XXV111 MEMOIR OF ISAIAH THOMAS. lean literature to be seen in the possession of any individual in the country, The want of such a library had been sensibly felt by him in making his compilation, and the inconvenience had been over- come by personal sacrifices, which few other individuals could make. He therefore justly deemed its importance to the literary interests of society to be inestimable. If once scat- tered, he observed, it could never be gathered again. These considerations led him to propose the incorporation of an asso- ciation for collecting and preserving the materials of history, natural and civil, in every form, in which they present them- selves, and he offered to endow the Institution by a donation of his collection. The proposition was approved by a number of the friends of American literature, and the American Antiqua- rian Society was incorporated in 1812. The legislature of Massachusetts alone could give legal existence to a corporation of this kind ; but it was considered and designed by its founder to be an institution national in its character, whose members should be elected from every quarter of the country, and whose advantages should be common to every State in the Union. Nothing less than this would answer his liberal views of public utility. At the first meeting of the Society, Mr. Thomas was unanimously elected its President, and continued to hold the office by annual election till the time of his death. The interest he manifested in its early success suffered no diminution in its subsequent progress. Every year, he made liberal donations of books and rare curiosi- ties, obtained both as presents to him from their possessors, and by purchases, at an amount not in considerable. The first volume of its Transactions was published wholly at his expense. In 1820, he erected the spacious edifice, now occupied by the Society, fitted it with convenient rooms for the accommodation of the library and cabinet, and gave it for the exclusive use of the Institution. The library now contains about twelve thousand volumes, embracing nu-
