d protection for their commerce and their struggling manufactures.
Representatives from the Southern states opposed all protective duties
as harmful to agriculture, which was the only important pursuit of the
Southerners. But the Southerners would have been glad to have a duty
placed on hemp. This the New Englanders opposed because it would
increase the cost of rigging ships. The Pennsylvanians were eager for a
duty on iron and steel. But the New Englanders opposed this duty because
it would add to the cost of building a ship, and the Southerners opposed
it because it would increase the cost of agricultural tools. And so it
was as to nearly every duty that was proposed. But duties must be laid,
and the only thing that could be done was to compromise in every
direction. Each section got something that it wanted, gave up a great
deal that it wanted, and agreed to something that it did not want at
all. And so it has been with every tariff act from that day to this.

[Sidenote: The first census.]

[Sidenote: Extent of the United States, 1791.]

[Sidenote: Population of the United States, 1791.]

200. The First Census, 1791.--The Constitution provided that
representatives should be distributed among the states according to
population as modified by the federal ratio (p. 142). To do this it was
necessary to find out how many people there were in each state. In 1791
the first census was taken. By that time both North Carolina and Rhode
Island had joined the Union, and Vermont had been admitted as the
fourteenth state. It appeared that there were nearly four million people
in the United States, or not as many as one hundred years later lived
around the shores of New York harbor. There were then about seven
hundred thousand slaves in the country. Of these only fifty thousand
were in the states north of Maryland. The country, therefore, was
already divided into two sections: one where slavery was of little
importance, and another where it was of great importance.

[Sidenote: Vermont admitted, 1791.]

[Sidenote: _Higginson_ 229.]

[Sidenote: Kentucky admitted, 1792. _Higginson_, 224-230.]

201. New States.--The first new state to be admitted to the Union
was Vermont (1791). The land which formed this state was claimed by New
Hampshire and by New York. But during the Revolution the Green Mountain
Boys had declared themselves independent and had drawn up a
constitution. They now applied to Congress for admission to the Union