PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

FOR SUBSCRIPTION PAPER ON THE NEED OF AN INSTITUTE IN NEW YORK WHICH SHALL BE NATIONAL IN ITS AIMS AND INFLUENCE, AND THE MEANS REQUIRED TO PLACE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE IN THAT POSITION.

It has been a common expression during the past three or four years, not only by members of the American Institute, but by its friends, that movements should be made to enlarge its action by the erection of a proper building of its own, on its own property, and otherwise extending its facilities for meeting the requirements of a great National Institute.

These expressions, it is well known, have also been accompanied by liberal proffers of money towards the carrying out of such ends. A number of gentlemen of means have offered on various occasions considerable sums each, yet there have been no steps taken to secure the benefit of such offerings.

In order that a practical beginning may be initiated toward the raising of money, and that when such offers are made there may be a record of them, several gentlemen, who have felt a zealous desire to see the American Institute go on and prosper, have drawn up the following form for your consideration, and hereby respectfully present it.

The American Institute of the City of New York was incorporated by the Legislature of the State of New York on the 24 day of May, 1829, for the purpose of encouraging and promoting domestic industry in this State and the United States, in agriculture, commerce, manufactures and the arts, and any improvements made therein, by bestowing rewards and other benefits on those who shall make any such improvements or excel in any of said branches, and by such other ways and means as to the said corporation or the trustees thereof shall appear most expedient. The estate and funds of the corporation, after paying all proper charges and expenses, were directed by the act of incorporation to be exclusively devoted to all the objects aforesaid, except so far as

it may be deemed necessary to apply its funds to the purchase and holding of any real estate and erecting any buildings thereon for the benefit and accommodation of the members of the said corporation and of those who may attend their fairs and exhibitions: which real estate they may sell and reinvest as they may find expedient.

The Institute commenced its operations without funds immediately after its incorporation, and has contined to the present time without any extraneous aid, never having received a single gift of money or real estate, or the smallest bequest, from the hundreds of wealthy citizens, during this interval. The only favor granted was from the city government, who allowed the Society at its beginning to occupy, for a short period, free of charge, vacant rooms in the brick building which formerly stood in the rear of the City Hall.

The first business was to inaugurate a system of annual Fairs, at which were exhibited specimens of the skill, industry and inventive genius of the United States.

In this the Institute was entirely successful, and each succeeding year its Fair was invested with increasing interest, until its annual opening was regarded as one of the great events of the city. The few thousand dollars of surplus accruing from these fairs was, by a commendable foresight, invested in real estate on Broadway, which has since so risen in value as not only to pay the current expenses of the Institute, but to provide for the excess of expenditures over the receipts at nearly all the fairs held dur. ing the last ten years, owing principally to the large outlay required to rent and fit up temporary premises of sufficient capacity wherein to hold said fairs, to meet the growing wants of these exhibitions.

Among the annual expenses of the Institute was the appropriation for the purchase of books. These have accumulated from year to year, until the library now contains over 10,000 volumes, including history, biography and travels, but principally treating on science and its applications to the arts. After the Legislature had authorized annual reports to be made and published, it was concluded that much valuable information might be disseminated by a free interchange of views and by statements of individual experience on the subject of agriculture at conversational meetmeetings. Accordingly, "The Farmers' Club" was organized and placed under the supervision of the committee on agriculture. [AM. INST.]

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Subsequently the "Mechanics' Club" was organized, under the direction of the committee on manufactures, science and the arts. As chemistry and physics soon claimed attention, it was found expedient to give this club the more comprehensive name of a "Polytechnic Association." The weekly proceedings of these two branches of the Institute have steadily increased, until their reports constitute more than nine-tenths of the annual volume of Transactions.

A new period in the affairs of the American Institute has now arrived, which demands that it should keep pace with the spirit of improvement now actuating not merely our own, but every other enlightened nation. This spirit has prompted the expression from almost every member of our organization, that the United States now requires a National Institute second to none in the world, for the diffusion of information of a practical character relating to agriculture, horticulture and the industrial arts generally, supported and directed by practical men, with the aid of scientists of high attainments, and that the American Institute of the city of New York is legitimately entitled to such a position.

