from the inmost recesses of our souls for the blessings bestowed
upon our country and the human race, through the courage and
self-sacrifice of Samuel Champlain. This monument dedicated to his
memory to-day, is a token, primarily, of our gratitude to Thee
for the favors Thou hast granted us through Thy servant. Teach
us all to be like him, intrepid in danger, indomitable in trial,
undismayed in failure and unspoiled in success. May everyone who
has participated in the erection and dedication of this monument
have the grace to direct his own life in the way of happiness and
virtue, and also to be a source of benediction unto generations yet
unborn.
We pray Thee, O Father of Might, Wisdom and Justice, through
Whom alone authority is rightfully administered, laws enacted
and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of Counsel
and Fortitude, the President of these United States, that his
administration may be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he
presides, by the encouragement of virtue and religion, by wise
enforcement of the laws in justice and in mercy, and by repressing
vice and immorality. Let the Light of Thy Divine Wisdom shine upon
the deliberations of Congress, and manifest itself in all the laws
framed for our government, that these regulations may tend to
the preservation of peace, the extension of National prosperity,
the increase of industry, sobriety and useful knowledge, and may
perpetuate amongst us the boon of equal liberty.
We pray also for the Governors of these two states, for the members
of the Legislatures, for all judges and magistrates and other
officials appointed to guard our political welfare. Aid them with
Thy guiding hand, that they may be able to discharge the duties of
their several offices with honesty and ability.
We pray also for all our brethren and fellow-citizens throughout
the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge, and
sanctified in the performance of Thy Holy Will. Preserve us in
unity, and in that peace which the world cannot give. And after
having tasted Thy bounty here below, may we be admitted to the joys
that are eternal.
Part Three
CONCLUSION
I. FEDERAL CO-OPERATION AND ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY SENATORS OF THE
UNITED STATES, REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS AND OTHERS.
This record would be incomplete without reference to the active
co-operation of the Government of the United States in authorizing
formal invitations to be extended through the Department of State to
the Republic of France and the Kingdom of Great Britain including the
Dominion of Canada to be officially represented at the Tercentenary
Celebration and in making ample appropriation for the entertainment
of the foreign guests and of the President, Vice-President and other
officials of the United States; and without formal acknowledgment
in appreciation of the activities and assistance rendered by
Vice-President James S. Sherman, whose grandfather was a navigator of
Lake Champlain, and by the Senators of New York and Vermont and other
states in the Senate of the United States and by the Representatives
from those states in Congress. The New York and Vermont members of
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, namely, Hon. James Breck Perkins,
a writer on French history; Hon. David J. Foster, Hon. Jacob
Sloat Fassett and Hon. Francis Burton Harrison, all forceful and
influential Representatives, assisted by Hon. John J. Fitzgerald,
Hon. Edward B. Vreeland, Hon. George R. Malby, Hon. James S. Sherman,
Hon. Michael E. Driscoll, Hon. John W. Dwight, Hon. William H.
Draper, Hon. George N. Southwick, Hon. William Sulzer, Hon. William
S. Bennet, Hon. Jacob Van Vechten Olcott, Hon. Peter A. Porter, Hon.
De Alva S. Alexander, and other Representatives of New York, and
Hon. Kittredge Haskins of Vermont, were zealous in their support of
the project from its inception. On February 16, 1909, Representative
Foster of Vermont from the Committee on Foreign Affairs reported the
following Joint Resolution favorably to the House, viz.:
Joint resolution (H. J. Res. 257) to authorize the Secretary
of State to invite the Governments of France and Great Britain
to participate in the proposed tercentenary celebration of the
discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain.
WHEREAS, The States of New York and Vermont, by
legislation and appropriation, have authorized the celebration of
the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain
by Samuel de Champlain; and
WHEREAS, The date of the said celebration has been fixed
for the first week in July, 1909; Therefore be it
_Resolved, etc._, That the Secretary of State be, and he is hereby,
authorized and requested to extend to the Governments of France and
Great Britain an invitation to be present at and to participate in
the proposed celebration during the first week of July, 1909, to
commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of
Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain.
