Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-07-07
PRES. TAKES part
AT LAKE CHAMPLA|N.
Presence Of President and Ambassadors Jusserand
And BoyCe Gives Ter.Centenary Celebration an
international SCope-.Forts Are Inspected.

President Taft, speaking next, also took
up the theme of peace.
LAS | sat here listening to the inter
| eSting remarks of the ambassador from
| France and the ambassador from Eng
| land, l could not but congratulate the
| United States on the implied compli-
| ment that those two countries had paid
to her by sending here as the personal
| representatives Of theil respective chief
| executives, men SO distinguished in lit
erature. in history, in craftsmanship
| and in diplomacy.
| another thing that came to me as
sat here and looked at that cmbattleG
| hill was that the state of New York
and the state of Vermont We're most
fortunate in being able to find a place
| upon which three nations could cele-
| brate the past with entire consistency
and with great joy; because, eXercis-
ing proper discrimination they can find
deeds of valor and success for each ma
| tlOn on every spot about this lake.
| "Champlaln was man whom all ma
lions can honor. He is not man with
respect to whose history you have to
pass over sometimes in silence. All
| HIS NE coilu DtdI inc clOSeSt
| ton; and he brings out in the strong
est way those wonderful qualities
shown in the 18th, 10th and 18th CEN
| turtles by Spaniards, Englishmen,
Frenchmen and Portuguese who braved
| these dreadful terrors of the sea, cir
COMMUNICATED the globe in little cookie
| shells and carried the standard of the
| then civilization into the farthest for
| eSts and into the dangers of the most
| distant tropicS.
II am a good sailor. / don't mind
the waves of the sea. but l should
think that those that did mind them
would not believe the stories of Magel
Ian, of Champlain, of Cortez, and of
| those who came over in craft that seem
no larger than slliffs today.
| Il think it is well for us to go back
through the history of all nations. in
order that our own heads. a little
swelled, with modern progress may be
diminished a bit in the proper appre-
citation of what was done by nations
before us, under conditions that SEEM
ed to limit the possibility of human
achievement, but limitations that were
overcome by the bravery, the courage
anu t1le TellSlOuS ldllI Vi IldllOHS tlldt
preceded us in developing the world.
There were Montcalm and Wolfe
two great Christians back to whom you
trace the whole history of lower Cana
da. 1t is true Wolfe conquered Mont
calm on the Plains of Abraham, but
there is still in all the region of lower
Canada a population purely French, q
population industrious, God fearing and
loyal to the flag under whose govern
ment they live. That fact is COM
pliment not only to the far seeing
| craftsmanship of the English colonial
statesman who framed the govern
ment under which they live. but it is
a compliment to- the present industrial
| domestic virtues of the French nation.
| For 16 years 1t was my good fortune
to go to Murray Bay In Canada for the
| summer. There | learned some things
and one was while the Murray High
| landers and other soldiers of England
conquered on the Plains of Abraham
quite a number OF those soldiers went
down the ST Lawrence and were IN
duced to settle on the French scg-
neuries which lie some so miles below
| Quebec.
There were Blackburns and War
rens and MacNeils and FraZiers and
Nairns and all the Scotch names that
bring back the memory of the Murray
Highlanders And what did they do!
They had the good sense to MARI.
French women. And what happened?
That country is full of Blackburns and
Fraziers and MacNeils and Warrens
and Nairns today and they don't any
| of them speak a word of English.
There are other ways of conquer
| ing a people than merely by guns.
This valley in which we are, in the
300 years since it was discovered by
Champlain has furnished almost as
much of a battle ground for the three
nations and the Indians which were on
| all sides as Belgium in Europe and one
does not have to seek far for the rea-
son. If you will read the account given
| by Benedict Arnold of his attempt to
reach Quebec through Maine, you will
understand why everybody else that
went that way went by Lake Cham
plain. The truth Is, 1t was the only
passage way, and as the st. Lawrence
on the one hand offered great place
| for settlement, and the Hudson on the
other and all the Atlantic coast. in or
der to reach the two this was the pas
sageway, and here were fought the
battles, continued for 200 years, and
as we now say, never to recur again.
They did not occur In the Civil War,
/ believe, except a little adventure by
some rash representatives Of the Con-
federacy who tried toybreak bank in
St Adams: but with that exception we
have to go back to the war of 1872 for
the use of this spot as a battle ground
J II echo and emphasize the state
ments Of the two ambassadors and re-