levy a poll tax in proportion to the census, but this power has never been exercised. The States, however, have very generally levied such taxes. In 1860 it was employed by twenty-seven of the States and Territories. It is not now so common, and some of the State Constitutions forbid it. In some States, as in Massachusetts, its payment is a necessary pre-requisite for voting. Where it is employed it is not uncommon to except certain classes, as ministers, from its payment. Pond Tax Law. (See Prohibition.) Poor Man's Dollar.-The silver dollar is so-called by those favoring its compulsory coinage. (See Silver Question.) Poor Richard.-In 1732 Benjamin Franklin began the publication of "Poor Richard's Almanac." It has become renowned by reason of the homely but striking maxims it contained. Popular Sovereignty. This name was applied to the doctrine that the principle of slavery "should be kept out of the national Legislature, and left to the people of the Confederacy in their respective local governments." It was first stated as above by Lewis Cass in 1847. Behind this doctrine the Northern Democrats sought refuge, both from the Wilmot Proviso and from the Southern demands for active measures in behalf of slavery. On the other hand, Calhoun maintained that a man's right to his property, even though it be in slaves, must everywhere be maintained, so that a man could take his slave into any territory regardless of the wishes of the inhabitants thereof. Calhoun nicknamed the doctrine squatter" sovereignty. Douglas, its chief supporter, maintained that it was the basis of the compromise of 1850, and in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill another attempt to apply it was made. But when it became evident that this doctrine meant the admission of all future Territories as free, the interpretation was strained so as to bring it within Calhoun's declarations, on the ground that a Territory could not manifest its intentions on the subject until it was ready to be admitted as a State, in other words, not through its Territorial government. A disagreement on this subject led to the withdrawal of a part of the Democratic national convention which nominated Douglas in 1860. Population of the United States.-The table on page 399 gives the population of the United States as shown by the decennial census which the Constitution provides for (Article 1, section 2, clause 3). Indians not taxed are excluded, as are also the whole populations of Alaska and Indian Territory, which have not yet been fully organized. The first were estimated in 1881 at 245,000; the second, in 1880, at 30,178; and the third, in 1880, at 70,000. The total population, actual and estimated, in 1880 was about 50,500,000. The totals of the last three censuses include a few Chinese, Japanese and civilized or taxed Indians, who together numbered 1,054 in 1880. According to the census of 1880 the male population of the United States was 25,518,820; female, 24,636,963; native, 43,475,840; foreign born, 6,679,943. The following table shows the chief places of nativity of the foreign-born inhabitants of the United States in 1880: STATES AND TERRITORIES. The details of the population in 1880 as given above may be seen from the following table: The following table shows the estimated population of the various States and Territories for 1888, most of the estimates being official: For center of population, see that title. The distribution of population, according to nativity of parentage, was as follows: Native born, both of whose parents were native born 6,646,691 35,199,787 born... Foreign born, one of whose parents was native born Foreign born, both of whose parents were native born.. 33,252 14,955,996 Total. 50,155,783 Residents, both native born and foreign born, who had German fathers.. 4,883,842 Residents, both native born and foreign born, who had Irish fathers...... 4,529,523 |