first battle against the Iroquois somewhere in this vicinity. From
his naïve story of the encounter it appears that primitive man
dearly loves to bandy words and to fight. As the Homeric heroes,
when face to face in combat, interchanged long and high sounding
speeches before falling to, so did the rival war parties in 1609.
Champlain’s account says that when his men “were armed and in
array, they sent two canoes, set apart from the others, to learn
from their enemies if they wanted to fight. They replied that they
wanted nothing else but that; at the moment there was not much
light and they must wait for the daylight to recognize each other,
and that as soon as the sun rose they would open the battle. This
was accepted by our men; and while we waited, the whole night was
passed in dances and songs, as much on one side as on the other,
with endless insults and other talk, such as the little courage we
had, our feeble men and inability to make resistance against their
arms, and that when we came we should find it to our ruin. Our men
were also not lacking in retort, telling them that they should see
such power of arms as never before, and amid such other talk as is
customary in the siege of a city.” Champlain, at the head of his
men, fired the first shot with his arquebuse and killed two of the
chiefs, mortally wounding a third. The writer evidently thought
his account of the marvellous efficacy of his weapon of precision
needed explanation, and adds that he loaded with four bullets. It
would be fair to expect that one bullet would go wild.
It would be interesting if we could have the story of this fight
from the Iroquois point of view. What impression did the outlandish
pale-faces make upon the defending band of aborigines? What
was their judgment as to the ethics of the invasion into their
territory? We can well picture their demoralization upon the sudden
killing of their three chiefs. But can sophisticated imagination
fully grasp the degree of terror inspired by the bang of the guns
of the explorers which broke the silence of the forest primeval?
What do we know of that awful stillness? The Indian moved with
catlike tread. The dip of his paddle made but a ripple. His arrow
sped to its mark without sound. The life and death struggle for
the survival of the fittest in the natural world went on about him
in a silence broken only by the stifled squeak of a victim or the
crunching of bones. The show of force in animate nature following
patient waiting and reserve was swift and terrific, but silent—the
swoop of the eagle upon its prey, the spring of the panther, the
strike of the adder. The music of the denizens of the wilderness
depended for its quality upon the general absence of sound above
that of the waterfall or the rustling of leaves. Its various
elemental strains—the hoot of the owl, the yell of the loon, the
miaul of the panther, the redman’s love call, war cry and death
song—all soared high above the symphony of inanimate nature. One
modern political convention makes more noise in a day than the
Indian ever heard through the centuries. Thrice and four times
happy Iroquois!
For a century more or less after the discovery of the lake, there
were bloody forays, without decisive results, back and forth
between the French and Algonquins on the North and the English and
Iroquois on the South.
In 1731 the French fortified a post here at Crown Point and
called it Fort Frédéric. This was only a small stockade designed
to accommodate thirty men. It gave place to a fortress large
enough for 120 men, and in 1742 it was enlarged and strengthened,
being then, with the exception of Quebec, the strongest French
fortress in America. And under the protection of this fortress
was the largest of the early settlements. Another small fort was
constructed at Chimney Point opposite here, and about it groups of
home seekers were gathered. All settlements in this neighborhood
disappeared as soon as the French soldiers withdrew from Lake
Champlain.
War was not formally declared between Great Britain and France
until 1756. In that year was completed Fort Carillon (at
Ticonderoga), about 200 men being employed in its construction.
In 1759, in face of siege operations by Lord Amherst, the French
abandoned the fort, retired to Fort Frédéric, evacuated and blew up
this fort and retired to Canada. Thus, after a full century and a
half of more or less interrupted control, French supremacy passed
from Lake Champlain.
Here, at Crown Point, Amherst thereupon constructed at enormous
expense a new fortress, the principal function of which has been to
make a picturesque ruin and a pleasant picnic ground for the people
of the present day.
The blood-soaked slopes of this great waterway were hardly dry
before the war between Great Britain and her American colonies
broke out and these strategic points on the lake, which were vital
as buttresses against invasion by French and Indians from Canada,
became equally so to the colonists for safeguarding the valley from
British occupation.
