My how the Constitution changes without being amended.
Behold the genesis of enforcing the 'New World (State) Order.'
My how the Constitution changes without being amended.
Your observation that the practice of religion by Government officials on Government property have changed thoughout our history is valid. Your apparent conclusion, however, doesn't necessarily follow from it.
If the earlier practices had been tested against the Constitution and found valid, and then later the same practices had been tested and found invalid, then your conclusion would be justified. For example, if someone had brought suit in 1799 that holding religious services in the Senate Chamber was a violation of the First Amendment and lost, the practice had continued, and then suit had been brought in 1999 and won, then that would represent a change. But since no one brought suit about something like this early in our history, for all we know this practice was always unConstitutional, it just had never been tested yet. From Washington on, the Court has never been advisory. Suit has to be brought for a specfic circumstance. If no suit for a particular circumstance is brought, then we have no legal surety whether or not that circumstance is Constitutional or not.
Actually, given recent rulings it seems to me that holding religious services in the Senate chambers would be perfectly legal, as long as the Senate was not in session at the particular time (I mean date and time, not just within that week or whatever) and equal access to the schedule was offered to any religious group.