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1912

ADDRESS BY
SENATOR HENRY W. HILL
In accepting the Bronze Bust
"La France,^^ by the Sculptor
Rodin, the gift of the people
of France to the New York and
Vermont Lake Champlain Ter
centenary Commissions at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New
York City, on May 1, 1912
Ambassador Jusserand, Monsieur Gabriel Hanotaux, and
other Members of the Delegation from France, and
Gentlemen of the New York and Vermont Tercen
tenary Commissions, and of the New York Cham
plain Association:
This is a fitting postlude to the Bi-State programme of
International Tercentenary exercises in commemoration of
the discovery of one of the most charming lakes in America
by the brave and highminded Samuel Champlain, who first
proclaimed Christianity among the aborigines of that Valley
in the declaration that "the salvation of one soul is of more
value than the conquest of an enemy." The light of civili
zation thus first gleaming through the darkness of savagery
is to be symbolized in a memorial lighthouse erected by the
States of New York and Vermont on property of the United

States Government at Crown Point Forts, that location
being for 150 years one of the strategic points of the French
possessions in America, and the life work of the discoverer
is to be further perpetuated by an heroic size statue
by the New York sculptor, Charles Augustus Heber,
at Plattsburgh. The people of the two States in grate
ful appreciation of the life, services and high moral
character of the discoverer of the lake which bears his
name, and who was the first white man to set foot on the
soil of New York and Vermont, eleven years before the
Pilgrims entered Plymouth Bay, and two months before
Henry Hudson discovered the river bearing his name,
flowing into this beautiful harbor of New York, conceived
and carried forward the Champlain Tercentenary Celebra
tion of 1909, which has awakened deep interest in the
principles and common purposes of two Republics, and
done much to strengthen the friendship between them,
that prompted France to shed across the seas its kindly and
beneficent influence upon this Republic in its infancy. In
the conduct of that Tercentenary now considered as one of
the most noted American commemorative celebrations, the
Republic of France represented by its gifted and eloquent
patriot and scholar, Ambassador Jusserand, the Kingdom
of Great Britain by its distinguished Ambassador Right
Honorable James Bryce, the Dominion of Canada by its
noted Postmaster General Lemieux, the Province of Quebec
by its gifted Premier Sir Lomer Gouin, the Empire of
Japan by its Vice-Admiral, Uriu, and the United States by
its President and Secretary of War, and some members of
its Senate and House of Representatives, and representa
tives of the Army and Navy, participated with the States
of New York and Vermont, and thus gave it an Interna
tional character, worthy the important events which it was
designed to commemorate.
You would be likely to form a more adequate conception
of the magnitude of the Tercentenary Celebration, if you
were to picture the Champlain Valley, one hundred miles
in length, and twenty-five miles in width, with the lake, as

stated by Dr. Cady, "a prismed pendant dropped from out
the skies," interspersed with beautiful islands, and but
tressed by prominent headlands, as an arena with over-
towering mountains on either side, forming a background
of superb natural beauty and suggesting ideals of the true
and sublime in nature and a sky of Italian beauty vaulting
a lake of crystal waters, where five great scenes were
presented to thronging thousands of interested spectators —
one at Crown Point which projects into the lake so far as
nearly to sever it into two sections, where was erected at
vast expenditure of money, in 1731, by the French, Fort
Frederic, in honor of the French Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, Frederic Maurepas, under the supervision of the
Marquis de Beauharnois, Governor-General of Canada, and
later by the British under Lord Amherst, the fort now
forming a grand ruin; another scene twenty miles distant,
on the following day, at Ticonderoga, "the gateway of the
Nation," where was built Fort Carillon, in 1755, around
which struggled the flower of contending armies of three
sovereign nations for its control ; another scene, sixty miles
distant, at Plattsburgh Barracks, on a plateau overlooking
V^alcour Island, where occurred one of the chief naval
engagements of the Revolution, the report of which elec
trified the Continental Congress, and also overlooking
Plattsburgh Bay, where occurred the decisive naval engage
ment of the War of 1812, in which the American Fleet
under Macdonough defeated and routed the British Fleet
under Downie, and still another scene twenty-five miles
distant, on the following day, in the City of Burlington,
under the shadow of the University which had been burned
during the War of 1812, and whose corner-stone was re-
laid by Marquis de Lafayette in 1825, and where stands a
statue erected to his memory, on a sloping hillside over
looking Burlington Bay, that beautiful Baiae of our inland
sea, and the clear waters of the historic lake walled in on
the west by the rugged and occasionally snow-capped peaks
of the Adirondacks, and the fifth scene, forty-five miles
distant, on the following day, at beautiful Isle La Motte,