When said resolution was reached on the House Calendar on February
17th, Mr. Foster said:
Mr. Speaker, there is very little to be said by the way of
explanation of this resolution. A very full report accompanies it
explaining fully the significance of the proposed celebration.
As indicated in the preamble, both the States of New York and
Vermont have appropriated money for this celebration, which will
occur during the first week of next July. While these two states
have taken the initiative, the occasion will be one of national
significance. We are already assured that the President of the
United States will be present and participate in the exercises.
And the occasion will be one of international importance. For this
reason it is desired that authority be given the State Department
to extend an invitation to the two nations most intimately
associated with the United States in the historic event which this
celebration will commemorate. It was a son of France who discovered
the beautiful body of water that bears his name. Canada, that
loyal dominion of Great Britain, borders upon the lake. It is
peculiarly desirable, therefore, that an invitation be extended to
the Governments of France and Great Britain to participate in the
celebration.
The Joint Resolution after a brief discussion was thereupon
unanimously passed.
The Report of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs was printed in
full in the Congressional Record of March 3, 1909, in the form in
which it was adopted and appears in the Appendix of this Report.
(See Congressional Record 60th Congress, Second Session, pp. 2531,
2582 and 3770.)
Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, Representative James A. Tawney of
Minnesota, Chairman of Committee on Appropriations and other members
of the House from states not in direct touch with the undertaking
gave it their support.
The Joint Resolution was favorably reported through Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge from the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate on
February 24, 1909, and on motion of Senator Chauncey M. Depew it was
passed. (See Congressional Record 60th Congress, Second Session, p.
2987.)
Senator Thomas C. Platt of New York and Senators William P.
Dillingham and Carroll S. Page of Vermont also gave this and other
matters pertaining to the celebration such consideration as was
necessary to ensure Federal co-operation. The Joint Resolution was
approved by President Roosevelt on March 2, 1909. (See Congressional
Record 60th Congress Second Session, p. 3666.)
In this connection it will be remembered that Senator Redfield
Proctor of Vermont and the Honorable Elihu Root, while Secretary of
State had presented the matter at a late day in a prior session of
Congress and had in a measure prepared the way for favorable action
in 1909. Senator Proctor took deep interest in the project, but
to the great regret of his many friends he did not live to see it
carried to completion. His death occurred in Washington, D. C., March
4, 1908.
His son, the Honorable Fletcher D. Proctor, while Governor of Vermont
in 1906, had approved the original Concurrent Resolution, introduced
in the House of Representatives of Vermont in November of that year
by Hon. Robert W. McCuen of Vergennes, providing for the appointment
of a Commission to confer with several Commissions to be appointed
in New York and in Canada to arrange for a celebration of the Three
Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of Lake Champlain.
From that time on Senator Redfield Proctor and Governor Fletcher D.
Proctor of Vermont gave the matter their official and strong personal
support as long as they lived.
Congressmen George R. Malby and David J. Foster were untiring in
their efforts to insure Federal co-operation, as was Honorable Elihu
Root, both as Secretary of State and as United States Senator, whose
masterly address at Plattsburgh on July 7, 1909, is a contribution to
the history of the Iroquois Confederacy.
The untimely deaths of Governor Fletcher D. Proctor, of Congressmen
David J. Foster and George R. Malby before the Champlain memorials
were dedicated and the work of the Commissions completed, to whose
success they had all materially contributed, were deeply deplored.
The loss of Professor Walter E. Howard of the Vermont Commission and
of Assemblyman Alonson T. Dominy of New York Commission, both of
whom were desirous of co-operation in the work of their respective
Commissions, was keenly felt by their colleagues.
