Chapter VIII: Appendix: I. Report of House Committee on Foreign Affairs 221 (5)

All that remained on this occasion for the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissioners to do was to turn over formally to the properly constituted authorities the Champlain memorials, which had been constructed pursuant to law at Crown Point Forts and at Plattsburgh. The exercises, therefore, were planned with that end in view. They were dignified and stately, but did not extend beyond the formal presentation and acceptances of the memorials as will appear from the record that follows. The President, Vice-President, United States Senators, Foreign Ambassadors and some other specially invited guests were unable to attend on account of the prolonged second session of the Sixty-second Congress, or absence from the country, at the time of the dedicatory ceremonies, to the regret of the members of the Commissions and the people of the Champlain valley. The participation of these officials of the United States, France and Great Britain in the Tercentenary exercises had added national as well as international stateliness to that commemorative celebration, still fresh in the memory of all who chanced to witness it. The unavoidable absence of these distinguished guests was in a measure compensated for, however, in the presence of their representatives, who contributed much to the success of the dedicatory ceremonies. All arrangements were carried forward for the dedication of the Crown Point memorial by Commissioners Witherbee, Knapp, Pell, Lafontaine and Shea with all the forethought and care that had characterized their painstaking efforts from the first. Commissioner Hill, and President John M. Thomas of the Vermont Commission planned the programme and secured the speakers. Commissioners Booth, Riley, Weaver and Knapp were no less vigilant in preparing for the dedicatory ceremonies of the Plattsburgh Champlain Memorial. In this they were materially assisted by the mayor of the city, the Chamber of Commerce and the people of Plattsburgh as well as by Colonel Calvin D. Cowles of the Fifth U. S. Infantry, stationed at Plattsburgh Barracks. The people of Plattsburgh purchased and improved the site for the Champlain memorial, decorated the streets for the dedicatory exercises, provided automobiles for the visitors to make a tour of the city and aided the Tercentenary Commissioners in other ways in carrying to a successful conclusion the dedicatory ceremonies.

The attendance at both the Crown Point and the Plattsburgh exercises was thoroughly representative of the people of the Champlain valley, though not as large as at the Tercentenary exercises. The steamer “_Ticonderoga_” was chartered by the New York Tercentenary Commission and brought the invited guests from Plattsburgh, Burlington and Port Henry. After the exercises at Crown Point Forts, the “_Ticonderoga_” took the guests back to their several destinations and the members of the Tercentenary Commissions to Bluff Point, where they registered at the new Hotel Champlain.

The military features of the dedicatory ceremonies are given in the following report of the Military Committee:

The military features of the ceremonies attending the dedication of the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse at Crown Point, N. Y., July 5, 1912, and the unveiling of the Statue of Champlain at Plattsburgh, N. Y., July 6, 1912, were on a much smaller scale than those of the celebration of 1909, but the presence of the United States and State troops added greatly to the dignity of the ceremonies at both places. When the chartered steamboat “_Ticonderoga_” left the dock at Port Henry at 11:30 A. M., July 5th, Governor John A. Dix and the following members of his staff were on board:

Brigadier-General William Verbeck, The Adjutant-General, S. N. Y.

Lieutenant-Commander Eckford Craven de Kay, Military Secretary to
the Governor.

Commander Russell Raynor, First Battalion, N. M.

Commander Edward H. Snyder, 47th Infantry, N. G., N. Y.

Captain Walter S. Gibson, 74th Infantry, N. G., N. Y.

Captain Charles Curie, First Cavalry, N. G., N. Y.

First Lieutenant Griswold Green, Aide, Third Brigade, N. G., N. Y.

First Lieutenant Harry S. Underwood, Aide, Third Brigade, N. G., N. Y.

Major-General John F. O’Ryan, N. G., N. Y., came up on the special car from New York and was the guest of the Commission until evening, when he was obliged to return to review the Sixty-ninth Regiment, N. G., N. Y.

Governor John A. Mead of Vermont was unable to be present but was represented by:

Lee S. Tillotson, The Adjutant-General, representing the Governor.

Colonel D. L. Morgan, Aide-de-Camp.

Major H. R. Kingsley, Military Secretary.

First Lieutenant John B. Barnes, U. S. Infantry,
Inspector-Instructor, Organized Militia of Vermont.

Company “M,” 1st Infantry, N. G., Vt., Captain J. M. Ashley commanding, and forty enlisted men came down from Burlington on the steamboat.

The 9th Separate Company of Whitehall, or Company “I,” 2d Infantry, N. G., N. Y., went into camp at the Lake House, Crown Point Village, on July 4th, and proceeded on a ferryboat early in the morning of the 5th to the Crown Point Forts. Captain R. G. Hays was in command with First Lieutenant J. J. Kelly, Second Lieutenant Dewey A. Forbush, and fifty enlisted men.

