expresses the real character of the sentiment that animates the
Committee of France-America and which its delegation has endeavored
to convey in coming to you. We are friends of the great American
democracy; we come toward it with outstretched hands, saying:
Accept this friendship that is offered you and in return grant us
yours. We have nothing more to offer you than this image of that
which we love best in the world, France; and we ask nothing more
of you than to understand how lively, spontaneous and sincere this
sentiment is.
Since the American democracy is at the head of the great human
civilizations, since it always marches forward, without, however,
forgetting the bonds that bind it to the past; since it has a noble
heart, a generous soul, and since, according to the word of the
Latin writer, nothing human is foreign to it, we come to remind
it that these sentiments are also those that animate the French
democracy; and, as the two ideas are to-day united in the same
monument, so may the two words be drawn closer together in the
name of our Committee, France-America. We beg of you not to allow
the memory of this ceremony to be effaced from your hearts, since
the memory of Champlain is commemorated by you. We now confide to
you the image of our beautiful France. Watch over it as over an
eternal pledge of gratitude, of devotion, and of friendship. (Long
applause.)
Commissioner Louis C. Lafontaine was then introduced and received the
gift in the following manner, speaking in the French language:
_Excellence, Messieurs de la Délégation Française, Mesdames,
Messieurs_: C’est un grand honneur pour moi, comme membre de
la Commission du Troisième Centenaire de la découverte du Lac
Champlain, et au nom de mes collègues, de recevoir le buste “La
France” dont vous avez mission du peuple Français de venir déposer
au pied du Mémorial Champlain.
La Commission se plaît à voir dans ce beau geste de la mère-patrie
de Champlain le couronnement de ses efforts pour la glorification
de l’un des plus illustres fils de la France.
Votre mission est maintenant remplie, mais nous vous prions de
vouloir bien en accepter une autre, celle de transmettre à la
nation française, les remerciements les plus sincères et les plus
cordiaux de la Commission Champlain pour l’honneur qu’elle lui a
fait en choisissant un si grand nombre parmi les plus illustres de
ses enfants pour leur conférer l’honneur de venir apposer ce cachet
d’amitié au Mémorial Porte-Lumière destiné à perpétuer le souvenir
du Grand Champlain!
This concluded the formal exercises.
The visitors were then shown the ruins of Fort St. Frédéric and of
the English Forts, now included in the state reservation known as the
Crown Point Reservation, which are among the best preserved original
fortifications of the country.
[Illustration: M. Hanotaux speaking at Crown Point Forts, May 3, 1912]
[Illustration: M. Hanotaux speaking at Crown Point Memorial, May 3,
1912]
The discoveries which are being made in and about the old French Fort
under the direction of Annie E. (Mrs. Walter C.) Witherbee, are such
as may lead to the rewriting of a description of these forts. She has
located the ovens and found the oven doors, candle-sticks, snuffers,
glassware, blue and white china of Fort St. Frédéric, built in 1731,
the underground drain, from the English Forts, built of stone two
and one-half feet high, resting on a solid rock and twenty inches
in width in perfect condition. She has also found the casemate and
bastions around the English Forts, which were built in 1759
by Amherst. She has opened up the old forge and found many relics
such as a gun-carriage, chairs, knives, spades, iron bars, bolts and
other articles. The most remarkable discovery from a geological point
of view was that of a glacier mill 14 feet and 7 inches in depth,
containing spherical stones, unknown in the vicinity. Mrs. Witherbee
has procured copies of old charts and maps from British archives
relating to the region. She is also making a valuable historical
collection of books, manuscripts and autographs of persons, who have
written about or have been occupants of the forts now in ruins, but
included in the State Reservation. These will throw new light on the
history of the region to the lasting credit of Mrs. Witherbee, who
intends to continue her researches in this hitherto unexplored field.
At three-forty o’clock, P. M., the Commissioners,
accompanied by His Excellency Ambassador Jusserand and the French
delegation, boarded the special train for Plattsburgh under the
escort of Hon. John H. Booth and Hon. John B. Riley. Upon their
arrival at Plattsburgh, they were officially welcomed by Mayor Andrew
G. Senecal, the Guard of Honor, and St. Jean Baptiste Society in
full uniform. The depot was trimmed with the American and French
flags and the U. S. Reservation at Plattsburgh Barracks had been put
in readiness by Colonel Cowles, Post Commandant, for the reception
of the visitors to witness a dress parade in their honor. As they
entered the Reservation, a national salute was fired and the
regimental band played La Marseillaise and the Star Spangled Banner.
