The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-05-16
Maine Historical. Society.
THE SPRING MEETING IN PORTLAND.
Valuable Papers by Hon. I. Washburn,
Judge Godfrey and Hon William Goold.

at 10 a. m. yesterday and continuing in the
afternoon and evening. In the absence of the
President, Mr.. Bradbury, Rev. DIR. Champlin
the chair.
Among the gentlemen present in the morn
ing were Rev. Dr. Champlin, Professor Pack
ard, Rev. DR.. Dixie, DR.. J. T. Gilman, Collect
or Morrill,, Gen. j. Marshall Brown, III. w.
Richardson, Alex Longfellow, Rev. Mr. Hayes,
DIR. Lapham, William Goold, Ex-Governor
Perham, Hon. William w. Thomas, Mr..
Burnham of Saco, Hon. Geo. F. Talbot, Lewis
Pierce, Mr.. Woods of Bangor, and Mr. Tenney
of the Brunswick Telegraph.
DIR. Packard, secretary, read the request of
the st. John authorities that, owing to the de-
struction of their library by the late great fire,
literary societies throughout the country be
asked to help their institutions with literary
collections.
DIR. Dixie spoke of the high repute in which
the Maine Historical Society was held by the
Nova Scotia Historical Society of Halifax, and
the great attention he was shown by them
when there. The st. John society is weak
They have great regard also for the Maine
society. 1t seemed to him that, considering
he great regard felt for this society by them
the little that could be done for them would be
appreciated and he hoped the Maine Historical
Society would make an effort.
On motion of Rev. Mr.. Hayes it was voted
to send the St. John society copy of the
Maine Historical Society collections.
CLAUDE LA TOUR.
DR.. Packard read a paper on Claude La
Tour by Judge Godfrey of Bangor, presented
at the last meeting but not read.
Claude and Charles La Tour were promi-
nent actors in the early history of Acadia. In
some of the histories in which the affairs of
Acadia and New England are involved these
persons are seemingly confounded with each
other, and the father is implicated in trans
actions in which the son only was concerned
This paper is intended to embody the incidents
in the life of the former that have been pre-
served, that the latter NAV have all the honor
or odium of which he is deserving in one of
the most romantic episodes in New England
history. Claude and Charles La Tour were
with Dumont at Port Royal in 1909 Charles
La Tour was left as lieutenant of Beniscourt,
in command of Fort st. Louis at Cape Sable
during the reign of Henry ~ of France in
1923. Claude, Charles father, was from the
old province of Champagne, France, Hugue-
not and of good family, and poor mason in
Paris early in the 18th century. 1t was
claimed by his descendants that Louis XIII.
granted him large tracts of land at the mouth
of the st. John River, but authority is wanting
on this point, for Henry's descendants were
not so well disposed towards the Huguenots as
to make such gifts. The articles of Cardinal
Richelieu's Hundred Associates exclude
foreigners or heretics from New France.
Claude de La Tour, or rather Claude Turgis
de St. Etienne, does not come into prominent
afterwards Earl of Stirling, had obtained a
grant of Acadia from James I, and devised
plan to induce influential men in Scotland to
join with him in colonizing that province, and
making Acadia, or Nova Scotia, an important
of England The country was to
be divided into provinces, dioceses, baronies,
ard parishes, with certain position after the
youngest sons of yiScounts and lords baronet of
Parliament and to have the prefix of ''Sir."
The scheme did not work very well and the
roll of baronets filed but slowly. The paper
then refers to the dispute between England
France or Acadia. Sir David Kirk, a French
but an English subject, had conf
mand of an English expedition and cap
tured Claude La Tour. Charles, Claude's
son, then in command of Fort st. Louis, want
ed to obtain command of the whole coast o
Acadia, and proposed a memorial to Louis
XIII, saying he could maintain the French
power in his possessions. Claude was cap
tured with the, memorial in his possession.
