280 [Assembly 



I see around me a body of men , among whbm are very many who 

 have attained eminence in some one or more of those departments 

 which the Institute is designed to cherish— the " merchant prin- 

 ces" of your city, the patriaichal farmers of your state, the world- 

 renowed mechanics of your forges and your dockyards, the suc- 

 cessful manufacturers on your streams — all proud and worthy 

 representatives of 



''The nobility of labor, the long pedigree of toll." 



They have brought hither the rich products of their industry and 

 skill, fruits and flowers which might adorn an Eden, machinery 

 which, like the artist's work, " lacks naught but soul to make it 

 human," fabrics which rival any we import, and countless ob- 

 jects reared by nature or natured by art — all offered as a glowing 

 tribute to your fostering care, an exhibition worthy of the com- 

 mercial metropolis of America. To a stranger it might seem 

 that Castle Garden were the World's Bazaar, and this the market- 

 day ot Christendom. 



The subject which such an occasion must suggest to the mind 

 of every patriotic American is comprehensive and soul-stirring, 

 " but all we can expect to throw over it will be but lights and 

 shadows intermingled, where others would cover it with a field 

 of beauty and of glory." 



American Industry — whai it has achieved^ and haw it may he 

 fostered. — In discussing this subject I shall consider how large- 

 ly instrumental were the industrial habits of our people in fram- 

 ing our political institutions ; the moral influence of the United 

 States upon the world, as traced in the history of nations, and as 

 witnessed at the present day ; and in conclusion shall touch upon 

 the two points of principal importance to the development of 

 American Industry — Protection and Union. 



A brief sketch of the history of Fairs may furnish an introduc- 

 tion appropriate to the occasion. It is not my intention to revert 

 to those institutions of antiquity which bore a resemblance to the 

 modern fairs, nor yet to spread btfore you the laws by which 

 these were regulated and the changes through which they passed. 

 This subject has already been discusied upon an occasion similar 



