Chapter X: 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