OPENING ADDRESS 



AT THE TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL FAIR OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 

 AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE, OCTOBER, 1855. 



[By the Hon. Henry Meigs, Recording Secretary.] 



Ladies and Gentlmen — The managers of this fair charge me 

 with the duty of opening it; I obey them, and will try to do it to 

 their liking and yours; knowing that whether I shall be so fortu- 

 nate as to open it properly or not, when opened, the captivating 

 display of our beloved country's annuals will please you. This 

 palace, w4th its lofty dome, as we approach it, reminds us strongly 

 of our Cole's beautiful painting, the Temple of Fame — merit 

 climbs to its sublime portals — and merit enters our Crystal Palace 

 of American Industry. 



On the 27th of September last, the day of our possession of this 

 palace, a great power was here, mighty in peace and in war — the 

 Press ! — the authors and publishers of our republic — almost olie 

 thousand of them w^ere here assembled with one hearty good will. 

 We hail this Areopagus of the wit and the science of this continent. 

 For us it was " an omen hand raalum^'' a good omen, for " Dum 

 stant literge stet Respublica — Quando cadent literse cadet Respub- 

 lica, as was said of the great pantheon at Rome. While know- 

 ledge stands, the Republic stand — when that falls, the Republic 

 falls. While all temples and monuments fall, letters still sur- 

 vive. What Horace said of his beautiful poems nineteen hundred 

 years ago, is not only true now, when those lines of his are more 

 universally read than ever — but there is not a doubt that they will 

 be nineteen hundred years to come ! Such is the immortality of 

 Letters. It is the greatest glory of man that he can frint and 

 read! Of all the exhumed relics of antique cities, as Nineveh, for 

 example, the gem sought for are Letters. If we could find a 

 JVineveh Times newspaper, the Directory of the city, the City 

 Manual, the approved Histories, &c., in their libraries — what a 

 prize ! — worth more to us than a temple full of diamonds. 



One year of American genius and work is what the Institute 



