ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, AT PALACE GARDEN, OCT. 6, 1860. 



BY THE HON. WM. H. ANTHON, 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



When the American Institute, whose anniversary we celebrate 

 to-night, was incorporated by the State, its objects were declared 

 to be, " The promotion of agriculture, commerce, manufactures 

 and the arts." 



Agriculture was rightly named first, in this order, as the most 

 ancient as well as the most useful employment of mankind ; the 

 one, in fact, upon which all the rest depend, and without which 

 the human race would soon relapse into the condition of wander- 

 ing barbarians. 



Commerce, manufactures and the arts were also included among 

 the objects of the Institute, because, although not forming the 

 foundation of the structure of civilization, they yet are essential 

 to its complete development and perfection. 



The Institute has, in my humble judgment, done a great work 

 in times past ; it has collected at its fairs the cultivators of the 

 soil, and it has shown them, by the encouraging rewards which 

 it has bestowed upon successful effort, that in this age of the 

 world the triumphs of the plow and the pruning hook are more 

 highly esteemed than those of the spear and the sword ; that we 

 congratulate ourselves upon what we have produced rather than 

 upon what we have destroyed ; and that there is more true glory^ 

 because more true usefulness, in subduing the ruggedness of the 

 soil and in rendering nature subservient to the good and conve- 

 nience of mankind, than in the subjugation of provinces and all 

 the pomp and glory of war. 