AS Sir David Kirk was of the same religious
faith as Charles he enlisted the latter in Sir
William Alexander's plan for the colonization
of New France and Claude was made one OF
Sir Williams knights baronet. His patent
dated Nov. 80, 1929.
Claude came to New France, or New Scot
land, with two armed ships. At Cape Sable
he disclosed the project to Charles, but to his
modification his son was loyal to France and
would defend the fort with his life. A siege
of two days caused Claude to beat retreat.
Inundated by his failure Claude would not
retire to England, and Charles not forgetful of
his relation to him, offered to provide him
with a habitation. Claude, afterwards, with
a hundred Scotch colonists settled at Port Roy
al. He built fort at Granville, opposite Goat Is
land on the west side of Annapolis Basin, the
remains of which retain the name OF the
Scotch fort. Charles for his gallant conduct
in connection with the movements OF his Ia
Their, was made Lieutenant General OF Acadia,
Fort st. Louis, Port Latour and dependencies.
Charles invited Claude to Cape Sable, built
him a dwelling and he lived there in comforta-
BILE circumstances in 1886. Claude was also
put in command, it is said, at st. John and, If
this is true, he must have resumed his al
legiance to the French king. Nothing is
known of Claude La Tour after 1886, when
grant of the old dwelling at Pentagoet was
made by Claude de st. Etienne, the
father of Claude de La Tour. There is no
evidence that Claude de La Tour ever
made any claim to any part of Acadia west OF
the st. Croix, or ever visited that portion OF
the country. This being the case, the severe
criticism of the historian of Maine Of his char
acter and proceedings at Machias is not justi-
fed, and if the criticism was applied to his son
it is doubtful if it could be sustained.
On motion of Gen. j. Marshall Brown it was
voted to file the paper in the archives of the
society, and return thanks to Judge Godfrey
for his valuable paper.
THE NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY.
Mr.. Washburn commenced the reading OF a
very long paper of 200 pages, upon the North
eastern Boundary, whose history, he said,
formed a chapter of concessions, submissions
and humiliations, by which the generally fair
record of American plomacy had been
dimmed. He would read it not to cast reproach
upon any of the actors in the deplorable bust
ness, whose history eliminated if it did not
close, in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, a
work which the most indulgent criticism would
h ave pronounced, in the language of Sheridan,
as one (which some might be glad of, but no
body could be proud OFF, Nor would he read
it in the expectation that any thing done now
could repair the mistakes of the past-but
rduner Ill tuo iuOuSu1 tIdI paper
might serve, in some measure, to keep the his
tory and the lesson alive for purposes OF warm
ing and suggestion, would be neither unworthy
nor unwelcome; and he would add with the
further impression that it would not be wholly
uninteresting or Improbable to the present
generation to learn something that may not be
widely known or generally remembered con-
corning the important, protracted and embit-
tered controversy which preceded that settle
ment.
And besides these considerations, he had
sought a personal qualification in an oppo rtu-
nifty to express his sense of the debt due from
the people of Maine to those faithful magis-
trates, especially, who in no hour of pressure
or alarm, allowed for single moment, the
honor of the State, or her material interests,
to be compromised by any action of the COM
monwealth over whose affairs they presided.
OF Enoch Lincoln, Edward Kent and John
Fairfield, it could be said in the words of Sir
Walter Scotts tribute to Fox, they
Stood by their country's honor fast,
And nailed her colors to the mast.
Nor would he pass from this tributory duty
without some reference to two gentlemen upon
whose interest in, and knowledge of, the ques-
tions involved, in all their aspects and rela-
lions, these functionaries always and safely
relied-Col. John G. Deane and Hon. Charles
S. Davies.
Never, he said, was there such history Of
errors, mistakes, blunders, explanations, apol-
ogies, losses and notifications on one side-of
Inconsistencies aggressions, Entertainments,
affronts and contempts ON the other. And in
the calm of this day, when all direct practical
interest in it has ceased, and the sense of wrong