The Fifth Infantry in full dress uniform was drawn up and saluted the
distinguished visitors with military honors. Colonel Cowles and his
staff were formally presented by Hon. H. Wallace Knapp to Ambassador
Jusserand, M. Gabriel Hanotaux, General Lebon, Count de Chambrun, M.
Étienne Lamy and others. The visitors were escorted to the temporary
platform, whereupon the Hon. V. F. Boire, speaking in French in
behalf of the people of Plattsburgh, welcomed the visitors. The
English version of his address is substantially as follows:
_Gentlemen_: It is a great pleasure as well as a special privilege
to welcome you to the city of Plattsburgh and the county of Clinton
on this important occasion of your peace errand. It is a pleasure
to welcome you for many reasons. The personnel of your delegation
has so many illustrious and honored names; so many of them dear to
the hearts of the American people, that we welcome you individually
and personally, and we feel that you should be at home here. In
the average American heart, there is enshrined on either side of
George Washington the memory of Rochambeau and Lafayette, so no man
bearing either name is a stranger in the country of Washington, nor
is he a stranger here, who is accredited from their native land.
As representatives of the great French Republic, you are welcome to
the nation that the old France sustained and befriended in the hour
of its almost hopeless struggle for liberty. You are twice welcome
in this particular spot; discovered and explored by the great
Champlain, trodden by the intrepid foot of Montcalm, and sought out
by the zealous heart of Jogues. It would be impossible to honor us
more than to permit us to see and hear representatives of so many
branches of French activities and learning, of men and institutions
that have made for the progress and enlightenment of the world; and
in this particular locality, where there are so many descendants of
the French, this occasion affords an entirely distinct and peculiar
pleasure to the people.
Significant at this time and indirectly connected with your visit,
and of interest in connection with your visit, are the great peace
projects now planned between the United States and the British
Empire. One is the Quebec-Miami International Highway which is an
assured fact, as a result of which a great International Highway
is actually being built, connecting the southern part of Florida
with the city of Quebec, and linking Canada and the United States
with a strong bond of friendship and good will. This road will
pass through the city of Plattsburgh and its length will be dotted
with monuments dedicated to peace. And it is intended that all
travellers of this highway between Canada and the United States
will pass beneath an arch dedicated in the hope that no hostile
foot will ever tread beneath. This we believe to be a practical
peace pact.
The monuments and arch just referred to are part of the second
and most widely known of the peace projects. By that I mean, the
celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of peace between the
English speaking peoples (which also seems to be an assured fact),
to occur in 1914. By a singular coincidence, the year 1914 will
also mark the one hundredth anniversary of the last war between
French speaking and English speaking peoples. It would seem to me
a most lamentable thing if this celebration were not made a double
celebration in commemoration of the one hundred years of peace
between the great French speaking peoples and English speaking
peoples as well as between the English speaking peoples. And let
us hope that the year 1914 will also witness the adoption of all
the Arbitration Treaties under French speaking nations and English
speaking nations;—and thus we may hope that the year 1914 will not
only be as a monument to the century of peace in the past, but that
it will also be a monument for the peace of the centuries that are
to come.
The visitors demonstrated their pleasure over his remarks by
vigorous applause. M. Étienne Lamy was then introduced and, speaking
in French, told of the pleasure of himself and his associates at
the hearty reception they had received at every place they had
visited since coming to America and said that at no place was the
reception more cordial than at Plattsburgh. General Lebon was the
next speaker and his remarks were also in French. He spoke of the
great achievements of the French people in all walks of life and
especially in the military sphere. Count de Chambrun spoke in English
and told of the great friendship which has existed between France
and the United States ever since the first blow was struck by the
colonies for liberty; how the Republic of the East, through him and
his associates, sent greetings and promises of everlasting friendship
to the Republic of the West. M. Gabriel Hanotaux spoke briefly in
French and Ambassador Jusserand made a few remarks in both English
and French, expressing his pleasure in again visiting Plattsburgh.
