TERCENTENARY CELEBRATION OF DISCOVERY OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. FEBRUARY 15, 1909.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. FOSTER, of Vermont, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. J. Res. 257.] The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred House joint resolution 257, submit the following report: In the month of November, 1906, a joint resolution for the appointment of a commission for the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain was adopted by the senate and house of representatives of the State of Vermont, containing the recital that-- Whereas the discovery of Lake Champlain was an event in history fully as important as many others that have been recognized by various States as well as by the National Government; and Whereas the three hundredth anniversary of such discovery will occur on July 4, 1909, it is hereby Resolved by the senate and house of representatives, That this event should be observed in a fitting manner and bring about an observance commensurate with its importance, there is hereby provided a commission consisting of the governor, who shall be chairman ex officio, and six other members to be appointed by the governor before January 1, 1907, one of whom shall act as secretary. Said commission is hereby empowered to adopt such measures as in its judgment may be reasonable or necessary to bring about the fitting observance of such event. And as the interests of the State of New York and of the Dominion of Canada are allied with those of Vermont in such observance, it is hereby recommended that said commission (Onfer with the proper authorities of New York and Canada to ascertain what action they or either of them will take with Vermont in making the observance of this event successful and a credit to all, and that the commission report the result of such efforts, together with its recommendations, to the general assembly of 1908which resolution was approved by Governor Fletcher D. Proctor on November 15, 1906; and thereafter Governor Proctor appointed as members of such commission Walter E. Howard, of Middlebury; Horace W. Bailey, of Newbury; R. W. McCuen, of Vergennes; Lynn M. Hays, of Essex Junction; Walter H. Crockett, of St. Albans; M. D. McMahon, of Burlington; and thereafter, on April 15, 1907, on motion of Senator Henry W. Hill, of Buffalo, the senate of the State of New York adopted the following resolution, which was concurred in by the assembly on April 16, 1907: Whereas the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain on July 4, 1609, antedates the discovery by the whites of any other portion of the territory now comprising the State of New York, and was an event worthy of commemoration in the annals of the State and nation; and Whereas the State of Vermont in 1906 appointed a commission, consisting of the governor of that State and six other commissioners, to confer with commissioners to be appointed on the part of New York and the Dominion of Canada, to ascertain what action, if any, ought to be taken by such States and the Dominion of Canada for the observance of such tercentenary: Therefore Resolved (if the assembly concur), That a commission consisting of the governor, who shall be chairman ex officio, two citizens to be designated by him, the lieutenantgovernor, the speaker of the assembly, two senators to be designated by the lieutenant-governor, and two members of the assembly to be designated by the speaker, be appointed to represent the State of New York at such conference, with power to enter into negotiations with the commissioners representing the State of Vermont and those representing the Dominion of Canada for the observance of such tercentenary, and that such commission report the results of their negotiations, together with their recommendations thereon, to the legislature of 1908. The New York commission appointed under the foregoing resolution consisted of Governor Charles E. Hughes, Lieutenant-Governor Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, Senators Henry W. Hill, John C. R. Taylor, and Assemblymen James W. Wadsworth, jr., speaker of the assembly, Alonson T. Dominy, James A. Foley, and Frank S. Witherbee and John H. Booth. That commission, together with the Vermont commission, during the summer of 1907 made a tour of Lake Champlain, held several joint and separate meetings, and the New York commission formulated its report and transmitted it to the New York legislature of 1908, a copy of which is annexed hereto, in the conclusion of which report they recommended as follows: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF 1909. Your commission respectfully submit the foregoing report to the consideration of the legislature of New York. The anniversary which we desire shall be suitably observed has great significance. Important as it is to the student of history, it makes a wider and stronger appeal to that large body of our citizens whose forefathers fought in the wars of the Champlain region or were among the pioneers who transformed it from the wilderness. But chief of all the considerations which we urge upon your attention is the international character of the proposed celebration. The history of the Champlain Valley belongs to the