By an Act of Congress, entitled “An act providing for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States,” and which was signed by President Washington on March 1, 1790, the marshals of the judicial districts throughout the United States were “authorized and required to cause the number of the inhabitants within their respective districts to be taken, omitting in such enumeration Indians not taxed, and distinguishing free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, from all others.” These returns they were instructed to file with the clerks of their respective District Courts, who were directed to carefully preserve them. This was the FIRST CENSUS taken of the inhabitants of the United States, but it was far from complete, for the reason that “heads of families” only were recorded. Eighteen months were allowed in which to complete the enumeration. The census-taking was supervised by the marshals of the several judicial districts, who employed assistant marshals to act as enumerators. When the schedules were all gathered in, they were turned over to the President, who, on October 27, 1791, transmitted to Congress a summary of the result, which was published in what is now a very rare little volume that has not been reprinted for public use. The original schedules are contained in 26 bound volumes and are still preserved in the Census Office. They form a curious and most interesting collection, written as they were by the assistant marshals, “on such paper as they happened to have, and binding the sheets together. In some cases printed blanks furnished by the States were used, in others merchants’ account paper, and now and then the schedules were bound in wall paper.” A complete set of schedules for each State, with a summary for the Counties, and in many cases for towns, was filed in the State Department, but, unfortunately, they are not now complete, “the returns for the States of Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee and Virginia having been destroyed when the British burned the Capitol at Washington during the War of 1812.” In 1907, Congress authorized the Director of the Census to publish, in a permanent form, the First Census of the United States. “These schedules,” says the Director of the Census, “form a unique inheritance for the nation, since they represent for each of the States a complete list of the heads of families in the United States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. The framers were the statesmen and leaders of thought, but those whose names appear upon the schedules of the First Census were in general the plain citizens, who, by their conduct in war and peace, made the Constitution possible, and by their intelligence and self-restraint put it into successful operation.”