To-day, pleasure boats sail on this beautiful lake, and its shady banks seem to have been intended always as a place of rest for tired city dwellers. It is not without some effort of imagination that we can now recall the rugged Champlain and his strange troop, sailing on the same lake in pursuit of the Iroquois. However, you wished that the tourists, who come here each year in thousands, surrounded by luxury and beauty, should be reminded of their first great predecessor. And you have raised up to Champlain this monument, which does honor both to the initiative of your Commissions and to the talents of your architects. You found that there was in the life of Champlain, as in those of the other French pioneers, of whom your historian, Parkman, so well wrote the lives, lessons which should not be lost. The example of their ingenuity, which nothing could rebut, of their energy, which nothing could daunt, of their faith, which never was discouraged, is still a lesson of confidence and optimism. Pessimistic persons might perhaps point out that these men failed to attain their ends. They traveled over this continent seeking a way to China, and that way did not exist. Anyway, they hoped that the countries which they discovered would become the possessions of their nation and of their King, and now the lilies of the French monarchy have been replaced by the Stars and Stripes of the American democracy. But these are only partial failures and their efforts were not in vain. China remained closed to them, but America and its treasures were opened to them. The vicissitudes of events have caused a change of nationality in the countries discovered by them, but I am sure they are content in their graves on account of celebrations of their memory such as that of to-day: on account also of the unalterable friendship which binds your nation to theirs and especially on account of the confident eagerness with which, inherited from them, you continue and complete their work.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you permit me I will add some words in my own language.
Cela ne sera pas pour déplaire à mon grande compatriote Champlain. Je tiens à exprimer au Gouverneur Dix at au Chairman Knapp tous mes remerciements pour la manière si flatteuse at si affectueuse dont ils ont parlé de mon pays. Je veux vous dire à tous combien je suis heureux et reconnaissant que le souvenir de la France ait été si intimement associé à ces belles cérémonies.
Enfin j’ajouterai combien j’ai été touché par l’aimable accueil que nous a réservé la cité de Plattsburgh dont la beauté des paysages, le pittoresque des rues et des maisons, le charme des habitants m’ont tout spécialement frappé. Aussi est-ce du fond de coeur que je forme les voeux les plus ardents pour la continuation de sa prospérité.
The address was enthusiastically received.
The Hon. John A. Stewart of New York was the next speaker and in the course of his address, which was extempore and therefore unreported except in substance, he said:
From Champlain’s day we have grown into the most potential nation in the world, but let us thank God that mere power is not the measure of a nation’s greatness. We have become the richest nation in the world, but every day of our existence we should give thanks to the Almighty that our standing among the nations rests upon another basis than the mere possession of great wealth. We are the most populous among the nations of advanced civilization, but we should thank God that the gauge of our power and our greatness does not lie merely in superiority in point of numbers. A nation like the individual is great only to the degree of the possession of the homely virtues, the virtues of the home and fireside, of contentment and the peace and satisfaction which come from honest toil, from the day’s tasks done in the proper spirit of thankfulness for all the blessings which have come from advantages given by a prodigal nature. The prophetic vision of Champlain which saw occupying the North American continent a great and a mighty people has been realized. It is to men of Champlain’s blood that we owe the searching out and the discovery of the fertility of this great land and its adaptation for the uses of mankind. To those of his own race, who have succeeded him, we Americans are tied by the bond of a common destiny. Though separated politically, Canada, which is the heritage of Champlain, and this beautiful north country which is equally his heritage and one of the most beautiful parts of the great Republic, stand shoulder to shoulder in the working out of a common fate; for no danger can menace the one without the other sharing in that danger and no great national blessing can come to the one without that same blessing working its benefit to the other. Blessed is the land and blessed the people where the homely virtues are still inculcated, where that admonition of the Almighty is regarded not merely as an article of faith, but as a precept to be followed, “Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,” for of such is the land which Champlain found and the people which bless him as the great discoverer. (Applause.)
The last speaker was the Hon. Job E. Hedges of New York City, whose address sparkled with wit and kept the audience in a ripple of laughter. It was also extempore. In the course of his address he said:
The specific things Champlain did are not so important as his motive. He was an epoch in history. It falls to few men to be greater than their generation. If we are to draw a lesson at this time, it is that physical courage unbacked by moral effort is futile. It is very easy to be good rhetorically. I believe in the efficacy of prayer, but it is possible to remain on your knees so long that you overlook a neighbor’s distress.