The Saranac Chapter of the D. A. R. turned out in force with their
regent. Mrs. George F. Tuttle, and were accompanied by the Nathan
Beman Chapter of the Children of the American Revolution bearing the
American colors. The D. A. R. delegation was seated on the grandstand
at the left of the French visitors.
Mrs. George F. Tuttle, the regent of the Saranac Chapter, D. A. R.,
and president of the Nathan Beman Chapter, D. A. R., of Plattsburgh,
both of which organizations took part in the reception of the French
Delegation, expressed her pleasure and that of her Chapter at taking
part in welcoming the visitors, and also said:
The Saranac Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and
Nathan Beman Society, Children of the American Revolution wish
to extend greetings to the French delegation who have so
honored us by their presence. It may be of interest to one of
this distinguished company, the Count de Chambrun, to know that
among the Daughters who listened with delight to his remarks,
was one whose mother, Mrs. Frederick Sailly, had the pleasure of
entertaining, as the wife of Major Russell, at Fort Niagara, the
Count’s honored ancestor, General Lafayette.
After regimental dress parade the visitors were returned to the
depot by automobile and left for Montreal on the regular 6 o’clock
train, expressing themselves enthusiastically in appreciation of the
festivities arranged in their honor in this country.
One of the French delegation, M. Gaston Deschamps, on May 3, 1912,
reported to _Le Temps_, published in Paris, the exercises at Crown
Point and Plattsburgh, which is a graphic description of the
impressions made upon the visitors on that occasion. From that report
we excerpt the following, giving the English instead of the French
original:
People have come from all the cities and towns about Port Henry;
from all the villages and hamlets near the Canadian frontier, to
greet the French delegation. A band of musicians advances and
plays the “Marseillaise”—a Marseillaise slow, sweet, as though
languishing from the affectionate and cajoling tenderness of our
friends in the United States and New France. Our Marseillaise lends
itself admirably to that metamorphosis, and the warlike march
of the Army of the Rhine easily becomes, when one beats _adagio
maestoso_ time, a hymn of solemn measure and touchingly religious.
Hon. Walter C. Witherbee, one of the most distinguished citizens
of Port Henry, is the President of the Inauguration Committee of
the Champlain Monument at Crown Point. For several years he has
devoted the best part of his time and his efforts to the work of
the American and French commemorations of which we to-day see
the happy outcome. He has applied himself with all his heart to
this intellectual and moral enterprise, and he has brought to
the service of his tenacious idealism all the practical judgment
of an excellent business man. I have learned—not from him, for
Mr. Witherbee is modesty itself—all that he has done for the
celebration of the third centenary of Champlain. Treasurer of the
New York Commission, he is the one especially who, with Senator
Henry W. Hill and Mr. John R. Myers, put through the necessary
measures before the Government at Washington, to the end that the
commemorative festivities might be exceptionally brilliant.
Mr. Clinton Scollard has sung the glory of Champlain:
A valiant son of that intrepid line
Which gave fair lustre to the fame of France.
Another poet, Mr. Percy MacKaye, has celebrated in his “Ballad of
Ticonderoga” the heroic defenders of Fort Carillon. Dr. Daniel
L. Cady has dedicated a whole bouquet of lyric verses to the
picturesque beauties of Lake Champlain and to the bravery of the
good sailor of Saintonge:
The Brouage sailor * * *
* * * Long live the Xaintongeois * * *
It seems to me that at certain times “Young America” is in truth
“Old France.” This impression is strengthened still more after we
have embarked on the steamer which is to take us to the opposite
shore of the lake, to the promontory where the monument to the
heroes of this magnificent fête is erected. This monument is not
yet finished. But the figure of the “Lord of Champlain, geographer
to the King, and captain of the Navy of the West,” is present in
all minds because on the pedestal of granite, under the gleam of
the lighthouse, it is visible from top to toe in the eyes of all
sailors in quest of a good route in these parts. Here he is, with
his good face, a trifle broad, and very strong, his moustache
curled up at the ends, and his small pointed beard in the fashion
of Louis XIII.; his lips, prompt to reply, but skillful in keeping
a secret; his large, thoughtful forehead, his eyes full of
dreaminess, and at the same time skilled in the exact knowledge
of men and things by the habit of his profession of watching the
caprices of the inconstant sea, of the changing heavens, and of
