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With thanks for your polite attention and kind remembrance, and with my best wishes for the success of the benevolent enterprise in which you are engaged,

I remain, dear sir, with sincere regard,
Yours, &c.,
ARPHAXED LOOMIS.

ALBANY, Sept. 6, 1854.
Hon. Franklin Townsend:

Dear Sir -- I found your kind invitation on my return to town.

It would give me great pleasure to join in celebrating this auspicious event, but my business prevents.

Truly yours,
T.R. BECK.

My Dear Sir -- It would afford me an especial pleasure to comply with the obliging invitation of your circular to he present on the very interesting occasion of Living the corner-stone of "the first building erected in the United States for the education of idiots;" but I much regret to find that I must forego this pleasure on account of indispensible engagements at home.

Be assured, my dear sir, my heart is with you in your most praisworthy benevolent enterprise, with my prayers that He who, although infinite in power and occupied in the great affairs of creating and governing worlds-in training and instructing archangels, and communing with the high and bright mature intelligences of the upper worlds, yet condescends to regard with tender care the safety of sparrows, the feeding of lambs, the clothing of lillies -- and has taught us not "to despise the day of small things," but in the progress of developments to observe "first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear" -- that He may be with you to bless and establish you firmly in the foundation of your building and in the principles and measures of your institution, in developing and training physical, mental and moral powers which, though for the present incidentally weak and small, have, nevertheless, been created not in vain.

Let our motto be, in the words of Him who came "to seek and save that which was lost," "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost," -- believing that from among these fragments there may be gathered some of "the last" which shall finally be found among "the first."

Yours truly,
D.E. BARTLETT.
Family School for Little Deaf Mutes,
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Sept. 2. 1854.

Albany, Sept. 7,1854.
H. B. Wilbur, Esq.:

Dear Sir: -- Laying the corner-stone of an asylum for idiots is an event of no ordinary importance in the annals of our noble State, and it would be at once my pride and pleasure, as philanthropist and Christian, to be present and share in the interesting ceremonies connected with it. But my engagements will not permit me to leave home just now, and therefore, while I gratefully acknowledge the honor conferred by your invitation, I am obliged, reluctantly, to decline it. With assurances of esteem for yourself and associates,

I am, dear sir,
Yours truly,
H. MANDEVILLE.

Saratoga Springs, August 25, 1854.

My Dear Sir: -- I am very grateful to the trustees of the State Asylum for Idiots for the courtesy they show me by inviting me to attend the ceremony of laying the corner-stone for their edifice. My engagements here cover the day when that ceremony will take place, and if they shall prove flexible enough to allow of my absence from this place, I have absolute need of the time in attending to private cases long neglected. Nevertheless, I beg the trustees to be assured that I look upon the enterprise, in which the State has engaged their services, as one of the noblest and purest of the many public charities for which she is so justly distinguished. I am, dear sir,

with great respect and esteem,
your friend and humble servant,
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
The Honorable Elias W. Leavenworth, Secretary of State.

BOSTON. Sept. 5,1854.

My Dear Sir: -- I regret that I can not be with you on the 8th. Public meetings have become one of the most powerful moral agencies of our day; they are, however, so frequently perverted to selfish purposes, and so generally intended to advance mere material interests, that it would be refreshing indeed to attend yours which is to be simply and purely one of humanity. That is a beautiful form of charity which lightens the infirmity and lessens the suffering of those who can make no return except of gratitude but that is more beautiful which descends upon those who can never know the benefits they receive, or the benefactors who confer them.

The institution whose foundation stone is to be laid on Friday will be like a last link in a chain, it will complete the circle of the State's charities, which will then embrace every class whose infirmities call for public aid. It has long included the deaf mutes, the blind and the insane, and it is now to include the idiots, a class far, far more deplorably afflicted than either of the others.

The ceremony will be fleeting and soon forgotten; the building itself will, in time, decay, but the institution will last while the State lasts; for when the people once recognize the claim of any class of unfortunates, there is no fear of their ever repudiating the debt of charity. The bonds lie deep in the heart of humanity, as the foundation stone you now lay, lies deep in the bosom of the earth.