CROWN POINT FORTS

On the arrival of the “_Ticonderoga_” at the wharf at the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse, Crown Point, N. Y., Captain Hays’ Company was drawn up in line to receive the guests. Captain Ashley’s Company marched off the boat preceded by the Port Henry Band. Governor Dix, the Tercentennial Commissioners and the invited guests followed and the line of march was formed under escort of the two companies. Company “I” being on the right. The column then proceeded to the English forts, where the bronze memorial tablet presented to the State by the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York was unveiled by Miss Evelyn Witherbee. The two companies were drawn up to the right and left of the tablet which was guarded by a sergeant from Company “I.” At the conclusion of the brief ceremonies, the column returned to the wharf, where the invited guests boarded the steamboat for luncheon while the troops bivouacked on the shore. At 1:30 P. M. the companies were drawn up in line near the Lighthouse, Company “I” being on the New York side of the Government Reservation, and Company “M” on the side toward Vermont. At the conclusion of the ceremonies Company “I” returned to their camp, on the ferryboat, and Company “M” boarded the “_Ticonderoga_” to be landed at Burlington.

PLATTSBURGH

At 10 A. M., July 6th, Governor Dix, the Tercentenary Commissioners and the invited guests were present at a review of the Fifth Infantry, U. S. A., at Plattsburgh Barracks, ordered in their honor by Colonel Calvin D. Cowles, Commanding Officer of the Post. As Governor Dix approached the reviewing stand, the regulation salute of seventeen guns was fired. At 1:30 P. M. the regiment escorted the party from the hotel through the streets of Plattsburgh to the new Champlain Park, where line was formed and the proper salutes given. At the conclusion of the ceremonies of the unveiling of the Champlain Monument, the regiment returned to its quarters. The names of the officers and number of enlisted men, including the band, participating in the ceremonies are as follows:

Colonel Calvin D. Cowles, Fifth Infantry; Major William F. Martin,
Fifth Infantry; Major Armand I. Lasseigne, Fifth Infantry;
Major Peter C. Harris, Fifth Infantry; Chaplain Horace A.
Chouinard, Fifth Infantry; Captain Edward Sigerfoos, Adjutant,
Fifth Infantry; Captain William D. Davis, Quarter-Master, Fifth
Infantry; Captain Girard Sturtevant, Fifth Infantry; Captain
Robert Field, Commissary, Fifth Infantry; Captain Robert E. Frith,
Fifth Infantry; Captain Clement A. Trott, Fifth Infantry; Captain
Ralph McCoy, Fifth Infantry; Captain Howard C. Price, Fifth
Infantry; First Lieutenant Leonard J. Mygatt, Fifth Infantry;
First Lieutenant Auswell E. Deitsch, Fifth Infantry; First
Lieutenant Sydney H. Hopson, Fifth Infantry; First Lieutenant
Will D. Wills, Fifth Infantry; First Lieutenant Daniel A. Nolan,
Battalion Adjutant, Fifth Infantry; First Lieutenant James E.
McDonald, Fifth Infantry; First Lieutenant Deshler Whiting, Fifth
Infantry; First Lieutenant Walton Goodwin, Jr., Fifth Infantry;
First Lieutenant Thomas L. Crystal, Battalion Adjutant, Fifth
Infantry; Second Lieutenant Charles F. White, Fifth Infantry;
Second Lieutenant Alfred H. Erck, Fifth Infantry; Second Lieutenant
Oliver A. Dickinson, Fifth Infantry; Second Lieutenant John M.
McDowell, Fifth Infantry; Second Lieutenant Thompson Lawrence,
Fifth Infantry; Second Lieutenant Sumner Waite, Fifth Infantry—714
enlisted men.

HOWLAND PELL,
_Chairman_.

II. UNVEILING TABLET AT THE ENGLISH FORT.

Upon reaching Crown Point Forts, a tablet was unveiled on the walls of the old Barracks at the English fort, built by General Amherst and occasionally called “Fort Amherst,” by members of the Society of Colonial Wars, which was witnessed by the Champlain Commissioners and the large assemblage of people. The following report of the Tablet Committee is of historical interest:

REPORT OF THE TABLET COMMITTEE

To the members of the Society of Colonial Wars, in the State of New York, your committee beg to report that the tablet has been designed, cast and erected on the walls of the old Barracks at Fort Amherst in the State Reservation at Crown Point, New York.

The design was drawn and the details of modeling were carried out under the supervision of Mr. Walter B. Chambers, of the committee. The sculptor who made the Tablet was Mr. Herman Wurth.

The tablet was unveiled with appropriate ceremony on Friday, July 5, 1912, on the occasion of the dedication of the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse, erected by the states of New York and Vermont, at Crown Point, N. Y.

The members of the Society were guests of the Tercentenary Commissions on the steamboat “_Ticonderoga_,” leaving Port Henry, New York. At 11:30 A. M. on the day mentioned, and on landing at Crown Point, a procession was formed and led by the Port Henry Band, and an escort of Company “I,” 2d Regiment, N. G., N. Y., and Company “M,” N. G., Vt., Governor Dix and staff, Adjutant-General Tillotson and staff, representing Governor John A. Mead, of Vermont.