history of three great nations, whose cordial relations we believe will be promoted by the suitable observance of this significant date. RECOMMENDATION. To that end your commission, after careful investigation, reaches the conclusion that the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain should be suitably celebrated by New York State; and to that end we respectfully recommend the enactment of the following bill. Thereafter a bill was prepared and submitted to the legislature, which was amended in some respects, and subsequently enacted and became chapter 149 of the New York Laws of 1908, providing in substance for a celebration of the tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain in the month of July, 1609, which celebration, by the terms of the bill, is to occur in the month of July, 1909, at various points in the Champlain Valley. The commission appointed thereunder consisted of H. Wallace Knapp, Mooers, N. Y., chairman; Henry W. Hill, of Buffalo, secretary; Walter C. Witherbee, Port Henry, treasurer; James J. Frawley, New York City; James Shea, Lake Placid; James A. Foley, New York City; John H. Booth, Plattsburg; John B. Riley, Plattsburg; Louis C. Lafontaine, Champlain; Howland Pell, New York City. This commission was empowered under the last-mentioned statute to enter into negotiations and cooperate with the State of Vermont, the Government of the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and the Province of Quebec, and either or all of them in such tercentenary celebration, and appropriated by chapter 466 of the New York Laws of 1908 the sum of $50,000 for that purpose. The Vermont commission made its report to the legislature of Vermont, held in the fall of 1908, also recommending, among other things, that a proper celebration be held in conjunction with the State of New York, the Government of the United States, and the Dominion of Canada, a copy of which report is annexed hereto. Subsequently the State of Vermont made an appropriation of $25,000 to enable that State to participate in the tercentenary celebration. The commission appointed thereunder consisted of Governor George H. Prouty, chairman; Lynn M. Hays, of Burlington, secretary; Walter H. Crockett, of St. Albans; Rev. John M. Thomas, of Middlebury; Horace W. Bailey, of Rutland; W. J. Van Patten, of Burlington; Frank L. Fish, of Vergennes; Arthur L. Stone, of St. Johnsbury; and F. O. Beaupre, of Burlington. The facts warranting federal appropriation are briefly set forth in the report of the New York and Vermont commissions, and in amplification thereof the following additional facts are respectfully submitted to the consideration of the President and the Congress of the United States: Long before its discovery by Samuel Champlain, in July, 1609, Lake Champlain was the resort and battle ground of the savage Algonquin, Huron, and Iroquois nations who peopled its islands and circumjacent beautifully shaded and picturesque shores. It was a paradise for the aborigines, whose native customs and adventurous but precarious life were a startling revelation to such an explorer as Champlain, coming as he did from the refinements of French life of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Still he was hospitably received and escorted to and through the lake, then known as "Caniaderiguarunte," which signifies the "gate of the country." The lake was also known as "Mer des Iroquois," and traversed by the warring Indian tribes, whose canoes formed picturesque flotillas in those early days on the blue waters of the lake. Had Champlain been gifted with the poetic imagination of a Homer or a Virgil, he might have cast into an epic the story of his explorations and discoveries, which were quite as thrilling as those of the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid. Other poets have dwelt upon the beauties of this lake and have sung of the tragic events that have occurred on its waters. The Champlain Valley is one of the historic portions of the American Continent. Its Indian occupation was succeeded by that of the French, and in turn by the English. From its discovery in July, 1609, to the battle of Plattsburgh, in September, 1814, Lake Champlain was the thoroughfare of many expeditions and the scene of many sanguinary engagements. Noted French, British, and American officers visited it and stopped at its forts, from St. Anne on the north, founded at Isle La Motte in 1665, to St. Frederic, founded in honor of the French secretary of foreign affairs, Frederick Maurepas, by Marquis de Beauharnais, governor-general of Canada, at Crown Point in 1731, and Fort Carillon, founded at Ticonderoga in 1766, on the south. The grants of some of its islands and adjacent shore lands under French seignories were the subject of a long controversy between the French and British Governments, challenging on the one side the consideration of such officials as Marquis de Beauharnais and others under Louis XV and Louis XVI, and on the other side such statesmen as Lord Dartmouth, Edmund Burke, and Sir Henry Moore under the British Crown. But few, if any, occupations were made under French seignorial grants, and the controversy finally ended after the Seven Years' French and Indian war, which terminated with