The correspondence between the Colonial Governors and military and naval officers in America, including General Jeffrey Amherst and General John Burgoyne, with William Pitt and other representatives of the home government, throws much light on the events of the British period from 1758 to 1783. Other historical writings and standard histories may also be consulted with profit.
Since the conclusion of the War of 1812 the history of the Champlain valley has been that of a record of the settlement, the agricultural and mineral development of the territory bordering on the lake, and of an active transportation and commercial business done on the lake until the construction of railroads paralleling it on either side, which checked the volume of transportation by water as well as the active passenger service that had been done by steamers for three-quarters of a century. The completion of the barge canal between the Hudson and Lake Champlain may to some extent restore the volume of transportation on the lake.
From pre-historic times the Champlain valley has been one of the thoroughfares of successive nations occupying the region, inviting alike to discoverer, trader, pioneer, warrior and traveler. It was but natural that its circumjacent shores and beautiful islands should become the homes of sturdy men, breathing the ozone of the mountain air wafted down into the valley, and possessing an independence and resolution found in such men as the Allens, the Warrens, the Bakers, and the Chittendens. It was this spirit which moved Ira Allen to incorporate in the first constitution of Vermont, adopted July 2 to 8, 1777, a mandatory provision providing for a common school in each town, a grammar school in each county, and a university in the state, and afterward he gave all his property to found the University of Vermont.
The conditions obtaining in the Champlain valley during the Tercentenary Celebration were thus picturesquely but aptly described by Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie, the Tercentenary orator at Ticonderoga, in the Outlook of July 31, 1909:
* * * Never were conditions more favorable for such a celebration as that planned in honor of Champlain’s discovery. Barring one day, the weather was perfect. Refreshing breezes swept through the gaps between the soft blue domes on either side of the lake, tempering the ardor of the sun’s rays, while the air was of that crystalline clarity, which exhilarates and draws from man involuntary exclamations of gladness for the fact of mere existence. Each day a pageant of great, snowy clouds swept across the deep blue sky, adding to the dreamy charm of the background of the celebration. The spectator’s manipulation of the pigments of language is not so perfect as was Turner’s of paints; but he wishes it were, in order that he might convey an impression of the changing lights and shadows and tints, which presented new combinations of color with every passing moment. From the moment the rays of the rising sun shot through the notches in the Green Mountains, informing the visitor that he or she must be up and doing if the event of the day was to be witnessed, until the golden afterglow had ceased to define the rounded heights of the Adirondacks and the amethystine tints of the mountain sides had deepened into the black shadow of night, each hour had a fresh temptation for the artist.
IV. REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF THE CHAMPLAIN REGION
Out from that valley have come a host of statesmen: Stephen A. Douglas, Samuel Prentice, Solomon Foote, Silas Wright, Samuel S. Phelps, Jacob Collamer, Robert S. Hale, William A. Wheeler, Chester A. Arthur, George F. Edmunds, John M. Thurston, born at Montpelier, August 21, 1847, and U. S. Senator from Nebraska, 1895 to 1901; Matthew H. Carpenter, born at Moretown, December 22, 1824, U. S. Senator from Wisconsin, 1869 to 1875, and from 1879 to February 25, 1881; Jacob M. Howard, born at Shaftsbury, July 10, 1805, representative in Congress from Michigan from 1841 to 1843 and U. S. Senator from 1862 to 1871; William Pitt Kellogg, born at Orwell, December 8, 1831, U. S. Senator from Louisiana, 1868 to 1874; Leslie M. Shaw, born at Morristown, Vt., November 2, 1848, Governor of Iowa in 1898 to 1902, and became Secretary of U. S. Treasury on February 1, 1902, under President Theodore Roosevelt; Alexander W. Buel, born in Rutland in 1813, representative from Michigan in Congress from 1849 to 1850; Selucius Garfielde, born at Shoreham, December 8, 1822, and representative from Washington Territory in the 41st and 42d Congresses; Josiah B. Grinnell, born at New Haven, December 22, 1821, and representative from Iowa in the 38th Congress; Joseph Ketchum Edgerton, born in Vergennes, February 16, 1818, and representative from Indiana in the 38th Congress; J. Allen Barber, born at Georgia, Vt., member of the first Constitutional Convention of Wisconsin and representative from Wisconsin in the 42d and 43d Congresses; Lucien B. Caswell, born at Swanton, Vt., representative from Wisconsin in the 44th-47th Congresses; Joel Turrel, born at Shoreham, Vt., February 22, 1794, and representative from New York in Congress from 1833 to 1837; John Fassett Follett, born in Franklin County, Vt., and representative from Ohio in 48th Congress; Stephen C. Millard, born at Stamford, January 14, 1841, representative from New York in the 48th and 49th Congresses; John M. Parker, born at Granville, N. Y., June 14, 1805, and representative in Congress from 1855-9; Aaron F. Perry, born at Leicester, Vt., January 1, 1815, representative from Ohio in 42d Congress; Ossian Ray, born at Hinesburgh, Vt., December 13, 1815, and representative from New Hampshire in the 46th and 47th Congresses; Almon H. Read, born at Shelburne, Vt., June 12, 1790, representative from Pennsylvania in Congress from 1842-1844; John Gilbert Sawyer, born at Brandon, Vt., June 5, 1825, and a representative from New York in the 49th and 50th Congresses; Philetus Sawyer, who spent his youth in the Adirondacks, was a representative from Wisconsin in the 39th and ten succeeding Congresses, and in 1881 elected to the United States Senate and re-elected in 1887, where he served with great distinction; George Willard, born at Bolton, Vt., March 20, 1824, and a representative from Michigan in 43d and 44th Congresses; Joseph W. Babcock, born at Swanton, Vt., March 6, 1850, and representative from Wisconsin in the 53d to the 60th Congresses; Martin J. Wade, born at Burlington, Vt., October 20, 1861, and representative from Iowa in the 58th Congress; George Edmund Foss, born at Berkshire, Vt., July 2, 1863, a representative from Illinois in the 54th to 62d Congresses; Eugene N. Foss, born at West Berkshire, Vt., September 24, 1858, representative from Massachusetts in Congress in 1910, and Governor of Massachusetts since 1910, and such diplomats as John A. Kasson, George P. Marsh, Levi P. Morton, Edward J. Phelps, and such journalists as James R. Spalding, founder of the New York World, Jeremiah Evarts, father of William M. Evarts, and scores of others. Some of these, however, were not born in the valley, but they received their early impressions from conditions existing there, while attending college or spending their youth in that invigorating atmosphere. Among such was Henry J. Raymond, who took his course at the University of Vermont, and became founder of the New York Times and representative in Congress during the Lincoln administration.
In the Congressional representation of the Champlain valley occur the names of many distinguished citizens: Peter Sailly of Plattsburgh, representative in Congress in 1804, who enjoyed the confidence of President Thomas Jefferson and who appealed to the Secretary of the Treasury in August, 1813, to prevent the further destruction of property on the west side of the lake, where, he said, “there is not a military post nor a soldier to be seen”; Hon. Reuben H. Walworth of Plattsburgh, representative in Congress in 1821-1823 and Chancellor for the State from 1828 to 1848; General Henry H. Ross of Essex, representative in the 19th Congress and on General Macomb’s staff at the battle of Plattsburgh; Hon. Augustus C. Hand of Elizabethtown, representative in Congress in 1839-1840; Hon. William Slade of Middlebury, representative in Congress from 1831 to 1843; Hon. Lemuel Stetson of Plattsburgh, representative in the 28th Congress and later County Judge of Clinton County; Hon. Orlando Kellogg of Elizabethtown, a representative in the 30th, 38th and 39th Congresses, and an intimate friend of President Lincoln; George R. Andrews of Ticonderoga, representative in Congress, 1849-1850, and later Justice of the Supreme Court; George A. Simmons of Keeseville, one of the most eminent lawyers in the State at that time and representative in Congress in 1853-1855; Hon. Frederick E. Woodbridge of Vergennes, representative in Congress for several terms; Hon. Robert S. Hale of Elizabethtown, N. Y., representative in Congress in 1865; Hon. George W. Palmer of Plattsburgh, representative in the 35th and 36th Congresses; Judge Homer E. Royce of St. Albans, Vt., representative in Congress and later Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont; Hon. John W. Stewart of Middlebury, Vt., representative in Congress and United States Senator; Hon. Henry G. Burleigh, representative in the 48th and 49th Congresses; Judge Horace Henry Powers of Morrisville, Vt., Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont and representative in Congress from 1890 to 1900; John H. Moffit of Plattsburgh, representative in the 50th and 51st Congresses; Hon. John M. Wever of Plattsburgh, representative in the 52d and 53d Congresses; Hon. Wallace T. Foote, Jr. of Port Henry, representative in the 54th and 55th Congresses; Richard Keese, representative in the 20th Congress; Orange Ferris, representative in the 40th Congress; John Rogers, representative in the 42d Congress; John Hammond, representative in the 46th and 47th Congresses; Roswell G. Horr, representative in the 46th, 47th and 48th Congresses; and others.
Honorable Azariah C. Flagg of Plattsburgh was Secretary of State in 1826, and State Comptroller in 1834, and Hon. John F. O’Brien of Plattsburgh was Secretary of State from 1903 to 1907.