History

Legislation

Legislation 1789 - 1820

• The Constitution of the United States of America: Article 1, Section 2 Download PDF [9.54KB PDF]
  • Requiring a decennial census of population for the purpose of the apportionment of the House of Representatives and federal tax burden.
• Census Act of 1790 (March 1, 1790) Download PDF [360KB PDF]
  • Authorizing legislation for the 1790 census. Provided basic instructions to marshals pertaining to the basic required content of the census and their conduct in taking it.
• Census Act of 1800 (February 28, 1800) Download PDF [2.0MB PDF]**
  • Authorizing legislation for the 1800 census. Increased the number of questions asked, including a more detailed breakdown of household members by age group, and the name of the county or town in which the family resided.
• Census Act of 1810 (March 26, 1810) Download PDF [2.31MB PDF]**
  • Authorizing legislation for the 1810 census. The law now stated that enumeration was to be made "by an actual inquiry at every dwelling house, or of the head of every family within each district, and not otherwise."
• An Act of May 1, 1810 (Ch. 38) Download PDF [286KB PDF]**
  • Instructed assistant marshals to, along with collecting demographic information, also give "an account of the several manufacturing establishments and manufactures within their several districts…" This would be the first economic census.
• Census Act of 1820 (March 14, 1820) Download PDF [220KB PDF]
  • Authorizing legislation for the 1820 census. Very similar to previous census acts, although it authorized a second census of manufactures.

**This PDF is image-only and not fully searchable. For assistance interpreting image-only PDFs, please contact the Census Bureau History Staff via email or by telephone at: (301) 763-1167.