Crown Point and Ticonderoga again became the center of interest
and activity. The local patriots determined to seize Fort
Ticonderoga and learned that the Green Mountain Boys were, as they
expressed it, “the proper persons to do the job.” The story of the
surprise and capture of the fort by Ethan Allen and his party of
eighty-three men is authentic. The verbal form of his command to
surrender “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental
Congress” has been questioned, but it is quite in the style of his
other sayings and his writings. Listen to his address to his little
band before the attack:
“Friends and fellow soldiers, you have for a number of years past
been a scourge and terror to arbitrary powers. Your valor has been
famed abroad and acknowledged, as appears by the advice and orders
to me from the General Assembly of Connecticut to surprise and
take the garrison now before us. I now propose to advance before
you, and, in person, conduct you through the wicket gate; for
this morning either we quit our pretensions to valor or possess
ourselves of this fortress in a few minutes; and inasmuch as it
is a desperate attempt, which none but the bravest of men dare
undertake, I do not urge it on any contrary to his will. You that
will undertake, voluntarily, poise your firelocks!”
Allen was a primitive man, a pioneer and land speculator. Like the
Homeric heroes and the Iroquois and Algonquin chiefs, he indulged
in high and mighty talk before the attack. In his day and among
his people the accomplishment of formal speech and writing was not
common and lent distinction to its possessor, and Allen was a man
to let his light shine in this direction.
Ticonderoga witnessed the first lowering of His Majesty’s colors
in the War for Independence. Allen says of this occasion: “The sun
seemed to rise that morning with a superior lustre and Ticonderoga
and all its defenders smiled on its conquerors who tossed about the
flowing bowl and wished success to Congress and the liberty and
freedom of America.”
Shortly after, Seth Warner and his men captured the small garrison
here at Crown Point together with 200 pieces of cannon.
In the struggle for supremacy of the Lake Champlain district men
fought not only for the glory of France and her religion, the glory
of England and the spread of her institutions, the independence
of the Colonies and the abrogation of unjust taxes, but also,
and chiefly, as settlers, for the protection of their homes and
the validity of their land titles. They struggled, nevertheless,
blindly, as all men do, and were the instruments of forces and the
larger design of which they could have no vision. Notwithstanding
her courage, superior leadership and organization, France was
defeated because, as has been said, “a new nation had arrived
too great in numbers, in extent of territory, in strength of
independent, individual character to be overwhelmed.”
A nation may be the loser in the game of war, but a great race
can hardly be subjugated or rubbed out. Quebec was taken, but the
Province of Quebec is French, and New England, through immigration,
is slowly becoming New France. Scotland and Ireland were conquered
long ago, but the Scotch and Irish are conspicuously present with
us to-day. It has been easy for the western Powers to blow up
the forts of China and gain concessions, and the Chinese smile,
seemingly acquiesce, and kotow, but in all things essential to
themselves they yield nothing but go their own way. A few Chinese
boys trained in American colleges have exerted a greater influence
upon China than all the gunpowder ever manufactured could do.
It would seem that there are forces visibly at work that make for
peace, and this in spite of the bloody history of man and the huge
armaments which may mean the fear of war rather than the love of
it. Possibly it was from a willingness or even a desire to move in
harmony with such forces that Great Britain, France, the Dominion
of Canada and the United States of America found that without
effort or affectation they could find in the Champlain Tercentenary
an occasion for the interchange of words of pleasantness along the
paths of international peace.
In the future, then, let celebrants of the Tercentenary events
settle all their differences by a joint meeting by the sweet waters
of Lake Champlain.
Men draw from the pages of history different conclusions, for they
read with different eyes. Although we are familiar with the fact
and the doctrine of the spread of civilization through violence,
yet in the concomitants of war, its pomps and trappings, its glory
and shame, its burnings and killings, its famine and pestilence,
its bickerings and jealousies, its graft and greed and sordidness,
its futility to effect its original purpose or to accomplish the
greatest good, and more particularly in the nature of men and
things, may there not be some among us who find warrant for the
beatitude, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”
(Applause.)
The ceremonies concluded with the following:
Benediction by Rev. J. W. Dwyer, of Ludlow, Vt.
O God, from whom are holy desires, right counsels and just works,
give unto Thy servants that peace which Thou hast told us the world
cannot give; that our hearts being given to the keeping of Thy
commandments and the fear of enemies being removed, our days, by
Thy protection, may be peaceful.
May the blessings of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost
descend upon all here assembled, upon all whom we represent, and
abide with us forever. Amen.
The large assemblage, including many distinguished citizens
from Vermont, then dispersed to their several homes, except the
Commissioners and their guests, who boarded the “_Ticonderoga_” for
Plattsburgh and intermediate ports.
