Criticism on Prayer.

The following resolution was introduced in the Yankee Senate a few days ago by Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware:

Resolved, That the Chaplain of the Senate be respectfully request hereafter to pray and supplicate to Almighty God in our behalf and not lecture him, informing him, under pretense of prayer, of his, said Chaplain’s opinion in reference to his duty as to his duty as the Almighty, and that the said Chaplain be further requested as aforesaid, not under the form of prayer, to lecture the Senate in relation to questions before the body.

Mr. Howard objected to the resolution and the Senate went into executive session.

Published in The Way of the World, Greensboro, North Carolina, Thursday, April 28, 1864, p. 2.

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 2, 1863

After the feat at Charleston, Gen. Beauregard and Commodore Ingraham invited the consuls resident to inspect the harbor, and they pronounced the blockade raised, no United States ship being seen off the coast. Then the general and the commodore issued a proclamation to the world that the port was open. If this be recognized, then the United States will have to give sixty days' notice before the port can be closed again to neutral powers; and by that time we can get supplies enough to suffice us for a year. Before night, however, some twenty blockaders were in sight of the bar. It is not a question of right, or of might, with France and England — but of inclination. Whenever they, or either of them, shall be disposed to relieve us, it can be done.

There was a fight near Suffolk yesterday, and it is reported that our troops repulsed the enemy.

The enemy's gun-boats returned to the bombardment of Fort McAlister, and met no success. They were driven off. But still, I fear the fort must succumb.

Senator Saulsbury, of Delaware, has been arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, for his denunciation of Lincoln as an “imbecile.” And a Philadelphia editor has been imprisoned for alleged “sympathy with secessionists.” These arrests signify more battles — more blood.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 253-4