24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



years of ■wanderiua: should by this time have brouo;ht it Avithin 

 sight of the Promised Land. 



We need and seek an edifice wholly consecrated to American 

 Industry, and not unworthy to be pointed out and recognized as 

 its focus and rallying point. We need an edifice which every 

 inventor, artificer, and artisan who visits our city Avill regard with 

 afiectionate interest, and whence he will bear away a manlier pride? 

 in his vocation. We need an edifice wherein we can repa}'-, on 

 occasion, some part of the hospitality which we have hitherto 

 been constrained to invoke. 



Among the objects to be attained in the construction of such an 

 edifice, are the following : 



1. Annual Fairs, as hitherto, but on a larger scale, with better 

 adaptations for the exhibition of machinery in motion and improve- 

 ments in motive power. 



2. A permanent exhibition of the most valuable, beneficent 

 inventions, with reduced models of those of secondary worth. 



3. A Gallery of Industrial Art, with such a Library of Scientific 

 Works as has never yet been collected in this country. 



4. A Grand Lecture Hall, to be devoted to the increase and 

 diffusion of useful knowledge, with especial reference to Produc- 

 tive Forces, Social Science, and Industrial Progress. 



Such an edifice will cover a block of ground in the most central 

 part of our city, and should cost, when completed and fitted up, 

 not less than One Million of Dollars. Of this amount, we have 

 about $150,000 well invested — the savings of many years of 

 patient thrift and frugality. We ask the generous and public 

 spirited to make up the residue by voluntary contributions in aid 

 of the cause whereof we are but the servants. 



Hitherto, we have been embarrassed by the fact that prudent 

 men hesitated to give to a voluntary association whereby their 

 means might be squandered. Our late Legislature obviated this 

 difficulty by " An act to Amend and Enlarge the Powers of the 

 American Institute," which names fourteen citizens of great wealth 

 and high character, to constitute, in connection with the Secretary 

 of the Interior, the Governor of our State, the Mayor of our City, 

 and our (seven) Trustees, a Board of Eegents, and provides that 

 "All donations, bequests, and devises hereafter made or given to 

 the American Institute, shall be taken or held by the said Board 

 of Kegents in trust for said Institute." Hence, it will be impossi- 