IV. SAIL DOWN THE LAKE TO BLUFF POINT
The first stop was at Port Henry, one of the five gateways to the
Adirondacks and one of the large iron-ore ports of the country.
This picturesque village, nestling under the foothills of the
Adirondacks, the home of Commissioner Walter C. Witherbee and Hon.
Frank S. Witherbee, overlooks the lake, the Champlain Memorial
Lighthouse and historical Chimney Point on the Vermont shore. In
this town is located the principal office of Witherbee, Sherman &
Company, extensive iron producers and donors to the State of New
York of the lands on which are situated the Crown Point Forts. It
has a public library and other public buildings, churches, etc. The
steamer then proceeded northward past Westport and Essex, attractive
summer resorts on the west shore of the lake and also past Thompson’s
Point, Cedar Beach and other resorts on the east shore of the lake
to Burlington, which rises above the blue waters of the lake in some
such manner as does Naples above the blue Mediterranean. It has
its beautiful semicircular bay with its two arms, projecting far
out into the lake, similar to the beautiful bay of Naples with its
Sorrento and Posilipo, projecting far out into the sea. It has its
University, as has Naples, which has been a center of learning and
culture for many years. It rises less precipitously and with more
uniform gradation from the margin of the lake to the college campus,
where the University buildings crown the summit as does the castle
of St. Elmo the city of Naples. Its streets and avenues are broader
and better shaded than are those of Naples, but it has many points of
resemblance, which are suggestive of that rare Neapolitan fascination
not found elsewhere. Instead of the active and ever-threatening
Vesuvius, there rises in the background superbly beautiful Mt.
Mansfield silhouetted against the deep blue eastern sky. The
commanding view from the elevation of the University of Vermont to
the eastward and especially to the westward across the lake toward
the rugged Adirondacks, rising precipitously from the water’s edge
to the sky line, is such as to enable one to survey the width as
well as something of the length of the valley and appreciate its
pictorial grandeur. As the sun gilds the sky-pointing peaks and fills
the valleys with rosy light, except where drifting clouds cast their
shadows athwart the mountain ranges and as the placid waters of the
lake reflect the overarching azure sky, in an atmosphere—the clarity
of which like that on the summit of Salvatore accentuates nature’s
beauties,—one is reminded that the Champlain valley presents many
views worthy the brush of a Turner, a Corot or a Cormon. In the
poem on “Lake Champlain” by S. S. Cutting, D. D., will be found the
following:
Oh matchless splendors! never sung nor told,
Now golden purple, now empurpled gold!
O’er mount and plain the heavens their tints diffuse
And tinge the waves with iridescent hues.
And now, when slowly fades departing day,
The moon, full-orbed, walks her celestial way,
And bathing all things in her silver light,
Prolongs the beauty through the slumbering night.
The _“Ticonderoga”_ pointed westward north of the Four Brothers,
where Edward Hatch, Jr., of Lord & Taylor of New York City maintains
a hatchery for breeding and rearing lake gulls and also easterly of
Port Kent, one of the gateways to the Adirondacks. On the right were
seen some of the beautiful islands described by Samuel Champlain. One
of these was for many years the abode of that sweet bard of Grand
Isle County, Vt., the Rev. Orville G. Wheeler, who once sang in this
wise:
Vermont, thy mountain breezes erst have fanned
The brow of warrior bold, of statesman sage,
And yet the poet’s mystic waving wand
Will charm to life thy bright historic page;
Ah such will live, the good, the great, the brave,
Will live in grateful hearts, if not in song,
Their hallowed deeds will never find a grave,
Although unsung their fame may slumber long.
The steamer passed Valcour, where occurred one of the principal
naval engagements of the Revolution, in which Benedict Arnold
distinguished himself for his daring and for his adroit escape in
the night from the enemy. The Commissioners and their guests were
landed at Bluff Point and took rooms in the new Hotel Champlain,
which was built on the site of the former Hotel Champlain, burned in
the winter of 1910. Its commodious apartments, broad verandas and
commanding outlook over Cumberland Bay and the lake were admiringly
appreciated after the strenuous day’s exercises at Crown Point Forts
and the ride down the lake.
CHAMPLAIN HOTEL, BLUFF POINT, JULY 6, 1912.
