New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-09-09

tt,ag Ia
PfesidenGof the Institute. Long eoniihuco "PP'
MIR GREELEY's SPEECH -,
LADIES AND GENTLENES: The American ,,.or !
invited Won TO assist 1t in celebrating INC SV'H
sarv OF its orgin--the close of AZ years Oh '.,na
.arrest yealous effort for the development OF Aho
;ndustry It's 3Sth fair, open, WOuid nav :.
ust but for the fact that the rapid and Vas.
American manufacturing and neehanio"' ca -. ,,o
utterly outrun the expansion OF our "o'' -. -
facilities Of any kind for the proper auu "I 'e.
bi,ition OF the improved processes anu '
,,onbes Of our counrys industrial art ana pron'coy
wv, $50. o. d ,noeHI wish could say IN short time
10 Yelcome Won in ediice ol our Wv"
lcbeersI-an edifce, not so Iaieo 40 VI"
nj least better adapted TO our PURPOSES nv
that edilee we hope 10 celebrate inc lVo'h ann
American Independence lebeersI ny al eA"i'l'. ",4,
American art and American skill at which no American
oo and upon which all Europe might wen oobbl"'
nlato us Loud cheels Understand, friends tndV oi
manaQers-and they not few-bave peeh l"i'niu"1
et work for a whole week producing what you sec '
Won We have not been able TO bring INC eAi''O' y
the state in which hoped to present IL on 'h9 'p
day all we can say is that the best has pee uone 'a
at a few davs more will make It such an eAnip'lon VI
Aercap art and industry as American ever yet sa"
lCheers.l ~ .,.r
The first exhibition of the American Ins'itu'o tn'v
attended was held 81 years ago Ill the Nasoho nan ~
Broadway, Duanest. rooh' Pofh"P' " 80 ~
1eo contained II ALL twenty such rooms Wouiu DC
utterly insuAlceu We were compelled to accept room
most reote FROM aud incOnveneDt TO, the mass OF our
nonulation since it better to call you miles 10 sou
something than furlOngs to see nothing Forty years -
NOT but 10 Is longer than most OF you VINO
hear me have lived. As my recollection, iI Ivy
Institute, let me endeayCr briefly I to n set
heforc YOU some Of the changes which 1.-THE period nv
the Institute-has wrought IN the SOndl9h vi n less
lied world Though its wars and battles nave pee, NE
numerous less important and less destructive than in
~ the preceding forty and though great changes III
the boundaries OF States have been carved 0 III 80
the Christian era-unless IL be that OF one VINO az ny
heard Of the invention OF printing ana ID tno Ipv LUZ
n new world by COumbus-has been so Iuli
Of events worthy 10 be held ID Iein1l ,,ilv
When this Institute founded 80 years ago the CiHa
lied world slumbered uneasiy IN the arms Oh T VIA dd
itself legitimacy and divine right. Napoleon hau eAu
his warke 10 years before, ana had ued upon S
rocky prison seven eight years before; WINE Aex
der Of Russia his mghtest antagonist had persisted four
years before in the savage wastes OF the southern
Iis dominions 1t was an era Of prosperity and what
seemed permanent glory. George w., the nisi
gentleman OF Europe, IN ms youth liberal, III Csrins
X the last of the regular BOurbOns was the absolute
monarch France and seemed TO his admirers ana SUP
was that throne was destined very TO- crun
bic and disappear the OF the barcades OF feDu
airy, Ferdinand VII, the crafty me ireaooiUuG'
the tyrannOus, regued over Spain, which the Holy ALL
ance had given back into his hands after ne hau Justly
forfeited and lost his rule over IT, III vas the
reaction TO be startled by The coming revolution
when country only contained a poP 2ii Pi
Of twelve mlOns-not Onethlrd or MS present lhhaDt
ants-and while wealth not onoith ana ls INDUS
One-fOurth IN Oh ~
is to-day Michigan still wooded territory wlh not
half population enough 20 constitute state ILLINOIS ana
Missouri were our Western free States with but
single Representative each III congress ~ LOUIS was
the only place of importance on the Missouri or upper
Mississippi. Chicago was an inland trading post OF per
haps hall dozen huts and with less than fy thousand
inhabitants within radius OF two hundred miles where
there are than three millions OF civilized human
beings Iowa, Minnesota, and Kansas had not yet even
names; but there was river called Wisconsin, upon
preparing or thinking OF doing So California was a Mex
lean Territory, without industry civilization or hope,
Hyvifn INIT ham 70.
