ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 77 



centre of the country. It was the first city upon this continent to 

 advance the useful arts by the offer of rewards and premiums ; the 

 first in which an industrial exhibition was given, and through the 

 exertion of your society, the only one in which it has been annually 

 kept up. Here, then, is the appropriate place for a powerful soci- 

 ety to accomplish this great object, whose ramifications should 

 extend throughout the Union ; a societ}'' wielding the same influ- 

 ence and producing the same effects as the London Society of Arts, 

 or the society for the encouragement of the National Industry at 

 Paris. 



To raise the American Institute to this high a position is an object 

 worthy of your ambition, and it is one that may be attained in the 

 course of years, if you should steadily direct your efforts tow- 

 ards the securing of a permanent fund and the erection of a hall 

 adapted to the purposes of your organization. These are two steps 

 essential to give you the assurance of permanency. I understand 

 that you have already an amount sufficient for the erection of a 

 public building, and the corporation of this city, with a view to 

 the interest of the city alone, could not do a wiser act than to 

 give you the land upon which to erect it. For the rest you must 

 depend upon your own exertions and the liberality of individuals. 

 In going over your history, I am surprised, in view of your 

 limited means, and of the great labor and expense attending the 

 getting up of industrial exhibitions, that you have been able to 

 accomplish so much. Your past is therefore a promise of your 

 future. You have a great end before you; and in respect to it, I 

 would close by interpolating a couplet from an old English poet : 



Attempt that end and never stand in doubt; i 



High though the aim, a will will work it out. 



