Dorr, George Bucknam

English

University of Maine

The University of MaineDigitalCommons@UMaineMaine History Documents Special Collections1919The Sieur de Monts National Monument as aHugenot MemorialGeorge Bucknam DorrFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryPart of the History CommonsThis Monograph is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine HistoryDocuments by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contactum.library.technical.services@maine.edu.Repository CitationDorr, George Bucknam, "The Sieur de Monts National Monument as a Hugenot Memorial" (1919). Maine History Documents. 81.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistory/81rr(;l. II'\A. F J...' Mi . C:;y/; " , 23 (;.1 SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS XXIII The Sieur de Monts National Monument as a H llguenot Memorial PUBLISHED BY THE 'WILD GARDENS OF ACADIA BAR HARBOR, MAINE I L OOK I NG SEAWARD FROM ACADIA MOUNTAIN THE SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONU MENT AS A HUGUENOT MEMORIAL. GEOR GE B UCK NA M D ORR De M onts was a Huguenot and the governor of a Huguenot city of refuge in southwestern France. H e sprang from a Huguenot family and his father had fonght by King H enry 's side through the R ehgious Wars, as had De M onts himself in their lat er course. In commemorating him and the develop-m ent that sprang from his initiative upon these shores , t he Sieur de Monts N ational Monument commemorates as well the great m ovement for religious freedom of the 16th and 17th cen turies in France. The founding of Acadia t ook place during the one brief period of religious toleration France knew in centuries . After it , t here came a time of reaction , of intolerance and brutal persecution , t hat drove from France by t ens and ultimat ely hundreds of thousands the Huguenot s, m en who dared to think for themselves in religious matters and t o assert their right t o worship in accordance with their conscience. F orbidden to leave the count ry , they fled as they could, to the Lowlands, t o England and America. The coming of these Huguenot families to unite their for-tunes with those of the English colonist s on our Atlantic shore became a m ost important factor in the early development of America, enriching its people with some of the best blood in The Sieur de Monts National Monument on the coast of Maine form s the first and as yet the only National park, other than military , to the east of t he Mississippi or bordering u pon the ocean. A gift to the Nation , accepted by t he President and Secretary of the Interior under the powers given t hem by the Monument Act of I 906, it occupies t he grand range of seaward-facing mowltains which gave M ount Deser t I sland its original name- Isle des Monts deserts-and has made it a beacon to ma ri11ers from the t in1e of Champlain on . This whole region lay in t he French province of Acadia founded by De M on ts in I604 , and held by France t hereafter until lost to England on the battl efi elds of Europe in t he r8th cent ury . • UNIV Of MAINE IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~II~IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~ I11I11111 3 7550 01152752 1 France and with men of exceptional courage, enterprise, and readiness to sacrifice to high ideals. The energy, moral and intellectual, of that inheritance still makes itself felt in America to-day. An astonishing number of those sharing in it have been leaders in the Nation at one time or another, in social ways, in business, in the world of statesmanship and thought. In this, different though it was in many ways, the Hugue-not stock resembles the old Puritan stock of New England, brought out to America by a like cause, the quest after freedom to worship according to their faith. That these two elements, tried and selected out by persecution, should have had so great a part in molding the development of a mixed and multi-tudinous people like the American, in which numerically they now form so relatively small a part, is tremendously striking and significant. We are passing into new religious phases now, seeking to adjust our convictions to a wider view and better knowledge of material fact, but now as then, religious conviction in some sort must ultimately prove the touchstone of character and the molding force of the new world that presently will issue from our racial and social strifes. The form changes but the issue remains the same; individual freedom with the superior moral fibre and personal initiative it breeds against the greater efficiency of autocratic State control. Often successful, as one looks back over the pages of his-tory, rarely has anything constructive or enduring been founded by the latter; but all that stands out as marking progress and the high attainments of national character has been associated with individual freedom and ruling by the people. It is for this above all that the Huguenot immigra-tion to America stands. The religious tenets fought for and suffered for no longer retain their old importance, but the .great principle of human freedom, the freedom of the individual soul, which lay behind, is a living issue still, and on it hangs the future of humanity. 

The Sieur de Monts National Monument as a Hugenot Memorial

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The Sieur de Monts National Monument as a Hugenot Memorial

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