fact What Alaska is to-day Two or three little sailing
E Es S Yed d aS wheR constituted the only dis
possible wealth of its dive thousand people There
may have few hus around the Golden Gate known
10 the Pacific coasters and North Sea whaers Yerba
Buena but the name Of San Francisco had never ap
hunting ground ruled by tho Hudson Bay Company
Steam had fully entered upon lts conquering march
The genius of our own Fitch and Fulton had aided It's
development and applied IT to inland navigation ana
great rivers were hght ny up py the Iui1aCe ues
Of countless steamboats, the pIas OF whose paddes e
cough OF whose engines had sometimes startled the sleep
ing deer on the banks OF the Upper Mlssissipp
Boats made daily and nightly passages rom Ac%noLt
to Albany in little more than twelve hours Toward
the railroad men mad 1een Dlnuy grop9g III 1ne canal
in coal mines, and deeper dehs lof nearly
century, but the first locomotive that ever ran on an iron
track and drew carriages hcd with passengers behind
If was made IN England in the year sl9 and the first
public trial OF engines was made OH the track OF the rail-
was opened in October 1872 though the hrs
Of passengers not established III the following year
The first three miles Of track in America had been
finished Quincy, Mass two years before as snllar
track nine miles long haa peen AZ auTa Heu from '
anorry 70 nayigable water as the latter for the
TRANSPORTATION coal from hillside mines 10 canal but
both we're horse roads and barely two locomotives had
| been imported INTO this country and none
! held These were still employed in coal trans
portatOn The first engine ever bmlt III TINS country
was completed in 1890 In which year locomotives began
10 carry passengers short distances on bits OF uhn
shed railroad IN the STATE IN kbs III MANI
the railroad system now extended TO some forty thou
sand track in this country and like number III
Europe at cost fully equal the aggregate wealth Of
our people forty years has been effected within the
near the origin OF this application OF steam and
iron to secure at once ceeuty and cheapne's
to accurately measure or fully appreciate It's Importance
We do not realize the difference between reaching Wash
iugtOn, Boston, Utica in few hours do and
being three long days in making the hard, rackng
ing journey to Albany as have done within the last 80
years The consequent saving I'm time and cost meal
San Francisco within week Of NewYoIk e. 6mt
the first OF "a series Of triumphs OF man
over giant obstacles which cannot be arrested TN
baTbarism and mental stagnatOn are banshed from
earth The electric telegraph is years younger than the
railroad In It's practical working condition IL - barely
quarter OF century old AS concede precedence IN The
CINE and the locomotive to Great Britain and to
France the daguerreotype and all its progeny.
est agencies yet devised for the Interchange
Of products and the diffusion OF ideas and
intelligence And very naturally nowhere else have
these been generally employed so largely proAed
by "a in these United States And the vast change where
by steam Is now papably superseding wind as IN olive
power FOR vessels On the high seas though has been
mainly effected by Europeans owed its chief impulse 10
the general demand for rapid and certain as well
cheap transportation or costly wares and fabrics from
Western Europe TO this country, and more specially To
this port The sewlng-machne one OF the beniiicent
marye5 or our Is not only thoroughly
American in conception, application, and development
but il developed mainly through this city, aided
by the wide intelligent appreciation which II obtained
through the successive fairs Of this Institute This
OF many benefcent transformations which IL has
been the privilege Of this Association TO aid In
obtaining early and ganful recognition. And while
the inventors and their supporters have thus
been prOhted the public has received far
larger aud enduring benefit Let doubt that
inventions and improvements that shall benay that are
Hf IA IN ~ nd
novelty and in the magnitude and pervasIveness OF their
effects those which the last 40 have witnessed
In cd n,rth