RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTE. 85 



the Institute. It was held at Masonic Hall, in Broadway, and 

 continued three days. No admission fee was charged, the expen- 

 ses being borne by individual members. 



The Institute at this time began to attract very considerable 

 attention and was rapidly extending its influence and usefulness. 

 Among the distinguished gentlemen admitted as members during 

 this year, were Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, Dr. Felix Pascalis, Dr. 

 Samuel Akerly, and Henry Eckford, Esq., the celebrated ship 

 builder. 



Thus far the Institute was a mere voluntary association with- 

 out legal existence, without definite views or system of action, 

 and without revenue or income. 



On the 2d day of May, in the year 1829, the Legislature of the 

 State of New York created a corporation, under the name and 

 style of " The American Institute of the city of New York," and 

 declared the purpose for which it was instituted to be " the en- 

 couraging and promoting domestic industry in the State of New 

 York and the United States in Agriculture, Commerce, Manufac- 

 tures and the Arts, and any improvements made therein, by be- 

 stowing rewards and other benefits on those who shall make any 

 such improvements or excel in any of the said branches, and by 

 such other ways and means as to the said corporation shall appear 

 to be most expedient." 



It will be noticed that the objects contemplated by the charter 

 were identical with those contained in the Constitution of the 

 original association. The protective system was, it is true, still 

 more obscured in the charter ; but the phrase : " by such other 

 ways and means," was at that time so well understood to mean 

 tariff, that the Institute found no difficulty in giving to that sub- 

 ject all the weight which attached to its legal organization. The 

 principle of a protective tariff has never, to this day, been yielded 

 by the Institute. The addresses and orations at its annual fairs 

 have generally — and frequently with great earnestness and marked 

 ability — advocated and enforced the views of its early members 

 on this subject. 



There may be differences of opinion as to the benefits resulting 

 from a strongly protective tariff, but there can be no question of 

 the powerful influence which the Institute exerted in the early 

 years of its existence upon the action of our Federal Legislature 

 as well as upon public sentiment on this important question of 

 national policy. There are even now many of its members who 



