The Champlain tercentenary

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

III. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TERCENTENARY CELEBRATION

If the Tercentenary Celebration has awakened a deeper popular interest in the history of the Champlain valley, and as a result of that a broader and more profound appreciation of the principles of civil and religious liberty underlying our American institutions, and of the heroic sacrifices made by the founders of this government to insure its perpetuity, then the members of the Commission and the people of the state may feel well repaid for all efforts put forth in its prosecution.

In the various papers and addresses of the celebration frequent allusion was made to the important events occurring in the several epochs of the history of Lake Champlain, and many of these were elaborated upon at some length. It was not possible, however, to do more.

The critical history of the Champlain valley is yet to be written. For three centuries it has been the arena wherein have occurred many crucial events affecting the evolution and the character of American institutions.

Ira Allen in his “Natural and Political History of the State of Vermont,” Francis Parkman in his various historical works, Hon. Lucius E. Chittenden in his addresses and public papers, Peter S. Palmer in his “History of Lake Champlain,” and in his “History of the Battle of Valcour on Lake Champlain,” Winslow C. Watson in his “History of Essex County,” his “Pioneer History of the Champlain Valley” and his “Men and Times of the Revolution,” Thomas Hawley Canfield in his “Discovery, Navigation and Navigators of Lake Champlain,” Zadock Thompson in his histories of the State of Vermont and in his “Northern Guide,” Hiland Hall in his “History of Vermont,” Winslow C. Watson in his “Military and Political History of Essex County,” [N. Y.] in the “History of Essex County,” [N. Y.] by H. P. Smith, in the papers entitled “The First Battle of Lake Champlain,” by George F. Bixby, Rev. Joseph Cook in his “Historical Address at the Centennial Anniversary of the Settlement of Ticonderoga,” and in other addresses and writings, Walter H. Crockett in his “History of Lake Champlain,” and others, have given much of the history of the successive periods, although the works of some of these are necessarily too limited to include a complete history of the region in all its amplitude and in all its details.

In the papers and proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, as well as in the “Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York” and the “Documentary History of the State of New York,” and in other transcripts of documents in foreign and American archives, and in the Military Records of the United States, France, Great Britain and Canada may be found much material relating to the history of Lake Champlain. There will be found in such libraries as the State Library at Albany, the State Library at Montpelier, the library of the Ticonderoga Historical Society, the libraries at Port Henry and at Plattsburgh, as well as in the library at Middlebury College and in the library of the University of Vermont, at Burlington, Vt., in the Collections of the New York State Historical Association, the New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and other State Historical Societies, and in the libraries of Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec, maps, charts, documents and other material relating to the region. The foreign material is confined principally to events occurring prior to 1783, except such British and Canadian documents as relate to the War of 1812.

The correspondence between the Colonial Governors and military and naval officers in America, including General Jeffrey Amherst and General John Burgoyne, with William Pitt and other representatives of the home government, throws much light on the events of the British period from 1758 to 1783. Other historical writings and standard histories may also be consulted with profit.

Since the conclusion of the War of 1812 the history of the Champlain valley has been that of a record of the settlement, the agricultural and mineral development of the territory bordering on the lake, and of an active transportation and commercial business done on the lake until the construction of railroads paralleling it on either side, which checked the volume of transportation by water as well as the active passenger service that had been done by steamers for three-quarters of a century. The completion of the barge canal between the Hudson and Lake Champlain may to some extent restore the volume of transportation on the lake.

From pre-historic times the Champlain valley has been one of the thoroughfares of successive nations occupying the region, inviting alike to discoverer, trader, pioneer, warrior and traveler. It was but natural that its circumjacent shores and beautiful islands should become the homes of sturdy men, breathing the ozone of the mountain air wafted down into the valley, and possessing an independence and resolution found in such men as the Allens, the Warrens, the Bakers, and the Chittendens. It was this spirit which moved Ira Allen to incorporate in the first constitution of Vermont, adopted July 2 to 8, 1777, a mandatory provision providing for a common school in each town, a grammar school in each county, and a university in the state, and afterward he gave all his property to found the University of Vermont.

The conditions obtaining in the Champlain valley during the Tercentenary Celebration were thus picturesquely but aptly described by Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie, the Tercentenary orator at Ticonderoga, in the Outlook of July 31, 1909:

* * * Never were conditions more favorable for such a celebration as that planned in honor of Champlain’s discovery. Barring one day, the weather was perfect. Refreshing breezes swept through the gaps between the soft blue domes on either side of the lake, tempering the ardor of the sun’s rays, while the air was of that crystalline clarity, which exhilarates and draws from man involuntary exclamations of gladness for the fact of mere existence. Each day a pageant of great, snowy clouds swept across the deep blue sky, adding to the dreamy charm of the background of the celebration. The spectator’s manipulation of the pigments of language is not so perfect as was Turner’s of paints; but he wishes it were, in order that he might convey an impression of the changing lights and shadows and tints, which presented new combinations of color with every passing moment. From the moment the rays of the rising sun shot through the notches in the Green Mountains, informing the visitor that he or she must be up and doing if the event of the day was to be witnessed, until the golden afterglow had ceased to define the rounded heights of the Adirondacks and the amethystine tints of the mountain sides had deepened into the black shadow of night, each hour had a fresh temptation for the artist.