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TRANSACTIONS. 



Annual Address, prepared and read May 25, 1871, be- 

 fore the Albany Institute, on invitation, by 0. Meads, 

 Esq. 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Albany Institute : 



Coming before you this evening, by your invitation, to 

 address you, for the second time, after an interval of more 

 than a third of a century, I am reminded of the long career 

 of influence and usefulness this society, now one of the 

 oldest of the kind in the country, has had : of the array of 

 eminent men who have been associated with it, and of the 

 great and lasting benefits to the state and the country 

 which have resulted from their labors. Of those who were 

 the founders of this society or who directed its early efforts, 

 none now remain : of those who were its members at the 

 time of my former address, all, with but few exceptions, 

 have also passed away ; and I have, therefore, been led to 

 think, that it would not be unacceptable to you, as it cer- 

 tainly would be in harmony with my own feelings, that I 

 should endeavor, even in a very imperfect way, to recall 

 to your remembrance some of the leading facts in the his- 

 tory of our society, and to bring before you some of the 

 more prominent persons who have been connected with it. 



Eighty years have gone by since the formation of the 

 original society from which the Institute sprung, and which 

 still constitutes its first department. We can hardly, at 

 this day, adequately estimate its importance to the great 

 interests it was intended to promote. We had then just 

 passed through the war of our independence; our new 



[Trans. vii.~\ 1 



