbrown and strong
counter presumption has been created by
veri6cation upon the ground Of sched-
ules of the inhabitans in the cases of
eighteen enumeration districts success
sively taken for special investigation on
account of their exceptionally question.
able character.
Gen. Walker closes with consideration
of the objection urged against the rea-
sonableness of the result fthe census of
1880, derived from comparison of the
ratio of increase of population in South
Carolina between the years 1920, 1860
and 1880. After stating that the popu-
lation of the State increased Al per cent.
during the first mentioned period of
forty years and Al per cent, or the same
per centage between 1860 and 1880, q
peric of only twenty years, he says:
''Such comparison, however, is not fair
without reference to certain general
causes operating. During the two peri
DDS from 1920 10 1860 South Carolina
was BEEHIVE, from which swarms were
continually going forth to populate the
newer cotton growing States of the
Southwest. Between 1920 and 1880,
immense tracts of fertile lands belonging
to the Creeks and Cherokees in Gec-oia
were ceded to the United States 4
were largely occupied by South Carolim-
ans.
Later in the period an active emigra-
ton of whites from South Carolina
sprang up and was maintained in favor
of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana,
while South Carolina negroes were sold
in great numbers to cultivate the cotton,
rice and sugar fields of those States.
Still later the annexation of Texas made
further drafts upon the population of
South Carolina.
With reference to immigration from
the State between the years 1860 and
1880, the report concludes as follows {:
We do not know fully what effects the
destruction of slavery and the vast
change resulting in the conditions Of
labor have produced upon the emigrat-
ing propensities of the people of South
Carolina. We do know that the negroes
are no longer sold South to cultivate the
lands of Yazoo, Red River and Brazos.
1t is reasonable to suppose that concur
ring CAUSES may have checked in an
equal degree the outward movement of
the white population. A comparison OF
"free" natives ofSouth Carolina living in
other States in 1860 with white natives
of South Carolina living in such States
in 1870 shows the number to have been
respectively 193,9S9 and 14S,574, re-
duction of $4,000 in ten years, between
1860 and 1870.
Frederick Douglass, the Unknown
colored Republican, has published g let.
ter, in which he says that during his visit
to North Carolina last week he saw and
heard enough to convince him that the
impression in the North that there is a
conflict between the races in the South is
wrong. He says that he was extremely
nleased with his reception in Raleigh,