Senators John Raines and Thomas F. Grady of New York, who were
majority and minority leaders of the Senate when the project was
given legislative sanction, did not live to see the Champlain
memorials constructed. Senator Patrick H. McCarren of Brooklyn, who
assisted in interesting the Representatives in Congress from the City
of New York in the celebration, did not live to participate in it
himself.
All these friends of the project in its initial and later stages will
be remembered for their interest in this historical commemorative
celebration, the results of which have been felt in both hemispheres
in strengthening the amicable relations existing between the three
great nations participating in the international festivities. Its
scope in a measure was outlined in the presentation of the matter
to the Legislative Committees, making the original and second
appropriation, over which Senators William W. Armstrong and Jotham P.
Allds in the Senate and Hon. Edwin A. Merritt, Jr., in the Assembly,
presided.
II. BRIEF REVIEW OF THE WORK OF THE COMMISSION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IN APPRECIATION OF THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF
FOREIGN NATIONS, MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS AND OTHERS.
An outline of the work of the Commission was embodied in the
recommendations adopted at the conclusion of the investigation and
deliberation of the Preliminary Commission, found at pages 21 to
40 of the First Report of this Commission. Some modifications in
the original plan were found necessary as the preparation for the
celebration took definite form, but in the main there was substantial
adherence to the original recommendations of the Preliminary
Commission as may be seen from an examination of the Tercentenary
Exercises and the transactions of the Commission hereinbefore given
in some detail which involved, in addition to the celebration,
the construction of two memorials to Samuel Champlain in the
Champlain valley. One of these was a joint memorial constructed by
the Vermont and New York Commissions in co-operation from funds
jointly contributed by the two Commissions. That is the Champlain
memorial at Crown Point Forts. Without the friendly assistance and
co-operation of the Vermont Tercentenary Commission in planning and
in sharing the expense involved in the construction of the Crown
Point memorial, it is not likely that two memorials would have been
built. This Commission takes this occasion to make permanent record
of the fact that the members of the Vermont Commission were quite as
desirous of erecting a fitting memorial to Samuel Champlain as were
the members of the New York Commission, notwithstanding the fact that
it was apparent to them that the joint memorial was likely to be
located within the confines of the State of New York, rather than in
Vermont. Undoubtedly the character of the memorial in the form of a
lighthouse and its location on a point projecting far into the waters
of the lake where it may be seen quite as readily by the citizens
of Vermont as by those of New York, had something to do in bringing
about unanimity of sentiment in the action of the two Commissions in
deciding to erect a joint memorial.
It is hoped that this memorial will stand for all time as a monument
to the wisdom of the two Commissions in thus performing a public
duty in the spirit of fairness to the people of both states and in
grateful appreciation of the character and services to humanity of
Samuel Champlain. It met with the hearty approval of the French
delegation, who placed on it the Rodin bust, a work of art, selected
by M. Hanotaux and others and purchased with funds contributed by His
Excellency, Clément Armand Fallières, President of the Republic of
France, M. Raymond Poincaré, President of the Council and Minister
of Foreign Affairs, recently elected President of the Republic of
France and many others, as the seal of the Republic of France. They
spoke in commendation of its artistic proportions and of its unique
symbolism of the diffusion of the light of civilization through the
valley by Champlain and his followers, who sought to inculcate in the
“untutored minds” of the savages in the region the humane principles
and benign precepts of the Christian religion.
The Champlain Memorial Statue at Plattsburgh was erected by the
New York Commission out of the funds appropriated solely by the
Legislature of New York. It occupies a commanding position at the
outlet of the Saranac river overlooking the lake. The bronze statue
of Champlain, the crouching Indian at its base and the granite
approach together constitute an unique memorial, artistic in outline
and worthy the discoverer of the lake, which bears his name. This
will stand comparison with any memorial of the kind in the country.
The Commission submits these two memorials to the considerate
judgment of the people of the State in the confidence that they will
meet with general approval.
