The Champlain tercentenary

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

Address of His Excellency, Albert Auguste Gabrielle Hanotaux

Gentlemen.—The French Delegation you have so cordially welcomed is fully aware that this is the most important stage of its journey. For, albeit we are going to Lake Champlain to personally place in the hands of the architects of the monument, the bust of “La France” which is to be fixed there as a seal of friendship and gratitude, it is here that we make the formal presentation to the Commissions and, through them, to the world of friends which France has in the United States.

Here in New York, in this Empire City, where so much of past effort and present energy are concentrated, where five millions of human hearts beat in unison for the greater glory and ultimate triumph of humanity, we have met with a touching, affectionate and splendid reception which speaks to us of the warm-heartedness of the Great American Republic.

From the moment we placed foot upon this soil we have been captivated and carried away by such a whirlwind of cordiality and good-fellowship that we scarce have had time to recover ourselves. First of all the American branches of the Comité France-Amérique were there to receive us, and, at once, we recognized within their ranks the eminent men who by reason of their origin, their connections or their particularly elegant culture have linked themselves of their own accord with our beloved France. Nothing could have touched us more than this first reception. France, France itself before us, beyond the mighty ocean we had just crossed under such thrilling conditions on the morrow of an awful disaster. On the other hand, and you, gentlemen, will not, I trust, forget it, the first vessel which came to you, after so dire a catastrophe, bearing words of comfort and hope was named “France.”

Our welcome, already so touching, grew apace. Our eminent ambassador to the United States, Monsieur Jusserand, who has given so much of his time and taken so much trouble, to organize this mission, which he himself conceived, informed Mr. Taft, the President of the United States, of our desire to present to him the respectful homage of the delegation.

The President, despite his overwhelming occupations, received us at his table; in the very kindest manner he honored, in our persons, the thought which has brought us here. He was so kind as to give us personally, in connection with our visit, assurances of his encouragement and approval; which have been for us an ample reward. These countless acts of friendship of all kinds we have looked upon—and rightly so—as being addressed to our beloved Mother-Country and to the Government of the French Republic, which has so splendidly encouraged and aided us in the accomplishment of our mission.

Travelling through a part of the American continent on our way to Washington, we were able to admire the ever-increasing progress and masterful civilization of your Republic. We left the city of five million souls, so concentrated in its immensity that in a manner it rises skyward upon itself; we passed through an admirable country, looking, at this season of the year, like some great garden dotted with cottages and shrubs and trees; we crossed majestic rivers which evoked the finest pages of Chateaubriand, the protagonist of the French writers of America; the steel cars carried us with prodigious speed through long tunnels and over iron bridges which groaned beneath the onrushing train; we barely caught sight of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, for a space at once the citadel and the keystone of American liberty; and we were in another city, a city beautiful, a city verdant, whose noble proportions are worthy of the great nation of which it is the capital, a city planned, we are proud to recall, by an officer of the French army: Major L’Enfant. We were taken to Mount Vernon and there we were thrilled by a greater sight than any we had yet seen: the shrine where you cherish in the most impressive simplicity the memory of the Man whose life was naught else than the constant blending of greatness and simplicity.

And, gentlemen, when on our return here we think of all this greatness, of the endless and unceasing activity, of these wonders heaped upon wonders, when we think of the hundred million human beings living in the United States, earning their substance here, finding here their work, their pleasures, their luxuries and their ideal; loving this land they themselves have created, which belongs to them and to which they belong, proud of an admirable past, confident in a future which gives promise of even greater things, how could our imagination fail to go back to the men who were the first pioneers in this country, to the men who dared its perils and wrested from it its secrets when there were no other European inhabitants.

The accounts of their travels depict them to us, with all their daring, with all their perseverance, their hardships and sufferings and sacrifices; but finally with their slow and hard-won victories over Nature and Fate.