which was the first land in the Champlain Valley visited by
Samuel Champlain, which had been for two centuries or
more the common meeting place of warring Indian tribes,
and which became the rendezvous of missionaries, and
where in 1666, was built Fort Ste. Anne, and where High
Mass was first celebrated in the State of Vermont, and
where was stationed the Carignan-Salieres Regiment of
600 French veterans. At each of these scenes were Indian
pageants, moved from place to place on a floating island,
participated in by 150 descendants of the native aboriginal
tribes that occupied the Champlain Valley, and enlivened
by military and naval forces, with formal ad4resses,
speeches and poems, by the President of the United States
and the distinguished diplomats, orators and poets in attend
ance, presenting anew the story and thrilling events that
have transpired in the Champlain Valley since its discovery
three centuries ago. This will afford some conception of
the great drama of the Champlain Tercentenary Celebra
tion, in which Samuel Champlain, the navigator, colonizer
and apostle of civilization in that valley, Chevalier sans
peur et sans reproche, was the hero and central figure.
On this occasion we are profoundly touched at the gen
erosity and friendship of President Fallieres and the
French people, exhibited in the presentation by the distin
guished delegation who have come from France, of this
allegorical bust "La France," by Auguste Rodin, and we
gratefully accept the same in the name of the New York
and Vermont Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions,
in behalf of the people of the two States, as well as of the
people of the United States, and through you, Monsieur
Hanotaux, and other members of your delegation from
France, we tender to President Fallieres and the people of
France, who have so generously contributed to the purchase
and presentation of this beautiful bust, our grateful appre
ciation and acknowledgments.
This work of art, coming as a voluntary expression of
the good will and cordial feelings of the French people for

Americans who have shown some appreciation of the
discoveries and services for humanity of one of the most
noted French explorers among many, who were first to
open up the interior of this continent to the onward march
of civilization, is an imperishable testimonial of that abiding
friendship existing between* the peoples of the two foremost
Republics in the world, which have done so much for the
liberty, equality and fraternity of mankind. When we
reflect upon the evolution of French institutions from
Charlemagne to Fallieres, the progress of the French people
in the arts and sciences within the last century, and the
contributions that they have made to these, and to literature
and to art, as well as to the world's diplomacy and intel
lectual development, we do not wonder that the Republic
across the sea, which you represent, gentlemen, is aglow
with vitality and energized by new and expanding ideas,
and is forging forward as one of .the most progressive and
powerful nations in the world. Had not the French people
been open to new ideas, possibly they would not have
responded to the appeals of Franklin and our other patriots
during the Revolution, and the Marquis de Lafayette,
Comte de Rochambeau, with his 6,000 soldiers, Comte de
Grasse, with his fleet, and others, would not have crossed
the Atlantic to aid the Colonies in their struggle for
independence. Lafayette and others carried back with them something
of the inspiration which they had derived from their
experience in this country and from their contact with
General Washington and other patriots, and their reports
did something to arouse the National Assembly of France,
and the princes and potentates of European nations to
a realization of the evidences of the Republican move
ment in America as well as in Europe, which culminated
in making most of the nations of western Europe more
democratic and responsive to popular liberties. On the
establishment of a Republican form of government in
France in 1848, the President of the United States

transmitted a message to Congress, in which he said: "We
can never forget that France was our early friend in our
eventful Revolution, and generously aided us in shaking off
a foreign yoke and becoming a free and independent people.
We have enjoyed the blessing of our system of well regu
lated self-government for nearly three-fourths of a century,
and can properly appreciate its value. Our ardent and
sincere congratulations are extended to the patriotic people
of France upon their noble and thus far successful efforts
to found for their future government liberal institutions
similar to our own. It is not doubtful that under the
benign influence of free institutions the enlightened states
men of Republican France will find it to be for her true
interests and permanent glory to cultivate with the United
States the most liberal principles of international inter
course and commercial reciprocity, whereby the happiness
and prosperity of both nc^ons will be promoted." A fitting
'response to this was made by the National Assembly of
France, and there have from that time forth existed cordial
relations between the two sister Republics. These relations
were emphasized in the presentation by the French people
of the colossal statue "Liberty Enlightening the World," by
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, and unveiled with elaborate
ceremonies on Bedloe's Island in New York harbor, on
October 28, 1886. When the Rodin allegorical bust "La
France" is in its permanent home by the Champlain
Memorial Light at the Crown Point Forts near the head
of Lake Champlain, it will be on the highway of travel by
water between New York harbor and Lake Champlain,
through the enlarged and improved Champlain Canal
nearing completion, and so be brought into communication
with the Statue of Liberty, and will do something to restore
the interest of travelers as well as of our French-American
citizens, in the history of that region, for 150 years under
control of the French Nation, and within a few miles of
which at Ticonderoga, Montcalm and others achieved
imperishable fame, and will be a further lasting expression
of the artistic temperament and proverbial generosity of

the French people toward the people of this Nation, the
genius of whose institutions has been more or less reflected
in the evolution of French institutions during the last
century. As an expression of one of your most renowned
sculptors, it will awaken a deeper interest of the people in
that valley in art, which has been ideally expressed in this
allegorical bust "La France," in a way to symbolize the
marvelous genius of the French people.
The members of New York and Vermont Lake Cham
plain Tercentenary Commissions bid you, gentlemen, of
the French delegation, a most cordial welcome to our
shores, and tender to you their deep appreciation of the
gift which you bring from your people.