the varying breezes. His lake, that “Sea of the Iroquois,” whose
Odysseyan distances he skimmed in birch-bark canoes paddled by
tattooed Hurons, with whom he felt at home—being, in the words of a
narrator of his voyages, “a man who was astonished at nothing, and
a ready talker, knowing how to accost these people tactfully and
to accommodate himself to their ways”—his lake we overlook to-day
from the bulwarks of a steamer decorated with all the splendor of
holidays. His work is finished. What he foresaw, what he predicted,
what he prepared, has been realized. Civilization has laid hold
upon all these countries where he was the first explorer and of
which he foretold in his writings the future harvest. Here is
the landscape whose picture he has described so vividly that one
can, after having read his “Voyages and Discoveries”, easily find
one’s way and recognize the different points; the immensity of
this lake, whose fertile shores stretch in endless perspective;
the hillsides covered with forests; the islands “where there are
plenty of walnuts and vines and pretty meadows.” * * * In place
of the encampments stockaded by the Iroquois or by the Mohegans,
filled with the noise of the tom-tom and the war dance, there are
now pleasant country houses where men and women of a less turbulent
race can henceforth enjoy a happiness which is no longer menaced by
the unreasoned impulses of a primitive and barbarous humanity.
As our steamer pulls out from the port and traverses the waves,
gilded by the sun, in the track which the achievements of
Champlain have traced, we see the buildings of Port Henry rise
one above the other like an amphitheatre among the forests in
the woodland clearing. On the battlefield where the conqueror,
peaceful and brave, was forced to use his blunderbuss, there are
now shipbuilders’ yards, warehouses, factory chimneys. * * * The
horizon, under the vast dome of the blue sky, is beautified by the
whiteness of the snows, which shine with a silvery splendor on the
tops of the Adirondack Mountains and of those Green Mountains which
have given their ancient French name to the American State Vert
Mont (Vermont).
The weather is marvellous. This is the most beautiful day of our
trip; a day of brightness and of glory; what the Americans call a
“glorious day.” A fine breeze which comes from afar makes the gay
colors of the oriflamme flutter from the halyards of the ship.
The French delegation is gay. We are happy to see this admirable
scenery, which was discovered by the eyes of a Frenchman. One
of our number is especially captivated by the beauty of this
spectacle; it is the great painter Cormon, appointed more than
any one else, as one who could understand and feel the charm of
this vision, because his art is exercised and triumphs by turns in
the magnificent understanding of primitive times and in the fine
meaning of the beauties imagined by the modern æsthetic. We are
happy to see that his ready and true pencil has caught in passing
some of the scenes from the fairyland before us. Our notes on the
trip will thus be much more accurate because of a true, exact and
sincere illustration, which would have been the delight of honest
Champlain.
In honor of the heroes of this festival, and to please us, Mr.
Witherbee’s musicians play the airs which were most pleasing to
the good mariners who came with Champlain from Saintonge or from
Aunis—the old songs of Old France. “C’est le roi Dagobert,” “J’ai
du bon tabac dans ma tabatière,” “La bonne aventure, ô gué.” * * *
Apropos of this, a Canadian whom I met at this delightful festival
of French remembrance told me that these songs, brought by
Champlain’s sailors, preserved by Montcalm’s sailors, still exist
among “our people” all through the country.
“Among us are still played on the hurdy-gurdy those refrains of
long ago. We transmit them in the family, from father to son, like
a charming echo of the far away mother country. If you come to
our French villages in Canada, Monsieur, to Beauharnais, to Saint
Hilaire, to Maisonneuve, to Sorel, to Trois-Rivières, you will hear
all sorts of pleasant couplets which come in a direct line from
Angoumois, from Normandy, from Saintonge, from Poitou—and I, too,
come from Poitou.
“So, then. Monsieur,” adds my Canadian questioner, laughingly,
“We will sing you some Poitevine songs, which will recall your
childhood days and the quaint melodies of the country-folk over
there. We have a good collection of them. You will only have the
embarrassment of choice.”
And that good Frenchman of Canada begins to name over for me a
whole string of ancient sayings, which have retained the perfume
and, as it were, the melancholy softness of the gardens of the
past. First of all a “danse ronde”:
Dans ma main droite y-a-t-un rosier
Qui fleurira, manon lon la,
Qui fleurira au mois de mai.
