"The annexed statement of the sums received and accounted for by them (the agents) shows the measure of their success. This, though various, has, in no instance, equalled the least sanguine expectations. This may be ascribed in some degree to the fundamental feature of the plan itself, which, in limiting the individual subscriptions to one dollar, has been found, excepting in towns, to have involved an expense to the agent nearly, if not quite, equal to the amount collected; while in the larger towns the abortion heretofore of schemes for a like purpose has produced a general impression that this plan would share the same fate. Other causes, some of a temporary, others of a permanent nature, co-operated in leading to this result, of which, perhaps, the most powerful was the general derangement of the currency, and the real or apprehended evils that followed in its train, with the impression that it was the duty of the General Government, out of the vast resources at its command, to effect the object. "In reviewing the course of measures pursued, the Board of Managers have satisfaction in perceiving no neglect or omission on their part in discharging the duties assigned them. If an assiduity proportioned to the dignity of the object, a devotion seeking no reward but in the gratification of honest feelings, and an economy attested by the small expenditures for contingent expenses, are the truest evidences of fidelity, they trust that they may, without unworthy imputations, lay claim to this humble virtue. * * * Upon the whole, however great the disappointment of the Board of Managers, they have not abandoned the hope that a plan which, at its inception, was hailed with universal approbation, may yet, with proper modifications, be effected." It is shown by this address that the amount collected and interest accrued on stocks in this year was $30,779.84. The restriction of a contribution to the sum of one dollar appears to have been removed on one occasion in 1839. A committee of the Society, having been appointed for the purpose on November 13, 1839, prepared and issued a special circular letter, to be sent to the deputy marshals of the United States, who shortly were to begin taking the census of the country. This appeal recited in part: