The Champlain tercentenary

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

I. REPORT OF HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Sixtieth Congress, Second Session. House of Representatives. Report No. 2169

Tercentenary Celebration of Discovery of Lake Champlain

February 15, 1909—Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. Foster, of Vermont, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted the following report.

[To accompany H. J. Res. 257.]

The committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred House joint resolution 257, submit the following report [taken from the joint memorial presented to Congress by the New York and Vermont Tercentenary Commissions in January 1909.]

In the month of November, 1906, a joint resolution for the appointment of a commission for the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain was adopted by the senate and house of representatives of the State of Vermont, containing the recital that—

Whereas, The discovery of Lake Champlain was an event in history fully as important as many others that have been recognized by various states as well as by the National Government; and

Whereas, The three hundredth anniversary of such discovery will occur on July 4, 1909, it is hereby

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That this event should be observed in a fitting manner and bring about an observance commensurate with its importance, there is hereby provided a commission consisting of the governor, who shall be chairman ex-officio, and six other members to be appointed by the governor before January 1, 1907, one of whom shall act as secretary. Said commission is hereby empowered to adopt such measures as in its judgment may be reasonable or necessary to bring about the fitting observance of such event. And as the interests of the State of New York and of the Dominion of Canada are allied with those of Vermont in such observance, it is hereby recommended that said commission confer with the proper authorities of New York and Canada to ascertain what action they or either of them will take with Vermont in making the observance of this event successful and a credit to all, and that the commission report the result of such efforts, together with its recommendations, to the general assembly of 1908—

which resolution was approved by Governor Fletcher D. Proctor on November 15, 1906; and thereafter Governor Proctor appointed as members of such commission Walter E. Howard, of Middlebury; Horace W. Bailey, of Newbury; R. W. McCuen, of Vergennes; Lynn M. Hays, of Essex Junction; Walter H. Crockett, of St. Albans; M. D. McMahon, of Burlington; and thereafter, on April 15, 1907, on motion of Senator Henry W. Hill, of Buffalo, the senate of the State of New York adopted the following resolution, which was concurred in by the assembly on April 16, 1907:

Whereas the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain on July 4, 1609, antedates the discovery by the whites of any other portion of the territory now comprising the State of New York, and was an event worthy of commemoration in the annals of the State and nation; and

Whereas the State of Vermont in 1906 appointed a commission, consisting of the governor of that State and six other commissioners, to confer with commissioners to be appointed on the part of New York and the Dominion of Canada, to ascertain what action, if any, ought to be taken by such States and the Dominion of Canada for the observance of such tercentenary: Therefore

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That a commission consisting of the governor, who shall be chairman ex-officio, two citizens to be designated by him, the lieutenant-governor, the speaker of the assembly, two senators to be designated by the lieutenant-governor, and two members of the assembly to be designated by the speaker, be appointed to represent the State of New York at such conference, with power to enter into negotiations with the commissioners representing the State of Vermont and those representing the Dominion of Canada for the observance of such tercentenary, and that such commission report the results of their negotiations, together with the recommendations thereon, to the legislature of 1908.

The New York commission appointed under the foregoing resolution consisted of Governor Charles E. Hughes, Lieutenant-Governor Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, Senators Henry W. Hill, John C. R. Taylor, and Assemblyman James W. Wadsworth, jr., speaker of the assembly, Alonson T. Dominy, James A. Foley, and Frank S. Witherbee and John H. Booth.

That commission, together with the Vermont commission, during the summer of 1907 made a tour of Lake Champlain, held several joint and separate meetings, and the New York commission formulated its report and transmitted it to the New York legislature of 1908, a copy of which is annexed hereto, in the conclusion of which report they recommend as follows:

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF 1909.

Your commission respectfully submit the foregoing report to the consideration of the legislature of New York. The anniversary which we desire shall be suitably observed has great significance. Important as it is to the student of history, it makes a wider and stronger appeal to that large body of our citizens whose forefathers fought in the wars of the Champlain region or were among the pioneers who transformed it from the wilderness.

But chief of all the considerations which we urge upon your attention is the international character of the proposed celebration. The history of the Champlain Valley belongs to the history of three great nations, whose cordial relations we believe will be promoted by the suitable observance of this significant date.

RECOMMENDATION.

To that end your commission, after careful investigation, reaches the conclusion that the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain should be suitably celebrated by New York State; and to that end we respectfully recommend the enactment of the following bill.

Thereafter a bill was prepared and submitted to the legislature, which was amended in some respects, and subsequently enacted and became chapter 149 of the New York Laws of 1908, providing in substance for a celebration of the tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain in the month of July, 1609, which celebration, by the terms of the bill, is to occur in the month of July, 1909, at various points in the Champlain valley.

