Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1877 — Clerical Statesmen. [ARTICLE]

Clerical Statesmen.

There have been two or three members of the United States Senate who were preachers. Of these, we recall Everett, of Massachusetts; Colquitt, of Georgia; and Tipton, of Nebraska. In the House there have been a fewministers, notably Hilliard, of Alabama, and Seelye, of Massachusetts. There has been but one member of a Cabinet, besides Mr. Everett, who has added preaching to politics, and he is Secretary Thompson, of the Navy. The Rev. J. C. Fletcher, writing in reference to him in the Indianapolis Journal, says: “ When on a visit to Terre Haute a few days ago, I ascertained a fact about our Secretary of the Navy, which, though it greatly redounds to his credit, I have never seen noticed in print, and which, I have no doubt, so far as he is concerned, would remain forever unnoticed by the press. As I was on my way to church, in company with one of the oldest citizens of Terre Haute, I noticed a carriage driving in the direction of tne country, and my companion remarked, ‘ That carriage contains Hon. Mr. Scott and wife. Mr. Scott is the ex-member of Congress from this district. They are going to a little country Methodist church in the vicinity of Secretary Thompson’s farm. It is there that Ooh Thompson is in the habit,when at home, of each Sabbath expounding the Scriptures to his farmer neighbors. He is now spending his vacation with us, and every Sabbath he really preaches the Gospel. In this he is ably encouraged by his wife, who is one of the ‘salt of the earth.’” It is said, in an article in Harper's Monthly, by a writer who has lived ten years in Alaska, that the land there is worthless, and the seal fisheries likely to soon be exhausted. There are, according to this authority, onlj one hundred white persons in the country.