The steady enlargement of the census during the antebellum period reflected a growing interest among Americans in using the census as a tool for social scientific investigation. This sense of possibility was epitomized by George Tucker, a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Virginia and a former congressman. In 1842 and 1843, Tucker wrote a series of articles for Hunt's Merchant's Magazine entitled "Progress of the United States in Population and Wealth" (later collected into a book of the same title) in which he argued that the census data was "invaluable to the philosopher and political economist as well as to the statesman and legislator." "As the numbers of a people are at once the source and the index of its wealth," Tucker wrote, "these enumerations enable its statesmen to see whether national prosperity is advancing, stationary, or retrograde. They can compare one period with another, as well as different parts of the country with each other. . . . By their aid, speculations in political philosophy of great moment and interest may be made to rest on the unerring logic of numbers." Many others, including members of the newly formed American Statistical Association (1839), touted the utility of an enlarged census for the advance of knowledge and formation of sound public policy. This optimistic faith in the utility of the census was expressed by the editor of the Chambersburg Valley Spirit in 1860 as well.