Major-General John F. O’Ryan, N. G., N. Y., Count and Countess de Peretti de la Rocca, and Mr. Maugras, representing the French Embassy.

Members of the New York and Vermont Champlain Tercentenary Commission, Colonel William Cary Sanger, Governor of our Society, Frederick B. Richards, Dr. Reynolds Webb Wilcox, George G. Reynolds, Stephen H. P. Pell, and other members of the Society, and about one hundred invited guests marched from the wharf to the English Fort built under Amherst, where the tablet was handsomely decorated with American flags guarded by a soldier of the 2d Regiment.

Hon. Howland Pell, your chairman, called the meeting to order, and stated that the committee had finished its task, and asked Miss Evelyn Witherbee to unveil the tablet. As this was done the band played the National air, the troops came to attention, and the audience of several thousand applauded. Its inscription showed that the tablet was erected by the Society of Colonial Wars in commemoration of the erection of the Fortress by Amherst and capture of Fort St. Frédéric.

The chairman then introduced Col. William Cary Sanger, who in a few well chosen words presented the tablet to the State of New York. Governor Dix then made a brief address, accepting the Tablet and placed it in the custody of the New York Historical Association in charge of the Reservation. Mr. James A. Holden, Treasurer, and Mr. Frederick B. Richards, Secretary, of the Association, accepted the charge and made short addresses. Judge Pyrke, of Port Henry, chairman of the local committee, promised to see that the tablet would be well cared for. The tablet bears the following inscription:

1759 1912.

THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY THE SOCIETY OF COLONIAL WARS IN THE STATE
OF NEW-YORK A. D. 1912 TO COMMEMORATE THE CAPTURE OF FORT ST.
FRÉDÉRIC AND THE ERECTION OF THIS FORTRESS A. D. 1759 BY THE BRITISH
AND PROVINCIAL ARMY COMMANDED BY GENERAL SIR JEFFREY AMHERST

BRITISH REGIMENTS

1st or the Royal Regiment of Foot
17th Regiment of Foot “Forbé’s”
27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot
42d Royal Highlanders—Black Watch
55th Regiment of Foot, “Prideaux’s”
77th Regiment Montgomery’s Highlanders
80th (Light Armed)—Regiment of
Foot “Gage’s”
Royal Artillery
Detachment of Sailors

PROVINCIAL REGIMENTS

Col. Lyman’s—Connecticut
Col. Whiting’s—Connecticut
Col. Worcester’s—Connecticut
Col. Fitch’s—Connecticut
Col. Willard’s—Massachusetts
Col. Ruggle’s—Massachusetts
Col. Lovell’s—New Hampshire
Col. Schuyler’s—New Jersey
Col. Babcock’s—Rhode Island Rangers and Indians.

The tablet is of the finest bronze, 30 by 24 inches in size, and represents a soldier of the Black Watch, and a provincial soldier holding a scroll of inscription. General Sir Jeffrey Amherst’s head is in the upper center, and the insignia of the Society in the lower, the background shows the English forts, and a list of the English and American regiments in the campaign is given.

HOWLAND PELL,
_Chairman_.

ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE OF TABLET BY JAMES AUSTIN HOLDEN, STATE HISTORIAN AND TREASURER, NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

The tablet was formally accepted for the New York State Historical
Association by State Historian James A. Holden of Glens Falls, who
is ex-officio a member of the committee in charge of the Crown
Point Reservation, as well as Treasurer of the New York State
Historical Association. He spoke briefly as follows:

_Your Excellency_, _Tercentenary Commissioners_, _Representatives
of New York and of Vermont_, _of France_, _of Patriotic and
Historical Societies_, _Ladies and Gentlemen_: It is with great
pleasure that I accept on behalf of the New York Historical
Association, the official custodians of the Crown Point
Reservation, this beautiful and distinctive tablet which has just
been presented by the Society of Colonial Wars to the State of New
York, through you, its Governor.

It is especially gratifying to the Association to receive it
from your hands, for it is to you, and your broad and patriotic
conception of the duties of the chief executive of the State,
that our hearty thanks are due for the generous and welcome local
appropriations which you lately have approved, making so largely
for the preservation, the maintenance and popularity of the
reservation.

On this torrid July day whose sun’s rays reflected from these
crumbling walls are full as deadly as any of the bullets which
blazed forth at them in days of old, my words of acceptance must be
brief indeed.

This expressive addition, then, to these historic walls, whose
story is rife with actions of emprise and derring-do, around which
still hover the historic spirits of the olden wars, connected with
which are the inspiring deeds of the knightly souls of Montcalm and
Amherst, of Warner and Burgoyne, yes, even of Arnold the patriot,
not yet the traitor, full of the memories of the now shadowy hosts
of white coated Bourbons, the red attired British, and the buff and
blue covered Revolutionists, we accept and assure your Excellency
that it shall be our earnest endeavor to prove worthy in every way
of the confidence reposed in us in making this Association the
State’s representative for this reservation.

