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 as a separate state.  The next year Kentucky came into the Union.  This was originally a part of Virginia, and the colonists had brought their slaves with them to their new homes.  Kentucky, therefore, was a slave state.  Vermont was a free state, and its constitution forbade slavery.

[Illustration:  CENTER OF POPULATION]

[Sidenote:  Origin of the National Debt.  For details, see McMaster, 198-200.]

[Sidenote:  Bonds.]

202.  The National Debt.—­The National Debt was the price of independence.  During the war Congress had been too poor to pay gold and silver for what it needed to carry on the war.  So it had given promises to pay at some future time.  These promises to pay were called by various names as bonds, certificates of indebtedness, and paper money.  Taken all together they formed what was called the Domestic Debt, because it was owed to persons living in the United States.  There was also a Foreign Debt.  This was owed to the King of France and to other foreigners who had lent money to the United States.