The Commission has thus constructed two suitable permanent memorials
to Samuel Champlain in the valley as it was authorized to do by
Chapter 181 of the Laws of 1911. In this as in other matters the
Commission has endeavored to carry out the spirit as well as the
letter of the acts under which it performed its labors.
In addition to the building of the Champlain memorials, the
Celebration with its varied literary, military and naval features was
carried to a successful conclusion by the Lake Champlain Tercentenary
Commissions of New York and Vermont with the co-operation of the
Government of the United States and the attendance of the official
representatives of France, Great Britain and Canada. The Dominion
of Canada sent over the Governor-General’s Foot-Guards under Lieut.
Colonel D. R. Street with twenty-two officers and three hundred and
eleven enlisted men and also the Fifth Royal Canadian Highlanders
under Lt. Colonel George S. Cantlie with twenty-eight officers and
four hundred and thirty-eight men.
The participation of the Canadian troops in their brilliant uniforms
in the Plattsburgh and Burlington parades on July 7 and 8, 1909,
gave color to the marching columns and elicited the commendation of
President Taft as well as of the French and British Ambassadors. It
was a graceful compliment on the part of the Canadian Government
to the people of the United States and gratefully appreciated by
members of the Commission and others interested in the success of the
celebration, to which this contributed not a little.
The presence of the French Ambassador, His Excellency, J. J.
Jusserand, the British Ambassador, the Right Honorable James Bryce,
the Postmaster-General of the Dominion of Canada, the Honorable
Rodolphe Lemieux, the Premier of the Province of Quebec, Sir Lomer
Gouin, the Lieut.-Governor of the Province of Quebec, Sir Adolphe
Pelletier, the Vice-Admiral of the Japanese Navy, Baron Stakichi Uriu
and others officially representing their respective Governments, gave
it international significance, and the history of Lake Champlain in
this and other ways has become a matter of interest to the people of
other lands.
The participation of these distinguished representatives of France,
Great Britain, Canada and Japan in the Tercentenary Exercises added
dignity and stateliness to the public and social functions of the
celebration, which was widely commended through the press of this and
other countries and has since become known as one of the principal
commemorative celebrations of the century.
The discriminating and brilliant addresses of the French Ambassador,
well known as the author of “The Literary History of The English
People” and of many other works, as well as for his celebrity as
a great diplomat, were keenly appreciated and will be read by all
interested in the tragic events occurring in the Champlain valley
during the period of its French occupancy. His touching tribute
to Marquis de Montcalm, his graceful expressions of the warmth of
the friendship existing between the people of France and those of
America and his profound appreciation of the generous impulses of
the people of New York and Vermont in projecting and carrying to
a successful conclusion this commemorative celebration, in which
Samuel Champlain was the central figure, will long be remembered.
His long residence at Washington as the Ambassador Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of France, his deep
interest in American institutions and in American history, and his
wide and favorable acquaintance with the people of this country
have ingratiated him in their affections, until they have become
accustomed to look upon the distinguished French Ambassador as a
member of the official circle of the nation.
The profound and illuminating addresses of the Rt. Hon. James Bryce,
the British Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary,
delivered by him at Ticonderoga, Plattsburgh and Burlington, were
full of that ripe scholarship found in all his public papers and in
such works as his “Holy Roman Empire,” “The American Commonwealth,”
“Studies in History and Jurisprudence” and in his other treatises.
They were overflowing with good will toward the people of this
country who consider Ambassador Bryce as a staunch friend of American
institutions, as evidenced in “The American Commonwealth” and in all
his public addresses.
Rarely, if ever, have there been accredited to this country by
foreign nations two Ambassadors at the same time possessing such rare
literary and diplomatic qualities as Ambassadors Jusserand and Bryce,
each of whom achieved distinction and has been honored in his own
country.
