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valuations of preceding censuses as " the true value of all prop- erty," and this without a word of caution or explanation as to the incomparability of the estimates of value of that census with those of preceding censuses. The fact that the tenth census, unlike the ninth census, failed to give such warning may perhaps be accounted for by the resignation of General Walker before the work of the tenth census was completed. This left the remarks of the tenth census accompanying the tables of valuation to be written by Henry Gannett, Mr. Porter's subordinate, who instead of warning the public of the incomparability of the figures which he presented with those of previous censuses, cautioned it against a comparison of the valuations of 1850 and 1860, saying:
Vet we can scarcely credit so great an' increase in the true value of prop- erty of the United States in a single decade as that from $7,135,780,228 to $16,159,616,068 or 126 per cent. Not only is so great an increase in itself very improbable, but there are many other considerations which indicate that the valuation of 1850 was much too small. For instance the growth of the agricultural and manufacturing interests during this period does not indicate so great an increase of wealth nor does the progress of our foreign trade and navigation interests, nor the increase of our banking and internal commerce ; all these point to the probability that where the true valuation of 1860 and 1850 as given by the eighth and seventh censuses respectively are incompat- ible with one another, it is the latter which is mainly in fault.
This seems to have misled Mr. Elaine and through him must have misled the many thousands who read Mr. Elaine's letter of acceptance in 1884 and Whitelaw Reid's letter accepting the nomination of vice president in 1892, in which he quoted Mr. Elaine's letter. Referring to the valuation of 1850 Mr. Elaine said:
Little more was done than to consolidate the local valuations used in the states for purposes of assessment, and that, as everyone knows, differs widely from a complete exhibit of all the property. In the census of 1860, however, the work was done with great thoroughness, the distinction between " assessed value " and " true value " being carefully observed. The grand result was that the " true value " of all property in the states and territories (excluding slaves)
amounted to 14 billions of dollars At the end of twenty years the
total property of the United States as returned by the census of 1880 amounted to the enormous aggregate of 44 billions of dollars. This great result was