the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by the British in 1759, and the later sovereign control by the Americans during the Revolution. The Champlain Valley was the scene of important military and one naval engagement during the Revolutionary war, and permission bas been obtained from the War Department to raise from the waters of Lake Champlain the Royal Savage at Valcour Island, the flagship of Benedict Arnold during that engagement. The history of Ticonderoga and Macdonald's victory at the battle of Plattsburgh, in September, 1814, are of such national importance as to merit federal consideration during the forthcoming celebration of the discovery of the lake. For two hundred years or longer the Champlain Valley was the highway between Albany on the south and Quebec on the north, through which surged the tides of war and travel, until every prominent point and important island in the lake was marked by some notable event worthy of historic mention. The proposed celebration of the discovery of the lake will commemorate some of these important events. Sewell S. Cutting, D. D., in a poem read at the University of Vermont in 1877 thus describes some of these events. He says: I shift my theme, nor yet shall wander far; Not English speech these savage wilds first heard, On dusky forins in craft of fragile bark, When first the paleface from the distant sea No part of the United States can vie in comparison with Lake Champlain and its environs for historic importance and the ultimate significance of the national and international events occurring in that valley. "Every bay and island of the lake and nearly every foot of its shore have been the scene of some warlike movment-the midnight foray of the predatory savage, the bloody scout of frontier settlers, the rendezvous of armed bands, or the conflict of contending armies." These stirring events cover a period of centuries-from the traditional history of the Indians to the close of the war of 1812. From the earliest periods of settlement in Canada, New England, and New York the valley of Lake Champlain, both as watercourse or highway, served as a thoroughfare by which, in hostile times, predatory excursions were directed against both the French and English frontiers, and over which captives were conveyed into unenviable captivity. This was the route traversed by delegations engaged in diplomatic relations between the French and English colonists, and was used by agents employed to arrange an exchange of captives. The valley was a highway of commerce, particularly in the operations of the fur trade. Its Indian name, meaning "door of the country," was an apt designation, for into it there marched the flower of contending armies of France, England, and the United States, who struggled persistently for its control. The destinies of the United States and Canada and of England's colonial policy were largely decided by what occurred in the Champlain Valley. An unjust historical perspective is often created by placing too high value upon the significance of figures. Large armies do not always count for as much in their influence upon the course of the world's history as events more hidden from view and surrounded with less of glamour. The one more easily bewitches the eyes, but the other is more likely to appeal to reason. The history of the Champlain Valley exhibits in relief momentous martial and naval engagements and in intaglio the deeds of individuals and collections of men pregnant with far-reaching results in the evolution of the continent of North America. Samuel Champlain laid the foundations of New France at Quebec in 1608, and in 1609 led an expedition into the Richelieu River, accompanied by a retinue of Algonquian and other Canadian Indians. the falls of Chambly he abandoned the vessel in which he had sailed, and by portaging and canoeing reached the entrance of a great lake, which he named Lake Champlain. Its confines constituted one of the hunting grounds of the well-organized Iroquoian Confederacy. The Iroquois were then at great enmity with the Algonquians and the Canadian Hurons. At On the night of July 29, 1609, Champlain fell in with one of the hunting parties of the Iroquois. They spent the night in parleying and uttering defiance at one another, and on the morning of July 30 the now well-known battle of Champlain took place at or near the site of Ticonderoga, as is generally believed by the best historians. The significance of this battle is attested by the alienation of the Iroquois from the French and their affiliation with the Dutch and English, and was one of the embryonic factors which, under development, ultimately saved northern New York and a large contiguous territory to English instead of French interests. France claimed the region by right of discovery, but England sought to repress her by the limitations of treaty. In 1731 France violated the compact of peace by the erection of Fort St. Frederic on the peninsula known better as Crown Point. The Iroquois, as claimants of territorial ownership, in June, 1737, protested against the French occupation. In 1739 the French commandant promised the Iroquois that France would not encroach or settle south of Fort St. Frederic, but he claimed for his King all the watershed of the St. Lawrence, |