On behalf of the Association I now turn over to the Secretary of
the Association the formal care of the tablet, thanking once more
your Excellency and all who have been concerned in the presentation
of this memorial, for giving to the Association this further
opportunity to prove its historical usefulness, and to justify its
being, and for providing this occasion to exemplify practically the
purposes for which it was founded.

Frederick B. Richards, Secretary of the New York State Historical Association, at the unveiling of the tablet at Crown Point Forts, N. Y., July 5, 1912, said:

I supplement State Historian Holden because I feel that it will
take at least two to make up for the absence of our esteemed
President, Ex-Comptroller Roberts, who was to have represented the
New York State Historical Association this morning.

We feel deeply honored that the State has designated our
Association as custodians of this reservation. We are still further
honored by being entrusted with this beautiful tablet, erected by
the Society of Colonial Wars, which, linking as it does the past
with the present, adds to the interest of these old ruins.

I will not detain you longer this morning except to call your
attention to one feature of the tablet in which I am particularly
interested. You will notice that the list of the regiments is
supported on the left by a Highlander, a private of the Royal
Highlanders as they were known in this campaign, otherwise called
the 42d, “Old Forty-Twa,” or the Black Watch.

The Black Watch, the oldest Highland regiment in the British Army
and one of the regiments under Amherst who helped to build this
old fort, was selected for this place of honor because of its
unparalleled gallantry in the assault on Fort Ticonderoga under
General Abercromby the year before, in which engagement it lost
646, killed and wounded, out of a total strength of a thousand men
who went into action, or a mortality of twice that of the Light
Brigade at Balaklava, immortalized by Tennyson.

III. DEDICATORY CEREMONIES OF CHAMPLAIN MEMORIAL LIGHTHOUSE AT CROWN POINT FORTS JULY 5, 1912

At the appointed hour for the dedicatory ceremonies at Crown Point Forts on July 5, 1912, a large multitude had assembled from the Champlain valley and from the two states to witness the exercises.

Seated on the temporary platform in front of the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse were: Colonel William Cary Sanger, representing the President of the United States, Count de Peretti de la Rocca, representing the French Ambassador, Governor John A. Dix of New York, Adjutant-General Lee S. Tillotson, representing the Governor of Vermont, and Commissioners H. Wallace Knapp, Chairman; Henry W. Hill, Secretary; Walter C. Witherbee, Treasurer; Senator James A. Foley, Judge John B. Riley, Judge John H. Booth, James Shea, Louis C. Lafontaine, Howland Pell and William R. Weaver of the New York Tercentenary Commission; and Lynn M. Hays, Secretary; Judge Frank L. Fish, Treasurer; President John M. Thomas, Walter H. Crockett, George T. Jarvis, William J. Van Patten, Arthur F. Stone and F. O. Beaupre of the Vermont Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, and the speakers, invited guests and others.

The memorial as already stated was not complete in that the bronze statuary group was represented by the models, as the bronze work had not been put in position. That did not detract, however, from the artistic features of the memorial, which were much admired by the assembled multitude. The platform and memorial were artistically decorated with the flags of the United States.

The programme at the dedicatory ceremonies was the following:

Hon. H. Wallace Knapp, Chairman of the New York Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, presided:

The exercises were opened with appropriate music by the Sherman Military Band of Burlington, Vermont. The following Invocation was then pronounced by Rev. Lewis Francis, D.D., of New York City.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we invoke Thy blessing as we
are gathered here to dedicate a monument which has been erected in
commemoration of the discoveries and achievements of one whose name
is borne by the beautiful lake on whose shores we are assembled.

We thank Thee for his heroism and his faith, for his loyalty to
his beloved country and his devotion to God. We thank Thee for his
desire not only to plant the standard of France upon the land which
he had discovered, but also to uplift the cross upon it. We thank
Thee for the friendship which has existed for many years between
the two countries which are represented here to-day. May this
monument, erected by our country in memory of one of the heroes of
France, be a fresh token of this friendship.

Let Thy blessing rest upon the two States which have united in
making this dedication possible. May this monument by its stability
remind us of those strong and enduring qualities of character which
should mark us as nations and individuals. May the light which
shall shine forth from its summit be a symbol of the light of
knowledge and of truth which as States and Nations we should seek
to give the world, which may be both a guide and a warning; and may
it bring Him to our thought, who is the Light of the world, that
walking in His Light we may be guided aright through every peril of
our lives.

