No. 149.] 283 



let the records of each State, and of almost every country fair 

 throughout our land bear witness. But the end is not yet. The 

 wave of influence gathering from the West has rolled across tlue 

 Atlantic, and borne to the shores of Britain a new idea. It has 

 been seized upon with that avidity which marks the Anglo-Sax- 

 on mind when any great and noble purpose is offered for its ac- 

 tion, and it is being carried out on a scale of grandeur commen- 

 surate with the enlightened views and the collossal wealth of the 

 British nation. And you, Gentlemen oi the Institute, some of 

 you at least, when you visit the " World's Industrial Fair," in 

 the coming Jmne, may feel a patriotic pride in cherishing the 

 thought, " This is an American Idea." It will be a " World's 

 Convention" worthy of the name. 



The second section of your Charter recites that the American 

 Institute is " incorporated for the purpose of encouraging and 

 promoting domestic industry in this State and the United States, 

 in Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, and the Arts." 



American industry ! How vast the theme, how inexhaustible 

 appears the subject, which is at once the cause and the conse- 

 quence of our national greatness. The cause — for who can deny 

 that it is by the restless energy, the indomitable perseverance of 

 our people, that we are this day masters of the western world 1 

 The consequence — for is it not equally clear that that power, 

 which had now extended from sea to sea, and added within a 

 few short years, one half a continent to our imperial domain, 

 compels us in very self-defence to conquer nature on the Pacific 

 shore, and thus re-enact those scenes of stirring industry which 

 reclaimed the Atlantic two centuries ago ? To labor is the 

 American's destiny. W^hether at the sail, the plough, the loom 

 or the anvil, in the laboratory, the office, the counting-room or 

 the library, each in his appropriate sphere, with head and hand, 

 is working out the problem of Creation. " Laborare est orare^^ 

 was a maxim of the olden time, and might well have been the 

 motto of America, for in every sense it can with truth be said, 

 " we are u nation of worshippers." 



Time will not allow us to dwell upon the countless forms 

 which American industry has assumed, and by which it is per- 



