IX. COMMENT IN APPRECIATION OF THE VISIT OF THE FRENCH DELEGATION AND HONORS CONFERRED
The mission of the French delegation proved to be of far deeper import, than the mere presentation of the Rodin bust, gratifying to Americans as was that superb gift on the part of its donors. It awakened in the people of this country, quite as much as it did in the members of that delegation, renewed interest in the activities and achievements of the peoples of the two Republics, which are the foremost democracies of the world. M. Hanotaux, a scholar, a statesman and a diplomat and his distinguished colleagues, are among the foremost citizens of France. They represented the several departments of the Government as well as the various trades and professions in the civil life of that Republic. Commerce and industries were represented by M. Antoine Girard, Counsellor of Foreign Commerce. Their reputation had long been established in science, in literature and in the fine arts and also in jurisprudence, in statesmanship and in diplomacy, as exemplified in the genial and charming personality of Ambassador Jusserand. They are among the present day celebrities of the French nation and were invited to become members of the Embassy on account of their individual standing in the official, social and intellectual life of that Republic.
One cannot read their addresses and their reports to Paris of the impressions, which they formed on their visit to America, without appreciating the spontaneity of their tributes to the American people and to their institutions, the warmth of their expressions of good will and generous impulses towards the people of this nation and their gratitude for the deep interest shown by the people of the United States, and especially by those of Vermont and New York, in commemorating the achievements and the character of one of their countrymen.
The unreported addresses of Baron D’Estournelle de Constant, member of the French Senate and the representative of France at the Hague International Peace Tribunal, and of M. Louis Barthou, ex-Minister of Justice and one of the leading Parliamentarians of the Chamber of Deputies, will long be remembered for their urbanity, for the breadth of their views, and for the brilliancy of their eloquent periods. The addresses of M. Hanotaux and others and the foregoing reports of Gaston Deschamps, of M. de la Blache, the geographer of the University of Paris, and of René Bazin, of the French Academy, disclose the character and beauty of the style of the French littérateurs. Wherever the members of the delegation went, they were gratefully welcomed and entertained in stately manner. The social functions taxed the powers of endurance on the part of the visitors to their full extent. They made hosts of friends and gave Americans opportunity to meet them and to become acquainted with gentlemen and ladies possessed of the rare culture and refinement of French life. Their visit was timely and did much to strengthen the ties that bind the peoples of the two Republics in friendly accord. They made an impression on the people of this country that will be quite as enduring as the bronze testimonial of the good will of the people of France towards those of the United States, firmly set in the granite base of the Champlain Memorial at Crown Point Forts and there was voiced by the friends, whom they made in America, the sentiment, Vive la France.
Some months after the return of the French delegation to France, Commissioner Walter C. Witherbee was appointed by the President of the French Republic a Knight of the Legion of Honor, which was formally and appreciatively acknowledged by this Commission.
Knighthood in the Legion of Honor was also conferred by the President of France upon Hon. Frank S. Witherbee, a member of Preliminary Champlain Commission and President of the Lake Champlain Association, which participated in the entertainment of the French delegation at the Waldorf-Astoria banquet on May 1, 1912.
Hon. A. Barton Hepburn, President of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, which entertained the French delegation at luncheon on May 2, 1912, has recently been decorated by the President of France with the honorary rank of Officer in the Legion of Honor.
The French Government has recently presented to Honorable Charles B. Alexander, member of the Society of the Cincinnati, who gave a reception on April 30, 1912, to the French delegation in his beautiful home at No. 4 West 58th Street, New York City, the artistic Sèvres bisque group of national manufacture, known as “Télémaque chez Calypso,” by the sculptor, M. Louis Simon Boizot.
Knighthood in the Legion of Honor was also conferred by the President of the Republic of France upon President John H. Finley of the College of the City of New York, who has taken deep interest in the life of Samuel Champlain and in French colonization in America. His felicitous remarks at the Waldorf-Astoria banquet on May 1, 1912, were genuinely appreciated by Ambassador Jusserand, the members of the French delegation, and all others in attendance. President Finley was the Harvard Exchange lecturer under the Hyde Foundation in 1910 at the University of Paris and at ten other French universities.
In February, 1913, His Excellency, Raymond Poincaré, President of the Republic of France, appointed Henry W. Hill, Secretary of the New York Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, a Knight of the Legion of Honor, in recognition of his public, literary and other services in connection with the Tercentenary Celebration from its inception in 1907 to the conclusion of the Final Report of the Commission in 1913.
These delicate and touching expressions of appreciation on the part of President Fallières, President Poincaré, Ambassador Jusserand and the citizens of France of the courtesies shown to the members of the French delegation, while in the United States, are still further evidences of the warmth of the kindly feelings existing between the people of that Republic and those of this nation, and are gratefully appreciated.