390 Festival of the 



cause of Education, and made the heart of the widow and orphan to leap 

 for joy. 



Boston, September 15th, 1845. 

 To Marshall P. Wilder, President of the Massachusetts Horticultural 



Society : 



Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 

 8th instant, with a polite invitation from the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society to attend their Seventeenth Anniversary, on the 17th, I8th, and 

 19th instant, at Horticultural Hall, in School street, to be consummated 

 with a Festival at Faneuil Hall, on the 19th, at 5 o'clock, P. M. For this 

 very flattering invitation, I return to yourself, individually, and to the Soci- 

 ety, my sincerest thanks, and I very much regret it will not be in my power 

 to accept the kind invitation, and attend the Festival on the 19th. 



It would afford me great pleasure to meet with the Society that has done 

 so much, within a few years, for the improvement of Horticulture in the 

 vicinity of Boston — Agriculture, the most useful, and Horticulture, the 

 most pleasing of all arts, have fully kept pace with the rapid progress of 

 the age, in other departments of activity, for which the community are 

 largely indebted to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



With the view of giving further aid to the Society, in their very laudable 

 exertions, I send you enclosed one thousand dollars, to be invested as a 

 permanent fund, the interest accruing therefrom, to be appropriated, annu- 

 ally, in premiums, for improvements in the arts to which the Society are 

 devoted, in such manner as it shall direct, for producing trees good for food, 

 and flowers pleasant to the sight. 



I wish continued success to the Society, and that the agriculturists, who 

 make buds of roses, and bring forth such good fruits and beautiful flowers 

 for others, may themselves be rewarded, and find, through life, a flowery 

 path, free from thorns. 



I have the honor to be. Sir, with great respect, your most obedient, most 

 humble servant, Samuel Appleton. 



N. B. — Should you think the following toast worthy the occasion, it is 

 at your service : 



Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, and Horticulture — Agriculture gives us Food ; 

 Manufactures gives us Clothing ; Commerce gives us Cash ; and Horticulture, on the 

 tables before us, speaks for itself in the language of Paradise more eloquently than any 

 Flowers of Rhetoric can express. 



Mr. Webster then rose and said : Ladies and Gentlemen : — I have ob- 

 tained leave of the President to remind this company that a venerable lady 

 honors this occasion with her presence. She is the daughter of Gen. Philip 

 Schuyler, of the Revolutionary army, and the widow of Alexander Hamil- 

 ton. [Loud and continued cheering.] And, ladies and gentlemen, while 

 devoted Revolutionary services shall be remembered, and while great ad- 

 ministrative talent finds a voice to sound its praises in our republic, neither 

 one nor the other of these great names will be forgotten, nor can she cease 