The commission appointed thereunder consisted of H. Wallace Knapp, Mooers, N. Y., chairman; Henry W. Hill, of Buffalo, secretary; Walter C. Witherbee, Port Henry, treasurer; James J. Frawley, New York City; James Shea, Lake Placid; James A. Foley, New York City; John H. Booth, Plattsburgh; John B. Riley, Plattsburgh; Louis C. Lafontaine, Champlain; Howland Pell, New York City.

This commission was empowered under the last-mentioned statute to enter into negotiations and co-operate with the State of Vermont, the Government of the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and the Province of Quebec, and either or all of them in such tercentenary celebration, and appropriated by chapter 466 of the New York Laws of 1908 the sum of $50,000 for that purpose.

The Vermont commission made its report to the legislature of Vermont, held in the fall of 1908, also recommending, among other things, that a proper celebration be held in conjunction with the State of New York, the Government of the United States, and the Dominion of Canada, a copy of which report is annexed hereto. Subsequently the State of Vermont made an appropriation of $25,000 to enable that State to participate in the tercentenary celebration.

The commission appointed thereunder consisted of Governor George H. Prouty, chairman; Lynn M. Hays, of Burlington, secretary; Walter H. Crockett, of St. Albans; Rev. John M. Thomas, of Middlebury; Horace W. Bailey, of Rutland; W. J. Van Patten, of Burlington; Frank L. Fish, of Vergennes; Arthur L. Stone, of St. Johnsbury; and F. O. Beaupre, of Burlington.

The facts warranting federal appropriation are briefly set forth in the report of the New York and Vermont commissions, and in amplification thereof the following additional facts are respectfully submitted to the consideration of the President and the Congress of the United States:

Long before its discovery by Samuel Champlain, in July, 1609, Lake Champlain was the resort and battle ground of the savage Algonquin, Huron, and Iroquois nations who peopled its islands and circumjacent beautifully shaded and picturesque shores. It was a paradise for the aborigines, whose native customs and adventurous but precarious life were a startling revelation to such an explorer as Champlain, coming as he did from the refinements of French life of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Still he was hospitably received and escorted to and through the lake, then known as “Caniaderiguarunte,” which signifies the “gate of the country.” The lake was also known as “Mer des Iroquois,” and traversed by the warring Indian tribes, whose canoes formed picturesque flotillas in those early days on the blue waters of the lake.

Had Champlain been gifted with the poetic imagination of a Homer or a Virgil, he might have cast into an epic the story of his explorations and discoveries, which were quite as thrilling as those of the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid. Other poets have dwelt upon the beauties of this lake and have sung of the tragic events that have occurred on its waters.

The Champlain valley is one of the historic portions of the American Continent. Its Indian occupation was succeeded by that of the French, and in turn by the English. From its discovery in July, 1609, to the battle of Plattsburgh, in September, 1814, Lake Champlain was the thoroughfare of many expeditions and the scene of many sanguinary engagements. Noted French, British, and American officers visited it and stopped at its forts, from Ste. Anne on the north, founded at Isle La Motte in 1665, to St. Frédéric, founded in honor of the French secretary of foreign affairs, Frédéric Maurepas, by Marquis de Beauharnois, governor-general of Canada, at Crown Point in 1731, and Fort Carillon, founded at Ticonderoga in 1766, on the south.

The grants of some of its islands and adjacent shore lands under French seignories were the subject of a long controversy between the French and British Governments, challenging on the one side the consideration of such officials as Marquis de Beauharnois and others under Louis XV and Louis XVI, and on the other side such statesmen as Lord Dartmouth, Edmund Burke, and Sir Henry Moore under the British Crown. But few, if any, occupations were made under French seignorial grants, and the controversy finally ended after the Seven Years’ French and Indian war, which terminated with the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by the British in 1759, and the later sovereign control by the Americans during the Revolution.

The Champlain valley was the scene of important military and one naval engagement during the Revolutionary war, and permission has been obtained from the War Department to raise from the waters of Lake Champlain the Royal Savage at Valcour Island, the flagship of Benedict Arnold during that engagement. The history of Ticonderoga and Macdonough’s victory at the battle of Plattsburgh, in September 1814, are of such national importance as to merit federal consideration during the forthcoming celebration of the discovery of the lake.