The able and instructive addresses of Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux,
Postmaster-General of Canada and Sir Lomer Gouin, Premier of the
Province of Quebec, at Plattsburgh and Burlington were replete with
historical suggestions touching the Champlain, St. Lawrence River
and Great Lake regions and conveyed to the people south of the
international boundary the good will of the people of Canada and
their gratitude at the efforts being put forth to commemorate the
life, the character and achievements of Samuel Champlain, who founded
Quebec, the oldest city in the Dominion. There breathed through
these the spirit of good will and genuine appreciation for what was
being done in this celebration. The Canadian visitors created a most
favorable impression and on their departure left many warm friends
behind.
By a fortunate coincidence, Vice-Admiral of the Japanese Navy, Baron
Stakichi Uriu, was visiting this country during the period of the
Tercentenary Celebration and was one of the invited guests of the New
York Commission. He spoke briefly at Ticonderoga and since his return
to Japan has conveyed to the Commission his appreciation of the honor
conferred upon him in being permitted to witness the Tercentenary
Celebration and at receiving the official Report containing a record
of it.
The addresses of these representatives of Foreign Governments
were entertaining and valuable contributions to the Tercentenary
Exercises, giving them an international character exponential of
events to be commemorated in tracing the history of the discovery
of the lake and the subsequent control of the territory by three
successful sovereign nations.
The Commission takes this occasion to acknowledge its obligations in
this respect to the distinguished visitors and Foreign Governments,
which they severally represented, for their assistance and
co-operation in giving the Tercentenary Celebration its international
character and some of its most charming features.
We cannot close this report without again expressing our grateful
appreciation to the people of France for their thoughtfulness and
generosity in sending to this country a work of art by one of their
most distinguished sculptors, to embellish the Memorial Lighthouse
erected by the States of New York and Vermont to commemorate the life
of Samuel Champlain. It was a delicate and beautiful expression of
appreciation on the part of the leaders of thought and culture in our
sister Republic across the sea to present a bust of such symbolism
as “La France” as the seal of their approval of our efforts in this
regard.
As far as we have been able to do so, we have preserved in this
report the addresses of M. Hanotaux and others, as well as some
of their reports on their return to Paris, embodying their views
and expressing their feelings toward the people of this nation,
which throw new light on the sympathetic character and generous
impulses of the French people. The coming of a delegation of so many
distinguished Frenchmen was a great compliment to the people of this
nation. This in itself was a testimonial of good will, appreciated
fully as keenly as the work of art. The people of the Champlain
valley and elsewhere will not be likely to forget the fact that in
addition to the distinguished line of great Frenchmen from Champlain
to Ambassador Jusserand, who have visited the Champlain valley,
there came to that valley in the month of May, 1912, a delegation of
the most distinguished Frenchmen representing industry, commerce,
science, literature and art, as well as civil and military affairs,
jurisprudence, statesmanship and diplomacy, that ever visited this
country. They came to place the seal of France upon the Crown Point
Memorial Lighthouse to Samuel Champlain, and to convey to the people
of this country the appreciation of the French Nation for what was
being done to commemorate the life and character of one of their
countrymen. The names of this delegation have already appeared, but
let record be herein made of the fact that Fernand Cormon, member of
the Institute and President of the Academy of Fine Arts, was one of
the delegation that brought the Rodin allegorical bust from France
and directed its location on the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse.
The President of the United States, William Howard Taft, Governor
Charles E. Hughes, Governor George H. Prouty, Secretary of War Jacob
M. Dickinson, Senator Elihu Root, Congressmen George R. Malby, David
J. Foster, Frank Plumley and the other speakers, the poets and the
clergymen who participated in the Celebration as well as Governor
John A. Dix of New York and Governor John A. Mead of Vermont and
other speakers and clergymen, who took part in the dedication of
the two Champlain memorials, not only put the members of the two
Champlain Commissions, but the people of the Champlain valley under
obligations to them for their contributions to the excellence and
high quality of the literary exercises.