186 [Senatk 



amid which the speaker took his seat, the applause continuing for 

 several minutes.) 



Second Day — October 13M. 



The convention was called to order this morning at 11 o'clock, 

 when the minutes were read and accepted. Gen. Tallmadge, the 

 president of the convention, in the chair. The unfinished business 

 of yesterday, being the adoption or rejection of the resolutions, was 

 brought forward for action, but before they were all disposed of, the 

 convention adjourned and proceeded to Niblo's, to hear the address 

 of Dr. Smith, of Baltimore, before the American Institute. 



The bands of the North Carolina and of Governor's Island were 

 in attendance, and played several national and select pieces alternately 

 through the clay. The managers, together with the members of the 

 Silk Convention, tood their seats in the centre of the gallery, and 

 the president announced the speaker, introducing him as Dr. Smith, of 

 Baltimore, a sound, practical working member, who read from his 

 notes the following quaint, lucid and interesting address on silk cul- 

 ture, which was received with repeated bursts of applause on the 

 part on the audience: 



Ladies and Gen'^t.emen — I comply most cheerfully with the 

 request of some ovei partial friends, in offering a few remarks 

 on the very interesting subject that has called us this day together. 

 Entirely unaccustomed to public speaking, I shall need, and feel 

 assured I shall receive, the indulgence of this respectable audience, 

 for the many imperfections I may exhibit. For seventeen years I 

 have watched with intense interest the progress of the cause we are 

 now endeavoring to advance. At the commencement of the term, 

 the silk-worm was kept at a public exhibition at the place of my 

 residence, as an object of curiosity, and excited great interest. I 

 saw the five hundred worms of that exhibition increased, in the pro- 

 gress of years, to probably a hundred millions. I saw ihem leave 

 the tables of the exhibition room for the shelves and hurdles of the 

 numerous cocooneries of our country; and I rejoiced in the increase 

 and the change, because 1 saw in them the filaments of the fabric 

 that should one day form the banner of our country's independence. 

 During that long interval of time, I have seen nothing that discouraged 

 the idea that this country might becomea silk producing nation; on the 

 contrary, every circumstance that has come under my notice, has 

 tended more and more to the conviction that we are better qualified 

 for this business than any other people on earth. There is no natural 

 qualification that we do not possess in a superior degree to any other 

 people; and vv'ho shall say that the Americans are inferior to any 

 others in industry, ingenuity, energy and perseverance? Our soil 

 and climate are admirably adapted to the growth of the mulberry 

 tree, as has been abundantly proved by the late mulberry tree excite- 

 ment — there not being a single county, that has been settled by 

 inhabitants, where the mulberry tree may not^be found growing, and 

 bearing testimony, by its thriftiness and vigor, to the congeniality of 



