The Champlain tercentenary

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

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.

Champlain Memorial Lighthouse, July 5, 1912

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 speaking at Crown Point Memorial, July 5, 1912

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.

Col. William Carey Sanger speaking at Crown Point Memorial, July 5, 1912

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.

Ticonderoga witnessed the first lowering of His Majesty’s colors in the War for Independence. Allen says of this occasion: “The sun seemed to rise that morning with a superior lustre and Ticonderoga and all its defenders smiled on its conquerors who tossed about the flowing bowl and wished success to Congress and the liberty and freedom of America.”

Shortly after, Seth Warner and his men captured the small garrison here at Crown Point together with 200 pieces of cannon.

In the struggle for supremacy of the Lake Champlain district men fought not only for the glory of France and her religion, the glory of England and the spread of her institutions, the independence of the Colonies and the abrogation of unjust taxes, but also, and chiefly, as settlers, for the protection of their homes and the validity of their land titles. They struggled, nevertheless, blindly, as all men do, and were the instruments of forces and the larger design of which they could have no vision. Notwithstanding her courage, superior leadership and organization, France was defeated because, as has been said, “a new nation had arrived too great in numbers, in extent of territory, in strength of independent, individual character to be overwhelmed.”

A nation may be the loser in the game of war, but a great race can hardly be subjugated or rubbed out. Quebec was taken, but the Province of Quebec is French, and New England, through immigration, is slowly becoming New France. Scotland and Ireland were conquered long ago, but the Scotch and Irish are conspicuously present with us to-day. It has been easy for the western Powers to blow up the forts of China and gain concessions, and the Chinese smile, seemingly acquiesce, and kotow, but in all things essential to themselves they yield nothing but go their own way. A few Chinese boys trained in American colleges have exerted a greater influence upon China than all the gunpowder ever manufactured could do.

It would seem that there are forces visibly at work that make for peace, and this in spite of the bloody history of man and the huge armaments which may mean the fear of war rather than the love of it. Possibly it was from a willingness or even a desire to move in harmony with such forces that Great Britain, France, the Dominion of Canada and the United States of America found that without effort or affectation they could find in the Champlain Tercentenary an occasion for the interchange of words of pleasantness along the paths of international peace.

In the future, then, let celebrants of the Tercentenary events settle all their differences by a joint meeting by the sweet waters of Lake Champlain.

Men draw from the pages of history different conclusions, for they read with different eyes. Although we are familiar with the fact and the doctrine of the spread of civilization through violence, yet in the concomitants of war, its pomps and trappings, its glory and shame, its burnings and killings, its famine and pestilence, its bickerings and jealousies, its graft and greed and sordidness, its futility to effect its original purpose or to accomplish the greatest good, and more particularly in the nature of men and things, may there not be some among us who find warrant for the beatitude, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” (Applause.)

The ceremonies concluded with the following:

Benediction by Rev. J. W. Dwyer, of Ludlow, Vt.

O God, from whom are holy desires, right counsels and just works, give unto Thy servants that peace which Thou hast told us the world cannot give; that our hearts being given to the keeping of Thy commandments and the fear of enemies being removed, our days, by Thy protection, may be peaceful.

May the blessings of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost descend upon all here assembled, upon all whom we represent, and abide with us forever. Amen.

The large assemblage, including many distinguished citizens from Vermont, then dispersed to their several homes, except the Commissioners and their guests, who boarded the “Ticonderoga” for Plattsburgh and intermediate ports.