For two hundred years or longer the Champlain valley was the highway between Albany on the south and Quebec on the north, through which surged the tides of war and travel, until every prominent point and important island in the lake was marked by some notable event worthy of historic mention. The proposed celebration of the discovery of the lake will commemorate some of these important events. Sewall S. Cutting, D. D., in a poem read at the University of Vermont in 1877 thus describes some of these events. He says:

I shift my theme, nor yet shall wander far;

My song shall linger where my memories are.

Dear Lake Champlain! Thou hast historic fame—

The world accords it in thy very name.

Not English speech these savage wilds first heard,

Not English prows that first these waters stirred;

Primeval forests cast their shadows dark

On dusky forms in craft of fragile bark,

When first the paleface from the distant sea

Brought hither conquering cross and fleur-de-lis.

On frowning headlands rose the forts of France—

Around them villages, and song, and dance.

Four generations came and passed away.

Of treacherous peace and sanguinary fray.

When hostile armies hostile flags unfurled.

To wage the destiny of half the world.

No part of the United States can vie in comparison with Lake Champlain and its environs for historic importance and the ultimate significance of the national and international events occurring in that valley. “Every bay and island of the lake and nearly every foot of its shore have been the scene of some warlike movement—the midnight foray of the predatory savage, the bloody scout of frontier settlers, the rendezvous of armed bands, or the conflict of contending armies.” These stirring events cover a period of centuries—from the traditional history of the Indians to the close of the war of 1812.

From the earliest periods of settlement in Canada, New England, and New York the valley of Lake Champlain, both as watercourse or highway, served as a thoroughfare by which, in hostile times, predatory excursions were directed against both the French and English frontiers, and over which captives were conveyed into unenviable captivity. This was the route traversed by delegations engaged in diplomatic relations between the French and English colonists, and was used by agents employed to arrange an exchange of captives. The valley was a highway of commerce, particularly in the operations of the fur trade. Its Indian name, meaning “door of the country,” was an apt designation, for into it there marched the flower of contending armies of France, England, and the United States, who struggled persistently for its control. The destinies of the United States and Canada and of England’s colonial policy were largely decided by what occurred in the Champlain valley.

An unjust historical perspective is often created by placing too high value upon the significance of figures. Large armies do not always count for as much in their influence upon the course of the world’s history as events more hidden from view and surrounded with less of glamour. The one more easily bewitches the eyes, but the other is more likely to appeal to reason. The history of the Champlain valley exhibits in relief momentous martial and naval engagements and in intaglio the deeds of individuals and collections of men pregnant with far-reaching results in the evolution of the continent of North America.

Samuel Champlain laid the foundations of New France at Quebec in 1608, and in 1609 led an expedition into the Richelieu River, accompanied by a retinue of Algonquian and other Canadian Indians. At the falls of Chambly he abandoned the vessel in which he had sailed, and by portaging and canoeing reached the entrance of a great lake, which he named Lake Champlain. Its confines constituted one of the hunting grounds of the well-organized Iroquoian Confederacy. The Iroquois were then at great enmity with the Algonquians and the Canadian Hurons.

On the night of July 29, 1609, Champlain fell in with one of the hunting parties of the Iroquois. They spent the night in parleying and uttering defiance at one another, and on the morning of July 30 the now well-known battle of Champlain took place at or near the site of Ticonderoga, as is generally believed by the best historians. The significance of this battle is attested by the alienation of the Iroquois from the French and their affiliation with the Dutch and English, and was one of the embryonic factors which, under development, ultimately saved northern New York and a large contiguous territory to English instead of French interests.

France claimed the region by right of discovery, but England sought to repress her by the limitations of treaty. In 1731 France violated the compact of peace by the erection of Fort St. Frédéric on the peninsula known better as Crown Point. The Iroquois, as claimants of territorial ownership, in June, 1737, protested against the French occupation. In 1739 the French commandant promised the Iroquois that France would not encroach or settle south of Fort St. Frédéric, but he claimed for his King all the watershed of the St. Lawrence, inclusive of Lake Champlain and Lake George. In 1742 the fort, having been enlarged, was the strongest work held by the French in Canada—Quebec and Louisburg only excepted. The five years’ war, familiarly known as King George’s war, involved the subjects of France and England in conflict, both in Europe and in America. A nominal peace was established by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. But soon the Acadian and other boundary contentions between the two Crowns were in ferment.

