PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTE. 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



At the meeting of the Institute held on the 7th day of March, 

 18G1, the President, General Wm. Hall, on taking the chair, 

 addressed the members as follows : 



The members of the American Institute have again done me 

 the honor to elect me the President of their Institution, and when 

 I look at all the varied interests which cluster around us, and 

 which it seems our duty to cherish, I cannot but acknowledge 

 some misgivings as to my ability to meet them and keep up with 

 the onward march of this age of progress. 



It is not to be supposed that the whole end and aim of the 

 American Institute is, as many of our members seem to think, to 

 give an Annual Fair ; this was only one of the means and at 

 our first formation the most available one of raising the dignity 

 of American Arts, Science, Manufactures, Agriculture, and in 

 fact every branch of industry, whether the product of the brain 

 or the hands. Through this medium we have certainly accom- 

 plished great results. We have raised a healthful competition 

 in all these branches, and added dignity to labor. We have 

 done more, we have awakened throughout the length and breadth 

 of our whole country, this same dignified competition, tending to 

 enrich and beautify our land, and each season now finds organiza- 

 tions tending to the same purpose, in every State, and even in 

 almost every county. It is true that this may detract from the 

 novelty of our exhibition, and if our objects went no farther than 

 the speculative interests of showmen then we might feel a jeal- 

 ousy, but I trust that we all take wider and more liberal views, 

 and rejoice that we have been the parent of so many sturdy sons 

 who are pressing forward in the same direction we have pointed 

 out to them. 



It is not for us how'ever, to stand idle because we have accom- 

 plished one purpose of our organization. The w^orld of science 