May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost rest upon the States and Nations here represented, and upon
all of us who have assembled here to celebrate this glad event.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Then followed the formal unveiling of the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse by Miss Louise G. Witherbee, daughter of Commissioner Walter C. Witherbee, as the patriotic strains of the Star Spangled Banner were being played by the Port Henry Band. As the memorial was exposed to full view, its symmetry and beauty provoked the applause of the admiring spectators, who thus saw the fulfillment of their long cherished hopes, that there be erected in the Valley a stately memorial to Samuel Champlain. Chairman Knapp, in speaking for the New York Tercentenary Commission, thereupon formally presented the memorial to the Governor of New York. In doing so he spoke as follows:

In obedience to the authorization of the Federal Government, the
Commissions of the States of Vermont and New York have erected on
the lands of the United States of America, adjacent to the Crown
Point Reservation, the specified memorial of the discovery of the
Champlain valley, and are now acting in the discharge of their
final duties, with the sincere feeling of gratification that a task
so honorable has been brought to so happy an ending.

Our duty has been to do, rather than to speak, and yet it may not
be wholly out of place to give expression to the general thought,
that the light of peace and safety, that is to glow from this
monument through an unreckoned future, replaces the fitful fire of
early war.

The shores that the discoverer scanned with painful daring are no
longer dark and solitary. He is no longer alone. The temptation to
review the events of his arrival here are strong, but time forbids,
and to do so in detail must be left to the official record. Nor
need we in the discharge of our official functions attempt to
portray the full significance of the deed we now commemorate. We
must wait till the voice of history speaks, with the judgment of
warriors and statesmen, with the inspiration of poetry and the
reverence of enlightened piety.

There seem to be moments in the life of every man, when he pauses
in his career to recall the past and seeks to peer into the future,
and so it is appointed for us to do to-day. While the daily rush of
the outer world passes us by unheedingly in appearance, it is yet
not truly so. From the day of the first visit of the white man, the
eyes of the enlightened world have been upon the Champlain valley
and the attentive good will of all well-wishers of their kind who
are with us now.

It can hardly be said that the present occasion marks the ending
of an old epoch or the beginning of a new one. Peace has reigned
within our borders for a hundred years. It marks rather the
recognition of a century of peace as a harbinger of still more
harmonious conditions for all times between the peoples whose
fathers struggled here for mastery. It marks the welcoming of
a new order of things in which the old problems have met their
just solution and in which the ancient grudge is lost in charity.
Standing here beside this monument to the past, and beacon of the
future, we know that:

God fulfills Himself in many ways,

The old order changeth indeed when Vermont and New York live only
in service to the common good and together place above their
monument the emblem of their common country. It has long been so,
but it was not always so. It is well, perhaps, to remember the
passing altercations, since they serve now only to demonstrate how
closely and firmly they have drawn together. Surely this water will
run clear and sweet between them and the light from the tower above
all fall upon fraternal shores. Vermont has done her duty, and her
duty has been a labor of love. With such a spirit sitting by our
hearthstone, the future of the valley is secure.

In behalf of the Tercentenary Commission of the State of New York,
I thank the members of the Tercentenary Commission of the State
of Vermont and all their associates, for the efficiency of their
co-operation in the labors that are now drawing to a close.

Gentlemen of the Executive Departments of the States of Vermont
and New York, our task is done; the monument before us is at your
disposal. In the name of the New York Commission I want to thank
you and your predecessors in office for the aid you have given us,
and the effective support we have received from you, in the days of
our perplexity and discouragement. If any shortcomings of ours are
to be remembered, kindly bear in mind that it was our heads and not
our hearts that went astray.

That these meetings of officials and citizens of the countries that
are represented here will be repeated, and that the spirit of peace
and good will will continue for all times is our sincere desire.

Gentlemen, in pursuance of the authority vested in the New
York—Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, we now transfer to
your charge the Crown Point Memorial Lighthouse.

President John M. Thomas, D.D., of Middlebury College, representing the Vermont Tercentenary Commission, spoke as follows:

_Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen_: In behalf of the freemen
of Vermont, and representing the Lake Champlain Tercentenary
Commission of Vermont, I have the honor to transfer to the
representative of his Excellency, Governor John A. Mead, this
memorial of the discoverer of Lake Champlain and of the territory
now comprising the State of Vermont. This commemorative light-tower
is erected on a site made American soil forever by the valor of
our Green Mountain sires. It is our will that it shall stand as a
reminder to succeeding generations of the honor in which the men of
the generation of the three hundredth anniversary of his discovery
held the intrepid navigator, the scholarly explorer, and the
Christian pioneer, Samuel Champlain.

Gov. John A. Dix of New York, in accepting the memorial and transferring it to the United States, said:

_Fellow-Citizens of America, and Brethren of the World, Ladies and
Gentlemen_:

This memorial to that great son of France, whose life and service
we recall in gratitude and honor to-day, is peculiarly appropriate
and expressive.

Its foundation is grounded upon a rock, its aspect is magnificent,
its position commanding, and its work is for the lighting of the
way of humanity. How well it typifies the character and the deeds
of Champlain! He had the firmness and the constancy of the rock in
his character, the beauty of the superstructure in his life, and
the persistency of the never-failing light in the operations of his
mind and heart for the service of his country and mankind.

