Politics
One notable effect of the published census results on the political debates of the time was that the percentage of "insane negroes" seemed to increase the further North one went, reaching catastrophic proportions in Massachusetts and Maine. Pro-slavery advocates pointed to this as evidence of the beneficial effects of slavery. These statistics were later revealed to be false, but no formal correction to the census results was ever published, partly due to John C. Calhoun being Secretary of State in 1844. The statistical problems were detailed in an 1844 publication of the American Statistical Association entitled Memorial of the American Statistical Association Praying the Adoption of Measures for the Correction of Errors in the Census Detailing Certain Errors in the Sixth Census, Including too many Mentally Ill African Americans. This report was presented to Congress by John Quincy Adams who notes that it demonstrates "a multitude of gross and important errors in the printed census of 1840."
Read more about this topic: 1840 United States Census
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