Replies

Gotta do it! I am sick of the ACLU tyrannizing my people.

And lying. I found some very interesting stuff about our government and religion over the weekend.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06-2.html

It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and of James Madison (1809-1817) the state became the church. Within a year of his inauguration, Jefferson began attending church services in the House of Representatives. Madison followed Jefferson's example, although unlike Jefferson, who rode on horseback to church in the Capitol, Madison came in a coach and four. Worship services in the House--a practice that continued until after the Civil War--were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary. Preachers of every Protestant denomination appeared. (Catholic priests began officiating in 1826.) As early as January 1806 a female evangelist, Dorothy Ripley, delivered a camp meeting-style exhortation in the House to Jefferson, Vice President Aaron Burr, and a "crowded audience." Throughout his administration Jefferson permitted church services in executive branch buildings. The Gospel was also preached in the Supreme Court chambers.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(hj02166))

Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, 1827-1828
SATURDAY, March 1, 1828.

Link to date-related documents.

Page 362Page image

Ordered, That the said bill be committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Monday next.

Mr. Buckner, from the same committee, made an unfavorable report on the petition of Susanna McHugh; which was read, and laid on the table.

Mr. Van Rensselaer, from the Committee on the Public Buildings, reported the following resolution, viz:

Resolved, That the use of the Hall of the House of Reprentatives [unless specially granted by order of the House] be prohibited for any other purpose than the public business of Congress, and religious service on Sunday.

This resolution was read: When,

A motion was made by Mr. Bartlett, to amend the same by striking out the words, "and religious service on Sunday:"

And the question being put,

It passed in the affirmative.