Speech #460157047

It is so clear that I am astonished that the gentleman from Indiana would attack that census after reading it. He says: The extraordinary gains reported in certain of the counties of South Carolina. and in the State as a whole. over the census of 1870 demanded. therefore. a careful investigation. It was notorious that South Carolina had not profited materially during the ten years since 1870 by immigration. either from foreign countries or from othyr States of the Union. With so slight advantage from immigration. it was not possible that an old State could have gained in population in the interval since 1870 to the degree which is shown by the comparison of the two censuses. It follows. as a conclusion of the highest autbority. either that thecensusof 1870 was grossly defective in regard to the whole of the State or some considerable parts thereof. or else that the censis of 1880 was fraudulent. The census of 1870 might have been defective in a high degree without fraudulent intention. through the incompetence or negligence of the enumerators employed.