“We have this evening assumed a new attitude in the community; our negotiations with the Academy are at an end; our union with it has been frustrated after every proper effort on our part to accomplish it.  The two who were elected as directors from our ticket have signified their non-acceptance of the office.  We are therefore left to organize ourselves on a plan that shall meet the wishes of us all.

“A plan of an institution which shall be truly liberal, which shall be mutually beneficial, which shall really encourage our respective arts, cannot be devised in a moment; it ought to be the work of great caution and deliberation and as simple as possible in its machinery.  Time will be required for the purpose.  We must hear from distant countries to obtain their experience, and it must necessarily be, perhaps, many months before it can be matured.

“In the mean time, however, a preparatory, simple organization can be made, and should be made as soon as possible, to prevent dismemberment, which may be attempted by outdoor influence.  On this subject let us all be on our guard; let us point to our public documents to any who ask what we have done and why we have done it, while we go forward minding only our own concerns, leaving the Academy of Fine Arts as much of our thoughts as they will permit us, and, bending our attention to our own affairs, act as if no such institution existed.

“One of our dangers at present is division and anarchy from a want of organization suited to the present exigency.  We are now composed of artists in the four arts of design, namely, painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving.  Some of us are professional artists, others amateurs, others students.  To the professed and practical artist belongs the management of all things relating to schools, premiums, and lectures, so that amateur and student may be most profited.  The amateurs and students are those alone who can contend for the premiums, while the body of professional artists exclusively judge of their rights to premiums and award them.

“How shall we first make the separation has been a question which is a little perplexing.  There are none of us who can assume to be the body of artists without giving offence to others, and still every one must perceive that, to organize an academy, there must be the distinction between professional artists, amateurs who are students, and professional students.  The first great division should be the body of professional artists from the amateurs and students, constituting the body who are to manage the entire concerns of the institution, who shall be its officers, etc.

“There is a method which strikes me as obviating the difficulty; place it on the broad principle of the formation of any society—­universal suffrage.  We are now a mixed body; it is necessary for the benefit of all that a separation into classes be made.  Who shall make it?

“Why, obviously the body itself.  Let every member of this association take home with him a list of all the members of it.  Let each one select for himself from the whole list fifteen, whom he would call professional artists, to be the ticket which he will give in at the next meeting.