Par la pensée, par le commerce, par le goût du grand, du beau, du juste, par une foi identique dans la paix entre les hommes, les deux grandes démocraties que l’Océan seul sépare, sont faites pour s’aimer, se comprendre et s’unir.
Nous demandons aux Chambres de Commerce américaines de seconder l’oeuvre d’union que nous avons enterprise.
Merci aux Chambres de Commerce américaines. A tout jamais prospérité, grandeur, bonheur et gloire, à la grande République des États-Unis d’Amérique! (Loud applause.)
President Hepburn introduced the next speaker as follows: There are few homes in this country in which the benign face of Washington does not look down upon the family activities. Serious contemplation of the face of Washington must soon bring into perspective the face of that great Frenchman with whom he was so closely associated, whom he so highly esteemed, Lafayette. We are fortunate in having with us to-day a direct descendant of the great Lafayette, his great-great-grandson. He is upon this delegation as the personal representative of the Premier of the present government of France. I take great pleasure in presenting Count de Chambrun.
Count de Chambrun spoke in English.
Address of Count de Chambrun
Mr. President and Gentlemen: The very character of the present solemnities which have brought this delegation to America awakens with us in France a peculiar feeling of sympathy and grateful retrospection. Our intellectual world, our literary men—all who are versed in historical research and who cherish the great memories of the past—look back with love and pride upon the one time humble heroes whose venturous spirit and whose wonderful foresight made of their own mother country the glorious promoter of civilization. Indeed, the ties uniting France and America have always been popular with us, and our public men have ever justly prized their great and valuable importance; but, in the present instance, the Prime Minister of the French Republic has desired to be personally represented. He, also, a patriot and a man of letters, cannot refrain from emotion when he recalls that page of our common history, when a countryman of ours with scanty means, but with vast courage and genius opened new lands and new prospects to the achievements of humanity.
And this is why M. Raymond Poincaré wishes that his own tribute should not be lacking where honors are bestowed upon our brave Champlain; it is my good fortune, gentlemen, to be the bearer of this heartfelt tribute in memory of the early traveller now famous among our great explorers.
Curiously enough, at different stages, it has been the destiny of Frenchmen to play on this proud continent a decisive part in the interest of the world’s progress. Whether as pioneers in the northern and western dominions, at a remote period when these lands were yet unknown, or later on, in time of need, when the United States sought freedom and independence, was it not Frenchmen who came again with helping swords in a new American cause, where, as volunteers and soldiers, their hearts became enlisted.
But on the other hand, we citizens of France do not forget that it was upon your virgin soil that free institutions were first sown of which we in turn were able to fully harvest.