Page:1883 Annual Report of the German Society of the City of New York.djvu/13

Rh for at the next meeting—January 11th—the committee presented to the other members "the bills for the social festival, from which it appeared that £5 more had been expended than had been received from the sale of tickets," upon which it was resolved that "this sum should be paid from the funds of the Society."

At the quarterly general meeting, April 2d, it was reported that Mr. Edward Livingston, a member of this Society, had donated to the Society 300 acres of land, situated not far from Æsopus. At the same meeting the Mayor of the city, James Duane, was received as member. On July 2d, it was resolved, on the motion of Edward Livingston, "that the Society, out of respect for Hermann, the liberator of the Germans, should in future observe the 11th of August as the day of their annual festival."

This resolution, however, has, probably, been reconsidered, for it was resolved on October 2d, "to hold the festival of the Society on October 4th, because that was the day on which the Society had first met."

With regard to the festival, the Minutes report as follows:

"In accordance with the resolutions passed at the last general meeting, the Society met at 11 o'clock this day in the School-house, and then marched in procession, with President Baron Von Steuben at the head, accompanied by the Mayor of the city, to the Lutheran Church, where they were received by a numerous assembly, and with vocal and instrumental music. Rev. Mr. Gross opened the festivities of the day with a well-expressed prayer to the Highest Being, who looks down with approbation even upon the feeblest of our imperfect efforts to relieve the wants of our suffering fellow-creatures. The Vice-President, Mr. John Meyer, then delineated, in an appropriate, well-elaborated speech, the character of the German nation, upon which Dr. Kunze closed the services of the occasion with an address which accorded fully with the well-known learning of the speaker, and in which he treated more extensively of the same subject as that enlarged upon by Vice-President Meyer. The services ended, the Society repaired to the City Tavern, wdiere it was honored by the presence of the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the St. Andrew's and St. Patrick's Societies, who took part in the banquet which followed."

. Mr. Godwin delivers the copperplate for