The first white man to set foot within the borders of what has become the Empire State of the Union, he doubtless was fired with the ambition to make it a part of New France. He found it peopled by the most powerful native tribes inhabiting the New World.
The Five Nations, represented in the Long House of the Iroquois, dominated the region, and were, and had been for more than a century thoroughly organized for defense and aggression. Its confederation evinced political genius of a high order. In their warfare with the Algonquians of the St. Lawrence Valley, and other native tribes, they had made the beautiful Champlain an almost constant scene of conflict and carnage; so much so that its fertile valleys and beautiful shores ceased to be inhabited, except as the various warrior bands camped upon them temporarily in their expeditions of plunder and destruction.
Later, in the prolonged struggles of the two greatest nations of the time, France and England, to establish their authority and enforce their respective civilizations upon the New World, the alliance of the Long House of the Iroquois with the English forces determined the conflict in their favor and thus ended the effort inaugurated by Champlain to establish the dominion of France over a large territory of which he was the discoverer.
While, as a result, the civic policy of the country was thereafter dominated by British power and influence down to the time of the Revolution, nevertheless, the memory of the valor and the heroism of explorers like Champlain and of missionaries like Marquette, La Salle, and their co-workers, left their enduring impress for good, not only upon the civilization of our State, but upon that of our whole country.
For all this we owe a debt of gratitude to France, hardly less than the debt we owe it for its unselfish and priceless assistance in our struggle for independence.
In the three hundred years since the discovery of the lake and region identified with the name of Champlain, the world has witnessed a greater advance in intelligence, in human progress, in the principle of liberty and in the recognition and protection by governments of the rights of the ordinary man, than in any similar period in recorded history.
To the intelligent observer it is evident that this advance is to-day progressing with undiminished force on the basis of individual freedom, individual responsibility and self-imposed restraint, which constitute the inspiration, the steadying force and the vitalizing principle of true progress.
Proof of all this confronts us in every land to-day; but, as convincing and pertinent evidence on this occasion, reference need only be made to progress in the region with which the name and fame of Samuel Champlain are imperishably associated.
I am glad that our distinguished guests from France are to visit that region and especially the beautiful lake bearing his name, and contrast existing conditions with the earlier scenes of savage warfare and bloodshed there enacted by the natives prior to Champlain’s advent, and subsequently, during the struggle for supremacy between the two great contending nations of that day.
We would have you see the peaceful and tranquil aspect of that beautiful lake now with its bosom dotted with splendid steamers, the instrumentalities of pleasure and commerce; the well equipped railroads skirting its shores, required and maintained by the enterprise and business activities there existing; the prosperous cities, the thriving villages, the well-kept and productive farms; the contented and happy homes; the schools, the churches, the hospitals, the charitable organizations; in short, every institution in which a most advanced civilization finds its best expression and through which it performs its best and most elevating service for mankind.