carriages. Such manifestations, though still very faint, were to
Franklin the signs of a new era.

And so, with vision undimmed, America's most famous citizen lived
on until near the end of the first year of George Washington's
administration. On April 17, 1790, his unconquerable spirit took
its flight.


In that year, 1790, was taken the First Census of the United
States. The new nation had a population of about four million
people. It then included practically the present territory east
of the Mississippi, except the Floridas, which belonged to Spain.
But only a small part of this territory was occupied. Much of New
York and Pennsylvania was savage wilderness. Only the seacoast of
Maine was inhabited, and the eighty-two thousand inhabitants of
Georgia hugged the Savannah River. Hardy pioneers had climbed the
Alleghanies into Kentucky and Tennessee, but the Northwest
Territory--comprising Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and
Wisconsin--was not enumerated at all, so scanty were its people,
perhaps not more than four thousand.

Though the First Census did not classify the population by
occupation it is certain that nine-tenths of the breadwinners
worked more or less upon the soil. The remaining tenth were
engaged in trade, transportation, manufacturing, fishing and
included also the professional men, doctors, lawyers, clergymen,
teachers, and the like. In other words, nine out of ten of the
population were engaged primarily in the production of food, an
occupation which today engages less than three out of ten. This