common property of the
Union. The amount paid into the Treasury from the proceeds of lands
during the year 1827 and the first half of 1828 falls little short of
$2,000,000. The propriety of further extending the time for the
extinguishment of the debt due to the United States by the purchasers of
the public lands, limited by the act of 21st March last to the 4th of
July next, will claim the consideration of Congress, to whose vigilance
and careful attention the regulation, disposal, and preservation of this
great national inheritance has by the people of the United States been
intrusted.

Among the important subjects to which the attention of the present
Congress has already been invited, and which may occupy their further
and deliberate discussion, will be the provision to be made for taking
the fifth census or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States.
The Constitution of the United States requires that this enumeration
should be made within every term of ten years, and the date from which
the last enumeration commenced was the first Monday of August of the
year 1820. The laws under which the former enumerations were taken were
enacted at the session of Congress immediately preceding the operation;
but considerable inconveniences were experienced from the delay of
legislation to so late a period. That law, like those of the preceding
enumerations, directed that the census should be taken by the marshals
of the several districts and Territories of the Union under instructions
from the Secretary of State. The preparation and transmission to the
marshals of those instructions required more time than was then allowed
between the passage of the law and the day when the enumeration was to
commence. The term of six months limited for the returns of the marshals
was also found even then too short, and must be more so now, when an
additional population of at least 3,000,000 must be presented upon the
returns. As they are to be made at the short session of Congress, it
would, as well as from other considerations, be more convenient to
commence the enumeration from an earlier period of the year than the 1st
of August. The most favorable season would be the spring. On a review of
the former enumerations it will be found that the plan for taking every
census has contained many improvements upon that of its predecessor. The
last is still susceptible of much improvement. The Third Census was the
first at which any account