PRELIMINARY STATEMENT FOR SUBSCRIPTION. 35 



machines and specimens of mechanical, chemical and agricultural 

 products; halls of proportions commensurate with the probable fu- 

 ture wants of a great, united, skillful and industrious population, 

 which should constitute a perpetual exhibition of the achieve- 

 ments of modern science and art. 



To the quer}"- how the American Institute can be placed in a 

 position to answer all these requirements, the answer is now 

 obvious: provide it with adequate means. It is already such an 

 Institute, but of too limited proportions. In fact, its active intel- 

 lectual powers have fairly outgrown the bounds of its material 

 resources. Plainly'-, it needs that only which the capital of the 

 country, distributed among all classes of people, can alone supply. 



In order that all who contribute towards the purchase of real 

 estate and the erection of proper buildings shall know that 

 every dollar given will not be diverted to other uses, but be held 

 sacred for the purposes intended, the Legislature of the State 

 passed, April 21st, 1866, a law constituting a Board of Eegents, 

 which noAV consists of the following named gentlemen : Cornelius 

 Vanderbilt, Edwin D. Morgan, Hamilton Fish, Denning Duer, S. 

 F. B. Morse, Abiel A. Low, Gerrit Smith, Ezra Cornell, Orlando 

 B. Potter, Henry Ward Beecher, H. W. Appleton, Henry W. Bel- 

 lows, Elias How, Jr., and John W. Griswold, as permanent mem- 

 bers; also, the trustees of the American Institute, the Mayor of 

 the City of New York, the Governor of the State of New York, 

 and the Secretary of the Interior of the United States, as mem- 

 bers ex officio, the whole forming a board of 24 members, whose 

 powers and duties are defined in the following sections of the 

 law : 



" § 3. All donations, bequests and devises hereafter made or 

 given to the American Institute shall be taken and held by the 

 said Board of Eegents in trust for the said Institute." 



" § 4. The said Board of Eegents shall have power to purchase, 

 or receive, by gift, grant or devise, real or personal estate to 

 the amount of one million of dollars, and to sell or dispose of 

 the same as they may think proper, in the erection of buildino-g, 

 the construction of laboratories, machinery and museums of art, for 

 use of said Institute; and tliey may appropriate a portion of the 

 annual income to establish and maintain professorships and lec- 

 tures in the said city of New York, on natural history, physics and 

 chemistry, and their application to the useful arts; and also to 

 print and circulate throughout the United States, documents 



