RICHMOND, VA., April 10,
1865 — 4 p.m.
Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:
Telegram respecting omission of prayer just received.
Permission was given to open all the churches yesterday on the general condition
that no disloyal sentiments should be uttered. No special authority was given
to omit the prayer for the President, but it was distinctly understood that
that prayer would not be said in the Episcopal churches. As I have already
reported, Weitzel is of opinion that this prayer should be required of all
those denominations of whose service it forms a regular part, but on the urgent
advice of Shepley, military governor, and Brevet Brigadier-General Ripley, he
did not give a positive order enforcing it. In bringing about this result, as I
was informed by Shepley, the influence of Campbell was exerted, but I now learn
that he had no interview with Weitzel upon the subject, but with Shepley alone.
Weitzel's decision not to give a positive order was also in a great measure the
result of the President's verbal direction to him, to let them down easy.
Shepley also adduced in favor of his advice the examples of New Orleans,
Norfolk, and Savannah, in all of which places, as he said, the rule was not at
first enforced. I cannot learn that the prayer for the President was said in
any church, though it is reported to me that in all the Episcopal churches,
while the President was omitted from the prayer, the words “all of those in
authority” were included.
C. A. DANA,
Assistant Secretary
of War.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume
46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 684
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