France practiced subtlety in her diplomatic negotiations, strengthened her frontier posts, and inoculated her Indian allies with hatred of her English colonial neighbors. In 1755 she built Fort Carillon, afterwards Ticonderoga, and thus advanced her outposts. Henceforth, and in a seven years’ war, Fort Carillon and Ticonderoga bore the brunt of frontier aggrandizement. In August of that year Dieskau occupied Crown Point with 700 regulars, 1,600 Canadians, and 700 Indians. In 1756, 2,000 men of France were engaged on Fort Carillon; in 1757 it was garrisoned with 9,000 men under the Marquis de Montcalm. On July 8, 1758, Abercromby, with regulars and provincials, unsuccessfully stormed its works and lost nearly 2,000 men. In the same year Robert Rogers, the intrepid ranger, lost 125 out of a total of 180 men. Upon the evacuation of the region by the French in 1759 General Amherst took possession of Ticonderoga in July, and of Crown Point in August. In 1760 Amherst assembled an army of 15,000 men at Crown Point, and in August of that year Colonel Haviland, with about 3,300 men, opened fire upon the French post at Isle aux Noix, forced the French commander, Bourlamaque, to withdraw, and captured the garrison that remained behind.

For a time after the treaty of Paris, in 1763, the region rested in comparative quiescence. England’s acquisition by treaty of the vast domain of Canada eradicated the long-standing imbroglios with France in North America; but the intercolonial wars had schooled the English-American colonists in the arts of prowess and of war. The colonists also had greater freedom to consider internal interests, being now relieved from the erstwhile collisions with the French. A narrow colonial policy lent itself toward the growth of a spirit of resentment in the colonies, and England’s determination to enforce obedience to her will by the employment of military authority served only to fan the slumbering embers into a conflagration. It was under these conditions in May, 1775, that the audacious Ethan Allen, accompanied by only about 83 men, surprised the English garrison at Fort Ticonderoga and that Seth Warner took Crown Point, in each case without bloodshed. When De la Place, the English officer at Ticonderoga, asked Allen by what authority he demanded the fort’s surrender, he replied with these now memorable words: “By the authority of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.” The personality of Allen was and is yet a subject of academic controversy, but his action in this affair is a landmark in the romantic history of America.

Benedict Arnold has been execrated for his treason to his country, yet his name is connected with one of the greatest of patriotic services during the American Revolution. On October 11, 1776, he engaged in an extraordinary naval battle on Lake Champlain against the overwhelming odds of the British fleet under Sir Guy Carleton. This battle is in our naval annals of the Revolution what Bunker Hill is to our military history—“a battle wherein glory and renown were gained in defeat.” Spears, the naval historian, has characterized it thus: “Not only was the moral effect of this battle quite as great in the courage it gave the Americans, and the pause for thought it gave the enemy; it served to head off a victorious invading British army bound for Albany and the subjugation of northern New York. It taught the British that the Americans were not only willing, but they were able fighters. In spite of the tremendous odds against them, at the last they had proved themselves as unyielding as the rocks that echoed back the roar of the conflict.”

Burgoyne made an unsuccessful attack upon the American occupants of Fort Ticonderoga in June, 1777, but with 7,000 men had forced the abandonment of Crown Point in that month; and in July, having erected a battery on Mount Defiance, which commanded Fort Ticonderoga, forced the Americans to evacuate it on the night of the 6th. The termination of the American Revolution, save for internal controversies between New York and Vermont, ended the storm and stress period in the Champlain valley for many years, until our second war with Great Britain.

From September 6 to 11, 1814, various land engagements took place about Plattsburgh. The British forces, numbering about 11,500 troops and including many of Lord Wellington’s veterans, were under Sir George Prevost, governor and commander-in-chief in British North America; the Americans, commanded by Macomb and Bissell, numbered 4,500 men. On September 11, 1814, the American navy on the lake, commanded by Thomas Macdonough, defeated the British squadron under the command of Commodore George Downie. This naval battle was crucial in bringing the war of 1812 to a termination. The success was acclaimed by the American people everywhere by rejoicing, bonfires, and illuminations, and was sung in the folk and war ballads of the day. Congress recognized its national significance by officially thanking the whole force engaged, and by voting gold medals to Macdonough, Henley, and Cassin, and a silver medal to each of the other commissioned officers. In this victory the United States gained prestige for the demands of the treaty of peace, and an estoppel was put upon England’s endeavor to get possession of the northeast corner of the State of Maine.

If the lake itself was the door of the whole northern country, Larrabee’s Point, on the Vermont side, opposite Fort Ticonderoga, was a side door to New England, and from that side door the New England frontiers suffered repeatedly the havoc of Indian devastations. But there are other places, besides those hitherto mentioned, whose historic associations are inseparable from a narration of the landmarks of the Champlain valley. At Burlington, Vt., the first steamboat on the lake was launched in 1808 and bore the name of that state. This was only a year after Fulton’s steamer, the Clermont, first plied the Hudson from New York to Albany. Shortly thereafter, during the period of our second war with Great Britain, Burlington was a garrisoned post and a base of supplies.