The contrasts between his times and ours, the marvelous changes
that have almost entirely transformed man’s environment within the
past three hundred years, make it difficult if not impossible for
us to-day properly to appreciate the soul-controlling purposes of
Champlain, or estimate the sacrifices he endured in the outworking
of those purposes.

Contemplation of Champlain, dreamer, discoverer and hero, is,
however, for us a stimulant to imagination and to ambition.

To praise him because of the results that followed through the
work of other men and later times, is as illogical as to disparage
his character and work by taking the viewpoint of the present
without giving due consideration, so far as people of our time can
understand them, to the conditions and ideals of his age and the
obstacles that he had to overcome in all he achieved.

His journey hither may have been for conquest and not discovery.
Upholders of this opinion cite the fact that Champlain had with
him and used the first explosive death-dealing weapons seen by the
Indians, and that wars between the tribes followed.

Yet Indian wars were known before. Was not war the truest
expression of the savage nature? Was not the Long House of the
Iroquois the greatest war machine of the time? When in America
was exploration free from combat, and what was land discovery but
conquest?

Let us receive from Samuel Champlain the inspiration of high
aims and purpose and unselfish service to our fellow-men. Let us
dedicate ourselves to the work so nobly begun by his indomitable
will and fortitude in blazing the way for the American spirit of
courage and enterprise that so greatly enriched and developed this
northern country.

For me it is sufficient to know that Samuel Champlain was the first
white man here, and that the knowledge he gained was the first
information that civilization had regarding this wondrous place.
Moreover, I know that he was the same man whose mind conceived, as
early as the year 1600, the utility and the plan of a ship canal
across the Isthmus of Panama.

Facing almost insuperable difficulties at home and braving unknown
obstacles and dangers in the fabled New World, he made not only
one or two, but, all told, nine voyages across the Atlantic from
his beloved France, exploring our coasts and penetrating into the
wilderness of our savage-ridden shores.

Everywhere he went, he planted the cross of his inherited faith and
the ideals of a Christian world.

Faith in God and in one’s self, achievement for our nation and our
race, and the power of imagination in dissolving all difficulties
in the path of progress, are the lessons that his life teaches.

To an American who treasures the traditions of his country and who
reveres the one nation of Europe that to the struggling patriots
of the Revolution gave the recognition and aid that won the day
and established our independence, what keener pleasure can come
than on an occasion like this to welcome with heart and hand
the representatives of the great French nation? It was our own
Jefferson who truly said: “Tout homme a deux patries—la sienne et
puis la France.”

It is indeed a high honor to join hands with the representative of
the State of Vermont to bequeath to the Federal government for safe
keeping and constant care this noble memorial, with the hope that
its never-failing light may guide the wayfarer and the voyager on
the path of safety.

To you, Colonel Sanger, this monument is now given. (Applause.)

In the absence of Gov. John A. Mead of Vermont, who was detained at home by slight illness, Adjt.-Gen. Lee S. Tillotson received the memorial on behalf of the Governor of Vermont and in turn presented it to the United States in the following address:

_Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen_: I think
it should be made plain that I am not the Governor of Vermont,
otherwise my appearance as to clothing might lead some to think
that the Governor had exercised his constitutional prerogative and
with the consent of the Senate had assumed personal command of the
military forces of the State and had come over here to dispute
New York’s right to have this memorial located on New York soil.
If this were true, it would not be the first time that the “Green
Mountain Boys” had invaded this shore of Lake Champlain. However,
no such hostile action is intended or necessary or possible, for
conditions have changed. This memorial has been erected and located
by the joint action of the Commissions of both States: New York and
Vermont are now a part of the same nation, both subject to the same
national government in whose custody this memorial is about to be
placed, and from the United States of America neither New York nor
Vermont will ever seek to take anything by force of arms.

During the past few days, since I knew that I might be called upon
to speak for the Governor on this occasion, I have been endeavoring
to keep up with my everyday work, follow the events connected with
the two great national political conventions which have been held,
and several other local political meetings, and at the same time to
accumulate in my mind the history of the past three hundred years.
This effort has resulted in a state of mind which culminated last
night in a dream in which it appeared to me that at the point in
these ceremonies when Vermont’s share in this memorial was about
to be surrendered into the keeping of the representative of the
United States, there suddenly appeared on the scene one of the most
strenuous of the recently defeated national political candidates
and demanded that the Champlain Memorial be turned over to him as
the only safe and rightful custodian thereof.

I would be remiss in my duty on this occasion if I did not express
to these Commissioners Vermont’s appreciation of their efforts
in carrying forward so successfully this memorable celebration
which is here completed in the dedication of this beautiful,
substantial and useful memorial. It is to be exceedingly regretted
that Governor Mead could not have been present in person at this
ceremony to speak for our State. In his absence, gentlemen of the
Vermont Commission, the Governor directs me to accept this memorial
on behalf of the State of Vermont, and to assure you that your
task has been well performed and that your work merits, and will
undoubtedly receive, the approval of the people of Vermont.

