The Federal Government provided blank printed forms to the U.S. Marshals. There may be annotations such as certificates of oaths taken, population totals, and handwritten and mechanically stamped page numbers.

Approximately 4,400 U.S. Marshals and their assistants conducted the 1870 census according to provisions of the 1850 Census Act. That act had stipulated that, according to the recommendation of the secretary of the interior, its provisions were to be adhered to for all future decennial censuses if no new authorizing legislation was passed by January 1 of the year in which the census was required.

Although the 1870 Census was under the 1850 act, a new bill approved on May 6, 1870, made the following changes:

• The "slave schedule" was canceled due to the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
  
  
• The marshals were to submit the returns from ‘‘schedule 1’’ (free inhabitants) to the Census Office by September 10, 1870. All other schedules were to be submitted by October 1, 1870.
  
  
• The 1850 law authorizing penalties for refusing to reply to the inquiries was expanded to apply to all inquiries made by enumerators.

Redesigned schedules used for 1870 and the omission of a "slave" schedule made possible several additional inquiries, see below for details.

Certain locations were enumerated a second time in 1870 or 1871 due to allegations of errors and undercounts in the original enumeration.

This schedule collected data from the entire population of the United States.

Question 20, asking if an individual had been denied voting rights,  was created to fulfill the requirements of Section 2 of Amendment XIV of the U.S. Constitution, passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868.

This schedule collected data on persons who died during the year. In addition to the 1860 inquiries, inquiries were modified to include Schedule 1’s additions to collect data on parentage and to differentiate between Chinese and American Indians. Inquiries concerning ‘‘free or slave’’ status and ‘‘number of days ill’’ were discontinued.

The 1860 inquiries were used with additional requests for (1) acreage of woodland, (2) production of Spring and Winter wheat, (3) livestock sold for slaughter, (4) total tons of hemp produced, (5) total wages paid, (6) gallons of milk sold, (7) value of forest products, and (8) estimated value of all farm productions.

Using the 1860 schedule as a basis, additional information was requested on (1) motive power and machinery, (2) hands employed by sex and specified age groups, (3) total annual salaries paid, and (4) time of full- and part-time operation.

The 1860 schedule was modified to incorporate the questions on (1) bonded and other debt of counties, cities, towns, and townships, parishes, and boroughs, (2) pauperism and crime by race (‘‘native black’’ and ‘‘native white’’); (3) number of church organizations and church buildings; (4) number of teachers and students; (5) kinds of schools, libraries, and taxes, by type.

The law required "all the inhabitants" of each Federal judicial district or territory be enumerated.  The Instructions to Assistant Marshals explained that the term "place of abode" used in column 3 of Schedule 1 meant "the house or usual lodging place" and that a person "temporarily absent on journey or visit is to be counted as of the family...."

Secretaries of the Interior Jacob D. Cox (1869-70) and Columbus Delano (1870-75) had general supervision of census operations, tabulation, and reporting the results to the President and Congress.

Superintendent of the Census Francis Amasa Walker (1870-72) directed the compilation of population data for Ninth Census, Volume 1, The Statistics of the Population of the United States and A Compendium of the Ninth Census. 

The U.S. Marshal for each Federal judicial district was responsible for taking the census in his district with the help of assistant marshals whom he appointed. Each took an oath or affirmation that "I will to the best of my ability enumerate, or cause to be enumerated, all the inhabitants of said district ... and will faithfully perform all the duties enjoined on me...."  Each assistant marshal took an oath or affirmation that "I will make a true and exact enumeration of all the inhabitants within the district assigned to me, ... and will make due and correct returns thereof..."  The act also specified "That each assistant ... shall perform the service required of him, by a personal visit to each dwelling-house, and to each family...."  After the information was entered on the forms, "such memoranda shall be immediately read to the person or persons furnishing the facts, to correct errors and supply omissions, if any shall exist."

Every person over age 20 was required to cooperate: "That each and every free person more than twenty years of age, belonging to any family ..., and in case of the absence of the heads and other members of any such family, then any agent of such family shall be and each of them hereby is, required, if thereto requested by the marshal or his assistant, to render a true account, to the best of his or her knowledge, of every person belonging to such family ... on pain of forfeiting thirty dollars...."

The census began on Wednesday, June 1, 1870. The 1870 enumeration was completed on August 23, 1871. The completed census schedules were to be sent to the Census Office in Washington, DC, by September 10, 1870. 

Certain locations were enumerated a second time in 1870 or 1871 due to allegations of errors and undercounts in the original enumeration. The 1870 enumeration was completed by August 23, 1871.

The work of compiling the census data, a portion of which was tallied using a machine invented by Charles W. Seaton, was completed in 1872.

U.S. marshals and their assistants conducted the 1870 census under the rules and directions established in an Act of Congress approved twenty years earlier on May 23, 1850, as amended on May 6, 1870 to cancel the slave schedule, which was obsolete due to the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

For the first time, Superintendent of the Census Francis Amasa Walker introduced examinations to test the qualifications of those applying for positions with the Census Office.

The instructions to marshals and assistant marshals were virtually identical to those for the 1860 census, with the exception of guidelines for collecting information on a few additional/modified inquiries. There were slight changes in the instructions’ wording; however, these served only to clarify the 1860 instructions.

Listed by column, the inhabitant questionnaire collected the following information:

1. Dwelling houses, numbered in the order of visitation.
   
2. Families, numbered in the order of visitation.
3. Name of every person whose usual place of abode on the first day of June 1870, was in this family.
4. Age at last birthday.  If under 1 year, give months in fractions, thus, 3/12.
5. Sex - Males (M), Females (F).
6. Color - White (W), Black (B), Mulatto (M), Chinese (C), Indian (I).
7. Profession, occupation, or trade of each person, male or female.
8. Value of real estate owned.
9. Value of personal estate owned.
10. Place of Birth, naming the State or Territory of U.S., or the Country, if of foreign birth.
11. Father of foreign birth. [hash mark if yes]
12. Mother of foreign birth. [hash mark if yes]
13. If born within the year, state month (Jan., Feb., etc.).
14. If married within the year, state month (Jan., Feb., etc.).
15. Attended school within the year. [hash mark if yes]
16. Cannot read. [hash mark if yes]
17. Cannot write. [hash mark if yes]
18. Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict. [indicate disability]
19. Male Citizens of U.S. of 21 years of age and upwards. [hash mark if yes]
20. Male Citizens of U.S. of 21 years of age and upwards, whose right to vote is denied or abridged on other grounds than rebellion or other crime.