On the Isle La Motte (named from Pierre de St. Paul, sieur de la Motte-Lusière, a captain of the famous Carignan regiment), the French built a fort in 1666, which was named Ste. Anne, and in July of that year, while garrisoned by several companies of the regiment above alluded to, was invested by hostile Mohawks, whose depredations included the death of Captains de Traversy and de Chazy. In October, 1666, M. de Tracy, governor-general of New France, guided and assembled an expedition on the Isle La Motte for the purpose of chastising the Iroquois. Twelve hundred combatants, borne by a fleet of 300 bateaux and canoes, and strengthened by two pieces of artillery, were engaged. They penetrated to the remotest hamlets of these Indians and planted the arms of France, in token of taking formal possession of the whole northern part of New York. The French remained undisturbed from the Mohawks for nearly a quarter of a century. Fort Ste. Anne became a Jesuit mission station and was visited by Bishop Laval in 1668. In August, 1690, Capt. John Schuyler camped there during his return from a foray into Canada. Gens. Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery met on the island in September, 1775, during their advance against St. John’s and Montreal, and laid there the plans for that invasion of Canada. Now the shrine of Ste. Anne, on the west side of the island, is visited annually by thousands of devout pilgrims.

Maj. Robert Rogers and 142 men came into Missisquoi Bay in the autumn of 1760, secreted their boats and some provisions, and went off on an expedition against the St. Francis Indians, near the village of Three Rivers, which they burned. Earlier in that year this same intrepid ranger had landed at the place called Rouse’s Point, near which he was attacked by a superior body of French from the Isle aux Noix. The French were defeated and their commander was slain.

Swanton, in Vermont, at an early period formed a considerable settlement of the French and Indians, being then “probably the largest in the Champlain valley with the exception of Crown Point.” At the mouth of Otter Creek, the largest river in Vermont, where Fort Cassin was built, the American squadron was fitted out in 1814 for battle against the English navy. This fort was named for Lieutenant Cassin of our navy, who, with Captain Thornton of the United States Artillery, in May, 1814, had defended the American fleet then building there from attempted destruction by the British.

A little to the north of Rouse’s Point are the ruins of Fort Montgomery, built by error in what was then Canadian soil, and often called on that account “Fort Blunder,” but corrected by international boundary concessions. Rouse’s Point is a place of commercial interest and the most important port of entry on this frontier. Near by is Point au Fer, fortified in 1776 by the patriot General Sullivan, but occupied by the British in June of the next year and relinquished by them only as late as 1788. At Valcour Island, off Bluff Point and Hotel Champlain, the scene of Arnold’s naval battle of 1776, the wreck of the Royal Savage lies under water to this day as a reminder of the beginnings of our national naval adventures. At the head of the lake to the south, near the present Whitehall, Maj. Israel Putnam, in August, 1758, was engaged in watching the enemy’s maneuvers, and had a fierce encounter in the forest with French and Indians. He was captured, tied to a tree by the Indians, who made preparations to roast him alive. Only the stern interposition of the French officer, Marin, prevented them from dispatching him thus cruelly and robbing the patriot cause of one of its bravest leaders during the American Revolution.

The New York and Champlain commissions have concluded contracts with Mr. L. O. Armstrong, of Montreal, to present Indian pageants on Lake Champlain during the tercentenary celebration. These will be presented by 150 native Indians, descendants of the original tribes that occupied portions of the Champlain valley at the time of its discovery by Champlain. They will reproduce the battle of Samuel Champlain with the Iroquois and also present a dramatic version of Longfellow’s Hiawatha on floating barges anchored on the waters of the lake at various places where exercises are to be held.

It is desirable that the United States detail national troops and the States of New York and Vermont regiments from the National Guard to present military pageants at Ticonderoga, Plattsburgh, and Burlington. The two commissions have decided to hold formal exercises on July 5, 1909, at Crown Point, on July 6 at Fort Ticonderoga, on July 7 at Plattsburgh, on July 8 at Burlington, and on July 9 at Isle La Motte, at each of which places Indian pageants will be presented.

The proposed celebration of the discovery of Lake Champlain may also include a celebration of such colonial, national, and international events occurring since the discovery of the lake as to make it eminently proper that the Government of the United States officially participate in the exercises commemorating these historical events. Historical addresses and other literary exercises are to be held, and it is important that the United States Government invite and entertain representatives of the Republic of France, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Dominion of Canada. The celebration is of national and international importance, and the committee recommends that the resolution do pass.