There is one thought which I would like to express to you on this
occasion. We are all more or less influenced by the achievements
of the past, and through the energy and the daring of such men as
Champlain, there probably does not now remain on the earth any such
unexplored wildernesses as was this valley when Champlain first saw
it; even the poles have been discovered and located. It remains for
us of the present and the future to make the best possible use of
the advantages which we have thus gained. Let us not sacrifice the
beauties of this Champlain Valley to the greed of commercialism.
Let it be our effort, rather, to preserve and conserve it in all
the magnificence of its natural resources, so that it will remain a
haven of peace and rest to which the tired workers of the world may
come for recreation and gain thereby renewed energy and ambition
for future explorations into the still undiscovered realms of noble
art, helpful literature, useful science and honest business.

And now, by direction of the Governor of Vermont and in his name,
our custody in this Champlain Memorial is transmitted to the
representative of the government of the United States of America,
to which, by this act, we again acknowledge our allegiance and
pledge our support to the utmost extent of our resources. But while
this memorial is thus placed in the hands of the whole people of
these United States, I would remind you that the waters over which
its light will shine will continue to separate, yet unite the
shores of New York and Vermont, to one of which you must always
come if you wish to see Champlain in all its beauty, and to both
of which, and especially to Vermont, you will always be welcome.
(Applause.)

President William H. Taft was unable to be present and commissioned the Hon. William Cary Sanger of Sangerfield, former Assistant Secretary of War of the United States, to receive the memorial on the part of the United States and, in doing so, he spoke as follows:

These interesting ceremonies illustrate one of the great
principles which the founders of our country and the framers of
our Constitution so wisely made a fundamental part of our national
life. To each State is left the care and supervision of those
matters which directly and exclusively concern the citizens of the
State, and thus individuality and initiative in the development
of local spirit and character, are stimulated and encouraged, but
those matters which properly concern the people as a whole are
cared for by the representatives of the people in one department or
another of the National Government. The lighthouses are not only
for the use of those who live in their immediate vicinity, but they
protect the interests and they encourage the activities of all the
people, and consequently they have been placed under the control
and care of the National Government.

It was my pleasure on one occasion to hear President Eliot of
Harvard University deliver an address on the subject, “Democracy
and Beauty.” At first the title seemed strange, but before
President Eliot had finished it was apparent to everyone who
heard him that it is a privilege, as well as a duty, for those
who constitute a democracy to see to it that what is beautiful in
nature, in art, and in architecture, should, so far as possible, be
brought within such easy reach of the people that the pleasure and
benefit which come from beauty may be theirs. This lighthouse marks
a step forward in a most important direction. It is true that our
public buildings and our private residences and our parks have been
growing more and more beautiful under the careful work of those who
are responsible for them, but this is the first instance in which
an attempt has been made to make a lighthouse a thing of beauty.
For this, those responsible for its construction and the architect
and the sculptor are entitled to our most grateful appreciation.
The lighthouse will be none the less useful to the mariner and will
be vastly more valuable to the community because architect and
sculptor have united to make it so attractive and interesting that
it is a pleasure to look at it.

This light will not only guide those who voyage on these waters,
but we can see in it and in all those other lights which mark
our coasts and the harbors of our inland seas a symbol of what
our national life should be, not only for our people but for the
entire world. The lighthouse guides to the desired haven; it
warns against shoals; in the dark and in the storm it enables the
mariner to find his way in safety past the perils which threaten
him. There is storm on land as well as on sea; there are in our
national life perplexities and dangers; amid the turmoil of our
political, business and social activities there is the right course
which leads to the well-being of our people, and there are rocks
of error and wrong which threaten with peril or destruction those
who do not avoid them. May these lighthouses serve their useful and
beneficent purpose, and may the light of liberty and truth burn so
brightly that our country, through stress and storm, may see its
way clear to such a course of national life as will bring to us the
full rewards and blessings of a national life well lived and wisely
directed.

It is indeed a disappointment to us all, as well as to the
President himself, that he has not been able to be present to-day.
He has honored me by asking me to represent him, and on his behalf
I accept for the Government of the United States this light, and
assure you that it will ever burn to serve the splendid purpose for
which you have created it. (Applause.)

Chairman Knapp then presented Count de Peretti de la Rocca, Chargé d’Affaires de France, who, in the absence of the French Ambassador, represented the Republic of France, and spoke as follows:

I shall not speak to you about Champlain; you know more about him
than I. Everything around here reminds you of him. And so many
speakers more eloquent, members of the French Academy, Ambassadors,
Senators, Governors of States, have told you of his spirit of
enterprise, his courage, his energy, his force of character, his
uprightness of heart. What could I add to their discourses?