The rosy-fingered dawn was eloquent with the loud, rich, skilfully
modulated song of the thrasher and the melody of the many birds that
frequent the tree-clad slopes along the shores of the lake. Nature
has with profusion bestowed her inexhaustible wealth of beauty in and
about Lake Champlain. The site of the new hotel at Bluff Point is one
of the places where this may be seen to advantage. As one gazes on
the blue waters of the lake, with its picturesque islands, stretching
far away toward the Vermont shores and over to the sloping hillsides
that lead up to the majestic Green Mountains in the distance and then
to the towering Adirondacks that wall in the lake on the west, he is
quite apt to compare the scene with that unfolded to the tourist,
who looks out from Locarno on the expanse of the blue waters of Lago
Maggiore with its charming islands and the encircling mountains,
crowned with villas and historic castles, “a perfect efflorescence
of loveliness.” The grandeur and sublimity of the Alpine scene is
to some extent compensated for by the broader expanse of undulating
waters, the larger sweep of productive valleys and verdant slopes,
“set with the homes of men,” breathing the air of freedom, whose
heritage is liberty under law.
Amid such scenes the words of William Watson occur to one,
“ * * * * *
Beauty, whose voice is earth and sea and air,
* * * * *
Who reigneth, and her throne is everywhere.”
V. CALL AT THE SUMMER SCHOOL, REVIEW OF THE FIFTH INFANTRY REGIMENT,
U. S. A., AT PLATTSBURGH BARRACKS, TOUR OF THE CITY, RECEPTION GIVEN
BY THE HON. SMITH M. WEED AND LUNCHEON AT THE FOUQUET HOUSE
The morning hours quickly passed and the Champlain Commissioners
and their guests were waited upon by a delegation of citizens of
Plattsburgh.
The Commissioners, Governor Dix, Count de Peretti de la Rocca, and
other guests left the Hotel Champlain in automobiles at 10 o’clock,
under the escort of the Reception Committee of the Chamber of
Commerce of Plattsburgh, headed by Mayor Andrew G. Senecal. They
were driven to the Catholic Summer School at Cliff Haven, where they
were formally received by Rev. Father D. J. Hickey, President of the
Summer School, who delivered the following address:
_Your Excellency_: In the name of the trustees and patrons of the
Catholic Summer School of America I welcome you to Cliff Haven.
Through eighteen years of the twenty-one years of existence of this
school we have been honored and inspired by the visits of all the
Presidents of the country from the lamented President McKinley to
the present President Taft. Through these years we have been also
visited by every Governor of the Empire State, and it has been our
happy privilege to extend to them the best reception possible.
While we welcomed the Chief Executives of our country with joy, it
has always been our supreme pleasure to welcome the Governors of
our own state, as our school is under the charge of the State Board
of Regents over which you preside. We have found in their visits an
inspiration and encouragement in our educational work.
Your Excellency, I regret that your visit could not have been
later. This is the first week of our summer session, and instead of
hundreds, thousands would have joined in this reception. The scope
of our work is high and broad. We have the best lecturers we can
secure to bring before us in a learned and sound manner all that
we should know in the domain of History, Literature, Art, Science,
Political Economy and the leading social questions. Last year 3,500
visited the school during its session. Thirty-seven states were
represented among its guests; so you see, the school and its work
are well known and appreciated throughout our land. We combine here
at Cliff Haven, the intellectual and the social in a high degree,
and the intellectual and social are both protected and permeated by
a religious spirit unobtrusive but all-pervading.
Whatever promotes the well-being and uplift of the citizens of
this country, and especially of this great Empire State over which
you preside; whatever goes to make an enlightened and safe people;
whatever promotes, protects and preserves the sound principles of
the founders of our great Republic, must be dear to your Excellency
and deserve your inspiration. This we all feel to-day in your
presence here, in spite of your many laborious and pressing duties.
While I invited you, I feel that your presence to-day is due to the
persuasive eloquence of one of our trustees, Judge John B. Riley,
who is also a member of the Champlain Tercentenary Commission.
In the name of the trustees and patrons of the Catholic Summer
School of America I again welcome you to Cliff Haven. (Applause.)
Appropriate response was made thereto by his Excellency, Gov. John A.
Dix.
The party was then driven to the Plattsburgh Barracks, where the
Fifth Infantry, U. S. A., on dress parade, under command of Col.
