10 



Annual Address. 



The removal of the seat of government of the state from 

 the city of New York to this city in 1798, led also to the 

 removal with it of the collections and place of meeting of 

 the society. 



I cannot venture to detain you with even a brief recital 

 of the services rendered by the society and its members, 

 to the agricultural, scientific and manufacturing interests 

 of the state during the first twenty-five years of its exist- 

 ence. Its four volumes of transactions published during 

 this period bear witness to the earnest spirit of research it 

 had awakened in every department of science and the arts 

 bearing upon the immediate condition of the country. It 

 was for a series of years, within this period, the appointed 

 agent of the state for awarding and distributing premiums 

 for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. 



On the death of Chancellor Livingston in 1813, Simeon 

 DeWitt, who from the very beginning had been one of 

 the most efficient members of the society, succeeded to the ^ 

 presidency. Bearing an historic name, always identified 

 with patriotism and public and private virtue, and con- 

 nected by birth with some of the leading families of the 

 state, his life was not unworthy of his ancestry. His 

 classical, mathematical and general scientific education 

 seems to have been unusually thorough for that day, and 

 to no man of his time was the state more indebted for 

 faithful and accurate scientific labor in her service. Called 

 from his studies by Burgoyne's invasion, he joined the 

 army and took part in the battles that resulted in the con- 

 vention of Saratoga. Soon afterwards appointed, at the 

 instance of Washington, as assistant geographer, and in 

 1780 as geographer (or topographical engineer)-in-chief to 

 the army ; he, in the discharge of his duties, accompanied 

 the army to Yorktown and was present at the surrender 

 of Cornwallis. At the urgent request of Washington, he 

 continued to hold this office after the close of the war and 



