The Champlain tercentenary

by New York . Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission; Henry Wayland Hill

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.