By the courtesy of General Francis A. Walker, Superintendent of the Ninth Census, and his assistants, it was made possible to include in the report of this office for the year 1871 some of the lessons of the census of 1870 most important to educators. By the delay of the present report we are able to use the completed results of that census, the elimination of the educational items having required a great amount of labor. The main facts thus brought out in relation to the entire country will be found in ten tables among the accompanying documents. LESSONS OF THE CENSUS. From the census we ascertain for each State and Territory the number of its square miles; its population; their nativity, race, sex, and parentage; its total valuation of property and the average of individual wealth; the number of illiterates between certain ages, and the percentage of illiterates to the population of corresponding ages; the number of universities, colleges, schools of theology, law, medicine, science, art, agriculture, and music; schools for the blind, the deaf and dumb, and idiots; schools of mining and of technology; private schools, normal schools, and public schools of all classes, with the number of professors and instructors, and the amount and sources of income for each class; the libraries and number of volumes; the number of periodicals of all classes, illustrated, political, religious, &c.; the number of persons pursuing some one of the various learned professions; the number of paupers and the number of criminals. And still further, to aid in the use of the materials of the census, a summary of the leading items bearing on education is given in the abstract of material from each State, hoping thus to add something, if possible, to the effect of its educational lessons, which it is difficult for the different State educational officers to work out for their own use. In Table A, from the census of 1870, in the appendix to this report, we have the area, the number, nativity, race, and sex of the population, and the number of inhabitants to the square mile. The following are the numbers for the whole country: Census Table B (appendix) includes the parentage and total wealth of the population, the average wealth per capita, and the special nativity of the foreign-born population. The following numbers were born For the facts necessary to comparisons between States and sections, attention is invited to the tables themselves. Having before us the population of the country, with the race, sex, nativity, and parentage, with the square miles they occupy and the wealth that they possess, it is natural to inquire in reference to the degree of their intelligence. By computations requiring much time and care, we have the following exhibit, deserving the profoundest consideration of every citizen and statesman: Total population in 1870, 10 years old and over.. Male population, 10 years old and over................ Illiterate males, 10 years old and over Female population, 10 years old and over.. Illiterate females, 10 years old and over Percentage of total illiterates to total population of same age * 28, 238, 945 5,658, 144 14, 258, 866 2,603, 888 13,970, 079 3,054, 256 20.04 18.26 21.87 9, 692, 945 Only those Indians forming part of the constitutional population are here included. The total Indian population of the Union is reported as 383,712. Illiterate population, 10-21 years old Male population, 10-21 years old. Illiterate males, 10-21 years old. Percentage of illiterates, 10-21 years old, to population of same age. Male adult illiterates.. Total female adults Female adult illiterates.. Percentage of male illiterate adults to total adults Percentage of female illiterate adults to total females. 1,942, 948 4,815, 865 984, 741 4,877, 080 958, 207 20.05 20.45 19.65 9, 443, 001 1,619, 147 9,092, 999 2,096, 049 17. 150 23.05 We have, in this exhibit, several results most significant and instructive. Who can speak boastingly of American intelligence, with a knowledge of the fact that over 17 per cent. of the adult males of the country, who are essentially all voters, are illiterate, and that nearly one-fourth of the adult females (over 23 per cent.) are in the same condition? But the amount of intelligence in the country, as tested by the capacity to read and write, is not limited to these adults. The census gives those who can not write, 10 years old and over; and those from 10 to 20 certainly should not be excluded in an effort to estimate accurately the intellectual power of a people. Even those from 5 to 9, inclusive, though not a great direct power in this particular, yet, as being able to read, may be a medium of information to parents and other adults around them, and we may, therefore, include them in the reckoning. The census does not give those under 10 who can not write or can not read; but we may make an estimate on the basis that the same percentage holds good as in the case of those over 10. With these considerations for our guidance, we have, from the figures, the following results: Total population of all ages. Number 5 years old and over Number 10 years old and over.. Number 5-9 years old, inclusive.. Number of illiterates 10 years old and over... Estimated number, (20 per cent.,) 5-9 years old, inclusive, illiterate. Estimated number, 5 years old and over, illiterate So that the number 5 years old and over, not illiterate, is. 38, 558, 371 5,514, 713 33,043, 658 28, 228, 945 4,814, 713 5,658, 144 962, 942 6, 621, 086 26,422, 572 20.04 79.96 17.17 68.53 14.30 From these figures it will be seen that out of the 38,558,371 of the population of the United States of all ages, 12,135,799, or 31.47 per cent. of the total population, must be excluded from any estimate which would ascer tain the number who are able, through reading and writing, to exchange information with others for the guidance of their conduct. How many of the remaining 68.53 per cent. of our entire population who can read and write have any instruction in reckoning, or know anything of the grammar of our language, or the history or geography of our country, or how many have completed the course in our high schools and academies, or how many have received a collegiate, or professional education, we can not tell as yet.* The relation of ignorance to poverty, or of intelligence to wealth, is so impressively set forth by two colored maps published in the census, that I have obtained permission from General Walker to include them in the appendix of this report, for the benefit of the educators of the country. TABLE I FROM THE CENSUS. The total number of persons in the United States pursuing various *J. C. Welling, LL. D., president of Columbian College, D. C., in attempting to ascertain the number of college graduates in the Congress of the United States, presents the following interesting results, (Proceedings National Baptist Educational Convention 1872, p. 194.) It is proposed to take the last three Congresses of the United States, and to estimate the degree in which even a nominally educated mind may be said to have pervaded their deliberations. The following statistics are consolidated from Dr. Welling's text: According to her triennial catalogue of the year 1868, Yale College had at that time 3,645 living alumni. According to her triennial catalogue of 1869, Harvard College then had 2,977 living alumni. According to her triennial catalogue of 1869, Princeton College then had 2,446 living alumni. The average ratios of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton graduates in Congress to the total number of living graduates belonging respectively to those colleges at the dates of 1866, 1868, and 1870, when elections were held for members of the popular branch of Congress, are as follows: Yale, 1.508; Harvard 1.145; Princeton, 1.506. President Welling does not enter into a discussion of the relation of the educated classes to our civil service except in Congress. In reference to the naval and military service, it will be noted that the officers of the Army and Navy, respectively, are expected to be drawn from the graduates of the Military and Naval Academies. learned, professional, or artistic occupations, according to the census of 1870, is 316,638, there being in Educational institutions and schools, as such, including all grades from the elementary to the superior and special, professional and technical, must do their work exclusively upon the population from 5 to 24 years of age, inclusive. How much these institutions are doing, and at what expense; for how many students, male and female; by how many instructors, male and female, will appear in the following summary of Census Table F: |