The first question for consideration is, what are the requirements of such an Institute? and the second, how can the American Institute be placed in a position to answer all such requirements? In reply to the first question, the general voice is that such an organization should not aim at the diffusion of knowledge of such an elementary character as to encroach on the province of the schools and colleges of the land, but rather to limit its influence to those of mature years, and to disseminate among them the results of experiments and experience relating to the arts, and the reports of new discoveries in science, as well as all new inventions tending to elevate the physical condition of man--in a word, to keep American citizens throughly informed of the latest improvements in all branches of technology. To accomplish this and give the greatest efficacy to mental effort, such an Institute must own and control a vast structure, suitable in dimensions and divisions to all its varied wants, situated in a central and appropriate locality, and of such architectural design as to be an ornament to the city and an attraction to strangers.

It should embrace a library, reading room, lecture rooms, a repository for models of works of art, rooms for the special use of its several standing committees on science and art, and lastly, but most important of all, for the annual exposition of working

machines and specimens of mechanical, chemical and agricultural products; halls of proportions commensurate with the probable future wants of a great, united, skillful and industrious population, which should constitute a perpetual exhibition of the achievements of modern science and art.

To the query how the American Institute can be placed in a position to answer all these requirements, the answer is now obvious: provide it with adequate means. It is already such an Institute, but of too limited proportions. In fact, its active intellectual powers have fairly outgrown the bounds of its material resources. Plainly, it needs that only which the capital of the country, distributed among all classes of people, can alone supply. In order that all who contribute towards the purchase of real estate and the erection of proper buildings shall know that every dollar given will not be diverted to other uses, but be held. sacred for the purposes intended, the Legislature of the State passed, April 21st, 1866, a law constituting a Board of Regents, which now consists of the following named gentlemen: Cornelius Vanderbilt, Edwin D. Morgan, Hamilton Fish, Denning Duer, S. F. B. Morse, Abiel A. Low, Gerrit Smith, Ezra Cornell, Orlando B. Potter, Henry Ward Beecher, H. W. Appleton, Henry W. Bellows, Elias How, Jr., and John W. Griswold, as permanent members; also, the trustees of the American Institute, the Mayor of the City of New York, the Governor of the State of New York, and the Secretary of the Interior of the United States, as members ex officio, the whole forming a board of 24 members, whose powers and duties are defined in the following sections of the law:

"§ 3. All donations, bequests and devises hereafter made or given to the American Institute shall be taken and held by the said Board of Regents in trust for the said Institute."

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"§ 4. The said Board of Regents shall have power to purchase, or receive, by gift, grant or devise, real or personal estate to the amount of one million of dollars, and to sell or dispose of the same as they may think proper, in the erection of buildings, the construction of laboratories, machinery and museums of art, use of said Institute; and they may appropriate a portion of the annual income to establish and maintain professorships and lectures in the said city of New York, on natural history, physics and chemistry, and their application to the useful arts; and also to print and circulate throughout the United States, documents

relating to agriculture, manufactures and commerce, and to use any other means to make the said Institute national in its influence and character."

§ 5. The said Board of Regents shall have no control over the property now belonging to the Institute, and shall not interfere with its operations as at present conducted, except so far as power may be delegated to them by the regular action of the said corporation."

It has been an ordinary occurrence for members of the American Institute, and those not members, to offer large sums of money to carry out the objects above set forth, and in order that there may be a practical commencement to that end, the following form of an agreement has been drawn up for the signatures of those who are willing to become benefactors and patrons of the American Institute:

We, the undersigned, severally agree to pay to the Board of Regents of the American Institute of the City of New York, for the purposes set forth in the preceding article, the sum of money set opposite our respective names, when subscriptions to the amount of $250,000 shall have been made for that object.