Entrez en danse, joli rosier!
Et embrassez, manon lon la,
Et embrassez qui vous plaira.
Indeed, I have heard that ingenious melody at home. To hear again,
so far from home, the words and the spirit of our old rural France,
hard-working all the week and always ready to dance and to “baller”
during the Sunday leisure, is an impression not to be forgotten and
which at first seems like a dream.
“We also have,” my Canadian said to me, “the ‘Clear Fountain.’
Everybody in Canada knows that romance, which came from
Normandy. We also have some ‘chansons de filasse’ (flax songs)
sung in tremulous voice by our good grandmothers: ‘En filant
ma quenouille.’ Our Bretons have preserved their sea songs: ‘A
Saint-Malo, beau port de mer.’ Or ‘Dans les prisons de Nantes.’ And
also:
Fringue, fringue sur la rivière
Fringue, fringue sur l’aviron.”
While thus, in that fine light, on the limpid water, under the
tender blue of a crystal sky, the heroic and charming soul of our
ancestors was evoked, our ship, surrounded by a whole fleet of
decorated barks, draws near the pier at Crown Point and stops in
front of the monument of Champlain. This monument is a lighthouse,
of gray granite, sparkling with grains of mica which shine in
the sun like the facets of precious stones. The location of
that edifice is well adapted to the calling and the glory of him
who was in these parts the guide of navigators. In front of that
lighthouse, on the prow of a symbolic vessel, there stands upright
the figure of the good pilot whose wake we have followed. * * *
While awaiting the completion of the statue, which has been begun,
we have fastened to the pedestal the image of France, modelled
with infinitely delicate love by the strong hand of the sculptor
Rodin. That will be a token and, as it were, the sign of the mother
country on the monument which commemorates and consecrates a French
achievement.
At the moment when that image, veiled by the flags of France
and of the United States, is uncovered, appears to the gaze of
the assembled crowd, the Marseillaise vibrates in the resonant
light. Our American friends and the Canadians present applaud and
cheer. We are deeply moved, we Frenchmen, before this figure,
where we recognize clearly the force and the sweetness of the
mother country, the uprightness of her thoughts, the loftiness of
her sentiments, the nobility of her generous desires. Never has
an artist’s idea better expressed by the sovereign gift of art
all that there is of depth, of rarity, of the unique, in hearts
animated by the imperative desire to maintain the dominion of
France; to enhance her glory. The head of the French delegation,
M. Gabriel Hanotaux, of the French Academy, former Minister of
Foreign Affairs, accompanied by the French Ambassador and the
Governors of the States of New York and of Vermont, delivers that
precious pledge of remembrance and of hope to the friendship of
the American people. His eloquent words are most appropriate to
the occasion which reunites us, to the decorations which astonish
us, to the character of the great man whose admirable work gives
us, at the end of three centuries, the joy of seeing in this place
the infinite results of a French undertaking. The orator, in
reviewing the life and work of Champlain, points out how similar
to Corneille was the soul of that contemporary of Richelieu, and
how this discoverer of new ways, this builder of towns, this
initiator of civilization into the New World, this idealist, prompt
in the realization of his ideas, has succeeded by the power of a
thoughtful desire, preparing his projects far in advance by prudent
thought, wisely conceived, rapidly executed—having, in a word, as a
historian has said in the temperate and forceful language of long
ago, “the intentions of all he did.”
After M. Hanotaux, the Governors of New York and Vermont spoke.
Their excellent discourses, warmly applauded, reminded me again
how well the history of Champlain is known in America. In him they
honor by turns the incarnation of the genius of France; the honor
and chivalry of France. To that explorer, to that colonizer, they
give that beautiful name of “honest man” which our ancestors of
the seventeenth century claimed more passionately than any other
title: navigator, explorer, honest man. * * *
After that moving ceremony we were taken in automobiles to the
ruins of Fort Frédéric, which was constructed in 1731 by the
Marquis de Beauharnois. The whole population of Port Henry comes
with us; they surround us, showing us every courtesy.
In a group of children I see a pretty little boy with blue eyes.
“Doest thou know French”?
“Yes, sir.”
“What is thy name”?
“Henri Pigeon.”