Seated on the temporary platform in front of the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse were: Colonel William Cary Sanger, representing the President of the United States, Count de Peretti de la Rocca, representing the French Ambassador, Governor John A. Dix of New York, Adjutant-General Lee S. Tillotson, representing the Governor of Vermont, and Commissioners H. Wallace Knapp, Chairman; Henry W. Hill, Secretary; Walter C. Witherbee, Treasurer; Senator James A. Foley, Judge John B. Riley, Judge John H. Booth, James Shea, Louis C. Lafontaine, Howland Pell and William R. Weaver of the New York Tercentenary Commission; and Lynn M. Hays, Secretary; Judge Frank L. Fish, Treasurer; President John M. Thomas, Walter H. Crockett, George T. Jarvis, William J. Van Patten, Arthur F. Stone and F. O. Beaupre of the Vermont Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, and the speakers, invited guests and others.
The memorial as already stated was not complete in that the bronze statuary group was represented by the models, as the bronze work had not been put in position. That did not detract, however, from the artistic features of the memorial, which were much admired by the assembled multitude. The platform and memorial were artistically decorated with the flags of the United States.
The programme at the dedicatory ceremonies was the following:
Hon. H. Wallace Knapp, Chairman of the New York Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, presided:
The exercises were opened with appropriate music by the Sherman Military Band of Burlington, Vermont. The following Invocation was then pronounced by Rev. Lewis Francis, D.D., of New York City.
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we invoke Thy blessing as we are gathered here to dedicate a monument which has been erected in commemoration of the discoveries and achievements of one whose name is borne by the beautiful lake on whose shores we are assembled.
We thank Thee for his heroism and his faith, for his loyalty to his beloved country and his devotion to God. We thank Thee for his desire not only to plant the standard of France upon the land which he had discovered, but also to uplift the cross upon it. We thank Thee for the friendship which has existed for many years between the two countries which are represented here to-day. May this monument, erected by our country in memory of one of the heroes of France, be a fresh token of this friendship.
Let Thy blessing rest upon the two States which have united in making this dedication possible. May this monument by its stability remind us of those strong and enduring qualities of character which should mark us as nations and individuals. May the light which shall shine forth from its summit be a symbol of the light of knowledge and of truth which as States and Nations we should seek to give the world, which may be both a guide and a warning; and may it bring Him to our thought, who is the Light of the world, that walking in His Light we may be guided aright through every peril of our lives.
May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost rest upon the States and Nations here represented, and upon all of us who have assembled here to celebrate this glad event.