But I shall tell you how delighted I am to represent here the
French Ambassador. My pleasure is as great as his would have been
to be present. Mr. Jusserand told me many times how happy he
was to commemorate on similar occasions the beginnings of this
country, because the name of France is associated so often with
these celebrations by which you Americans show, with such admirable
perseverance, your remembrance of the past.

To-day you celebrate the memory of a brave French pioneer who,
foreseeing the future, discovered and opened up a beautiful
country to the knowledge of mankind and to civilization. Some years
ago you raised monuments to the leaders who came with the military
power of France to fight for the freedom of your country.

On another occasion, for your gratitude is considerate, you did
honor to the memory of the French private soldiers and sailors who
fell in the War of Independence and whose names were forgotten.
But they shed their blood on this soil where liberty sprang forth,
your country, and you wished that a beautiful monument at Annapolis
should recall to posterity the memory of those modest heroes.

All these commemorations find an echo on the other side of the
ocean, in the sister Republic. They make up other links added to
the long chain of friendship which binds our two countries. They
induce Frenchmen to cross the sea, like Champlain, impelled by
the curiosity of new things, and they discover America. At first
they are astonished; they did not expect to see what they see in
this country, where three centuries before only explorers dared to
venture. And they return to France, like the delegates who came
here recently on behalf of the France-Amérique Committee, impressed
not only with the future of the United States but with their
present, with their unheard of development which surprises our old
customs, and they bring back from this young and already great
country a store of new ideas.

As Americans who know Paris like to return there, Frenchmen who
once come to the United States wish to come back again; for we have
much to learn the one from the other. Let us, therefore, see each
other as much as possible: the more we shall know each other, the
better we shall like each other. History encourages us to do so;
our mutual interests recommend us to do likewise. Thank God, if
so many Americans are the worthy descendants of the heroes of the
Revolutionary War, there are yet in France many men of the type of
Champlain, with the same energy, the same eagerness for knowledge,
the same uprightness. These are characteristics of the race in that
old France, always young, of which one of our best artists has
portrayed the features in bronze so that you may see them there,
in the midst of you, under the shadow of the memorial to a great
Frenchman, who, like all Frenchmen coming over here, loved America.
(Applause.)

The Chairman then introduced the orator of the day, the Hon. Robert Roberts, LL. D., Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, who delivered the following scholarly address:

_Governor Dix, Members of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary
Commissions, Ladies and Gentlemen_: This memorial having been
presented and received with due ceremony, it would seem that the
purpose for which we are assembled had been accomplished and
that a motion to adjourn would be in order. But a programme, like a
table of contents, is a tyrannous thing, and if a place therein is
marked for an address it must be filled.

Copyrighted and by the courtesy of the Powers Engraving Co. of New York]

I suppose this to be the last but one of the events connected with
the Champlain Tercentenary. During the celebration, in 1909, as
appears from the admirable and voluminous Report of the Commission,
the dramatic history of this lake and its borderlands has been
unfolded and illustrated in full detail by antiquarians, men of
letters, orators, statesmen, poets, and prelates. Among the many
representative speakers from official life were the President of
the United States, the Ambassador from England, the Ambassador from
France, certain high officials from the Dominion of Canada, the
Governor of New York, a United States Senator from New York, the
Governor of Vermont, and the Congressmen from that State. It may,
therefore, be assumed, and the fact is, that those of us who speak
to-day may not be harvesters but only gleaners in this fruitful
field of local history and there is little left to garner for your
store.

But shall we leave this stern and rock-bound structure to stand
cold and stark and chained to a thankless service in shedding
abroad its light for the warning and comfort of men without some
simple rite of baptism? Shall we abandon this sweetly serious
embodiment of French womanhood to face, unveiled, the tempest,
the heat of summer and the frost of winter without a word of
benediction and without some act of homage which is her due and
which she is wont to receive from the gallant men of her own blood?
It is true, she is well able to face undaunted the buffeting of
hostile circumstance. Such has been her fate for centuries. In
coarse apparel she has tilled the fields and kept her house, and
by the proceeds of her thrift has ransomed a nation. She has seen
visions, and under the inspiration of heavenly voices, and clad
in mail, she has led armies and raised the siege of a city. She
has fought behind barricades, and with heroic dignity has bared
her fair throat to the guillotine. With gaiety unquenched, she has
starved through the investment of her beloved Paris. Through sore
privation she has won a name in art, in science, and in letters.
She embodies the just combination of qualities which make for
fineness, elasticity, strength, health and long life. So, with
hands upon our hearts—to La Belle France, salutation and blessing!
May she, joined together with her strong protectors, the great
explorer, his man-at-arms and his Indian guide, long remain to
figure forth the beautiful in art in this setting of the beautiful
in nature.

The historical incidents which I may touch upon are such as
occurred in the neighborhood of Crown Point and Ticonderoga and the
fortresses which guarded the southern gateway of the lake.

It is generally agreed that Champlain and his allies fought their
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.