Calvin D. Cowles, was reviewed, and the cannon thundered forth
salutes in honor of the Governor and of Count de Peretti de la Rocca,
of the French Embassy at Washington. It was an imposing sight and a
reminder of the brilliant review of the same and other regiments and
the Canadian troops, on the same parade grounds, by President William
H. Taft, Ambassador Jusserand, Ambassador Bryce and Governors Hughes
and Prouty, July 7, 1909.
[Illustration: Parade in Plattsburgh, N. Y., July 6, 1912, escorted
by the Fifth Infantry, U. S. A.
Copyrighted and by the courtesy of the Powers Engraving Co. of New York]
[Illustration: Gov. Dix, Lieut.-Gov. Conway, Col. Cowles, Chairman
Knapp and Commissioner John B. Riley
Copyrighted and by the courtesy of the Powers Engraving Co. of New York]
Thereafter, a tour was made of the city, in which the party was shown
the graves of Captain George Downie and other British officers, who
had fallen in the battle of Plattsburgh. The Commissioners and other
guests were then formally received in the beautiful home of the Hon.
Smith M. Weed, on Cumberland avenue, which is situate near the
Champlain Memorial. Mr. and Mrs. George S. Weed assisted in the
reception of the distinguished guests. The guests were interested in
seeing in Mr. Weed’s library the noted painting of “The Battle of
Lake Champlain,” by Julian Oliver Davidson, a copy of which may be
seen in the original Report of this Commission.
At the close of the reception, the Commissioners and guests were
given a luncheon under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce, at
the Fouquet House, which stands on the site of the old Stage House
occupied by Major-Gen. Benjamin Mooers, of Revolutionary military
fame, who commanded the militia in the land engagement at the Battle
of Plattsburgh. Judge and Commissioner John B. Riley presided and
extended to the Commissioners and to the guests a hearty welcome. At
the conclusion of the luncheon, the Commissioners and their guests
were escorted by a platoon of mounted police, the entire Fifth
Infantry, U. S. A., under command of Col. Cowles and staff, through
the principal streets, whose buildings were beautifully decorated.
Following the fifty automobiles containing the party were the Guard
of Honor of the Society of St. Jean Baptiste, and the Horicon,
Rescue and Lafayette Hose Companies. They proceeded to the site of
the Champlain Memorial statue, where a platform for the speakers
and guests had been erected, decorated with white and blue and the
fleur-de-lis of France. Seats had also been provided for the general
public.
[Illustration: GOVERNOR JOHN A. DIX]
VI. DEDICATORY CEREMONIES OF THE CHAMPLAIN MEMORIAL STATUE AT
PLATTSBURGH, N. Y., JULY 6, 1912
The dedicatory ceremonies, over which Chairman H. Wallace Knapp
presided, were opened with music by the Fifth Infantry, U. S. A.
Band. The Invocation was pronounced by Rev. H. P. LeF. Grabau, Rector
of the Episcopal Church of Plattsburgh.
The Champlain memorial was then unveiled by Miss Katharine M. Booth,
daughter of Judge and Commissioner John H. Booth of Plattsburgh, as
“The Star Spangled Banner” was being played by the band. As the Stars
and Stripes were drawn from the statue and it was revealed to view,
a shout of applause broke forth from the enthusiastic assembly. Then
followed a salute fired by the Fifth Infantry of the U. S. A.
The Commissioners had the memorial draped with the historic flag
owned by Dr. George F. Kunz of New York City, President of the Scenic
and Historic Preservation Society of New York, which had been offered
for the occasion and accepted. That flag had flown from the top of
the Eiffel Tower in Paris on July 4, 1900, when the Lafayette statue
by Paul Bartlett was presented by the school children of America to
the French nation. It was also used at the dedication of Stony Point
Park on the Hudson, and on the funeral train when the remains of
Governor Clinton were transferred from New York to Kingston.
Senator H. Wallace Knapp, Chairman of the New York Lake Champlain
Tercentenary Commission, then delivered the following address:
_Your Excellency, Governor Dix, Ladies and Gentlemen_: We are
assembled on an historical spot that may properly lay claim
to official recognition, for associations connected with the
progress of humanity in the Champlain Valley and this vicinity
are especially to be distinguished for the important events that
are known to have proceeded from the subject that we are here to
recall.
The battles of Valcour and Plattsburgh, and the maintenance here of
a permanent military post, are vitally connected with conditions
attending the passing through the lake of the first white man.