A nation may be the loser in the game of war, but a great race can hardly be subjugated or rubbed out. Quebec was taken, but the Province of Quebec is French, and New England, through immigration, is slowly becoming New France. Scotland and Ireland were conquered long ago, but the Scotch and Irish are conspicuously present with us to-day. It has been easy for the western Powers to blow up the forts of China and gain concessions, and the Chinese smile, seemingly acquiesce, and kotow, but in all things essential to themselves they yield nothing but go their own way. A few Chinese boys trained in American colleges have exerted a greater influence upon China than all the gunpowder ever manufactured could do.
It would seem that there are forces visibly at work that make for peace, and this in spite of the bloody history of man and the huge armaments which may mean the fear of war rather than the love of it. Possibly it was from a willingness or even a desire to move in harmony with such forces that Great Britain, France, the Dominion of Canada and the United States of America found that without effort or affectation they could find in the Champlain Tercentenary an occasion for the interchange of words of pleasantness along the paths of international peace.
In the future, then, let celebrants of the Tercentenary events settle all their differences by a joint meeting by the sweet waters of Lake Champlain.
Men draw from the pages of history different conclusions, for they read with different eyes. Although we are familiar with the fact and the doctrine of the spread of civilization through violence, yet in the concomitants of war, its pomps and trappings, its glory and shame, its burnings and killings, its famine and pestilence, its bickerings and jealousies, its graft and greed and sordidness, its futility to effect its original purpose or to accomplish the greatest good, and more particularly in the nature of men and things, may there not be some among us who find warrant for the beatitude, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” (Applause.)
The ceremonies concluded with the following:
Benediction by Rev. J. W. Dwyer, of Ludlow, Vt.
O God, from whom are holy desires, right counsels and just works, give unto Thy servants that peace which Thou hast told us the world cannot give; that our hearts being given to the keeping of Thy commandments and the fear of enemies being removed, our days, by Thy protection, may be peaceful.
May the blessings of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost descend upon all here assembled, upon all whom we represent, and abide with us forever. Amen.
The large assemblage, including many distinguished citizens from Vermont, then dispersed to their several homes, except the Commissioners and their guests, who boarded the “Ticonderoga” for Plattsburgh and intermediate ports.