Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1886 — A Kentuckian Sits on a Chaplain. [ARTICLE]

A Kentuckian Sits on a Chaplain.

Senator McCreery was not a religious man and did not have much respect for religion. He preferred a race horse to a church, and a mint julep to a hymn book. One morning Mr. Sutherland, who was Chaplain of the Senate, had some distinguished divine as and invited him to officiate in his place on that day. The stranger, not having ever enjoyed the honor before, thought he would make the most of the case, and delivered a fervent prayer, which was intended for the spiritual benefit of the Senators. There was more truth than compliment in his utterances, and at the conclusion of his prayer Senator McCreery sent to the Clerk’s desk a resolution. Mr. McDonald, who was then Chief Clerk of the Senate, always read over documents to himself carefully before he reported them to the Senate, and it was fortunate he had this habit in this case. He took the resolution , which Mr. McCreery sent to the desk, read it over, colored up to ,his ears, and turning around, held a whispered conversation with Mr. Ferry, who was in the chair. Mr. Ferry declared at once that the resolution of the Senator from Kentucky was not in order. Mr. McCreery demanded that it should be read, and there was a little breeze in which the Chair conquered, as he usually does on such occasions. Several Senators rushed up to the desk to see what the paper was about, and it was afterward passed around quite freely. It was a series of whereases, which set forth the gentleman who had just occupied the floor, did not address his remarks to the President of the Senate, as required by the rules, but to a Being not recognized by the Constitution of the United States, and entirely unknown to that body. “Whereas’in the words of the gentleman, he asserted that the Senate of the United States' was composed of men who were weak and sinful, and wanting in Christian grace ; and “Whereas, If these remarks were true, the persons so described were unfit to represent the several States or to frame laws for the people; therefore, be it r “Resolved, That the Committee on Privileges and Elections be instructed to summon before them at once the person who hail offered the prayer, and compel him to prove the_ truth of his assertions or retract them.” — Washington Cor. Philadelphia Netes.