OPENING ADDRESS 



Of the 21st Annual Fair, on the 3d of October, 1848. 



By Rev. J, O. Choules, of Newport, R. I. 



Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens: 



We meet under joyous circumstances, to celebrate the arrival of 

 the American Institute at man's estate. This is its Twenty-First 

 Anniversary. We assemble with happy auspices. The venerable 

 men who rocked its cradle and watched over its infancy are here to 

 witness its strength, rejoice in its character, and triumph in its suc- 

 cesses. The day was when it was feeble and needed friends, and we 

 thank God, our country's God, that he who raised up the pilgrim 

 fathers and enabled them to lay the broad foundations of a happy 

 land, and who nerved the arras and inspired the breasts of the pa- 

 triots of the Revolution, provided clear heads and warm hearts to de- 

 vise means for the encouragement and protection of our national in- 

 dustry. I think, that in this vast assembly there can be no Ameri- 

 can who does not this evening rejoice in his birthright — whose heart 

 does not swell with patriotic emotion, as he looks around him and 

 observes the undeniable evidence of his country's glory. How very 

 unlike are our circumstances to those of the old and worn-out gov- 

 ernments of Europe. There they are afraid of the people, and a 

 disposition to congregate is regarded with horror by the rulersj here 

 we use all means to gather them in masses, and regard the popula- 

 tion as the true glory and strength of the land. In Europe, great 

 results and splendid demonstrations are the consequence of large 

 wealth concentrated in the hands of afew, and everything seema 

 done by a comparative handful. Here the rich great man is hardly 

 noticed, the government itself is scarcely felt, and the 'people are all, 

 and do everything. 



If a stranger go to Rome and his curiosity is excited at the gran- 

 deur of other days, and he asks the origin of all these spectacles of 

 magnificence, he is surprised with repeated allusions made to Au- 



