United States Congress (May 1, 1789) elected the Reverend William Linn, a Presbyterian minister from New York City, as the first chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, appropriating
$500.00 dollars from the Federal treasury to pay his salary. In addition to opening Congressional sessions with prayers, House Chaplains regularly held Christian services in the Capitol House Chambers every Sunday.
In 1860, Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall was the first Jewish clergyman invited to open a House session with prayer. Both the House and the Senate have continued to regularly open every session with prayer.
On March 23, 2000, The Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin was chosen to be the Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives. He wrote:
<The Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin,
To serve as Chaplain for the U.S. House of Representatives is truly an honor and a privilege. To be both a minister of the Lord and an officer serving the United States government responds to a twofold call to serve others and offer prayer that unites Heaven and Earth.
With 435 Members in the House and their staffs, plus all the other wonderful people who serve here with committee work or in the Chamber, including teenage Pages, my pastoral duties are many and varied. My goal is to meet the needs of this working community on a personal level. The problems that weigh on hearts and the confusion that at times blocks clarity of thinking become my concerns.
The formal prayer before each legislative session of Congress, and even before days of pro forma sessions, casts a light on the day that awakens faith and calls forth a nation to stand with its leaders and affirm: "In God We Trust." But daily prayer for the Members of the House cannot end there.
I ask people across this great country to join me in praying for the Members of the House of Representatives. Know the Member of your congressional district by name and raise his or her name before God each day with us here in the nation's capital.
Pray for me, also, that I may be always rooted in prayer and a good instrument for accomplishing God's holy will here. Only by being free in the Spirit can I serve all the people here, regardless of their faith persuasion or denomination.
Only by listening attentively to each person can I offer good counsel, encouragement, and gentle correction.
Thank you for your interest in and support of the Members of the House.> 1789US012
From 1789 to 2009, the 59 House Chaplains have been chosen from the following denominations: Methodist 21, Presbyterian 17, Baptist 8, Episcopalian
4, Congregationalists 2, Unitarians 2, Lutheran 1, Roman Catholic 1, Christian 1, Disciples of Christ 1, Universalist 1:
William Linn, Presbyterian, May 1, 1789
Samuel Blair, Presbyterian, Jan. 4, 1790
Ashbel Green, Presbyterian, Nov. 5, 1792
Thomas Lyell, Methodist, Nov. 17, 1800
William Parkinson, Baptist, Dec. 7, 1801
James Laurie, Presbyterian, Nov. 5, 1804
Robert Elliot, Presbyterian, Dec. 1, 1806 Obadiah Bruen Brown, Baptist, Oct. 26, 1807 Jesse Lee, Methodist, May 22, 1809
Nicholas Sneathen, Methodist, Nov. 4, 1811
Jesse Lee, Methodist, Nov. 2, 1812
Obadiah Bruen Brown, Baptist, Sept. 19, 1814 Spencer Houghton Cone, Baptist, Dec. 4, 1815 Burgess Allison, Baptist, Dec. 2, 1816
John Nicholson Campbell, Presbyterian, Nov. 18, 1820 Jared Sparks, Unitarian, Dec. 3, 1821
John Brackenridge, Presbyterian, Dec. 2, 1822 Henry Biddleman Bascom, Methodist, Dec. 1, 1823 Reuben Post, Presbyterian, Dec. 6, 1824
Ralph Randolph Gurley, Presbyterian, Dec. 6, 1830 Reuben Post, Presbyterian, Dec. 5, 1831
William Hammett, Methodist, Dec. 3, 1832 Thomas H. Stockton, Methodist, Dec. 2, 1833 Edward Dunlap Smith, Presbyterian, Dec. 1, 1834 Thomas H. Stockton, Methodist, Dec. 7, 1835 Oliver C. Comstock, Baptist, Dec. 5, 1836 Septimus Tustin, Presbyterian, Sept. 4, 1837
Levi R. Reese, Methodist, Dec. 4, 1837 Joshua Bates, Congregationalist, Dec. 2, 1839 Thomas W. Braxton, Baptist, Dec. 7, 1840 John W. French, Episcopalian, May 31, 1841 John Newland Maffit, Methodist, Dec. 6, 1841
Frederick T. Tiffany, Episcopalian, Dec. 5, 1842 Isaac S. Tinsley, Baptist, Dec. 4, 1843
William M. Daily, Methodist, Dec. 4, 1844
William Henry Milburn, Methodist, Dec. 1, 1845 William T.S. Sprole, Presbyterian, Dec. 7, 1846 Ralph Gurley, Presbyterian, Dec. 6, 1847 Littleton F. Morgan, Methodist, Dec. 1, 1851 James Gallagher, Presbyterian, Dec. 6, 1852 William Henry Milburn, Methodist, Dec. 5, 1853 Thomas H. Stockton, Methodist, Jul. 4, 1861 William Henry Channing, Unitarian, Dec. 7, 1863
Charles B. Boynton, Congregationalist, Dec. 4, 1865 John George Butler, Presbyterian, Mar. 4, 1869
S.L. Townsend, Episcopalian, Dec. 6, 1875
John Poise, Methodist, Oct. 15, 1877
W.P. Harrison, Methodist, Dec. 3, 1877
Frederick Dunglison Power, Disciples of Christ, Dec. 5, 1881 John Summerfield Lindsay, Episcopalian, Dec. 3, 1883 William Henry Milburn, Methodist, Dec. 7, 1885
Samuel W. Haddaway, Methodist, Aug. 7, 1893 Edward B. Bagby, Christian, Dec. 4, 1893 Henry N. Couden, Universalist, Dec. 2, 1895
James Shera Montgomery, Methodist, Apr. 11, 1921 Bernard Braskamp, Presbyterian, Jan. 3, 1950 Edward G. Latch, Methodist, Jan. 10, 1967
James D. Ford, Lutheran, Jan. 15, 1979
Daniel P. Coughlin, Roman Catholic, Mar. 23, 2000> 1789US013
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1789US012. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). United States Congress. May 1, 1789, William Linn elected as first chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 4. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 51. Dickinson W. Adams, ed., Jefferson's Extracts from the Gospels (Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 11. Quoting from William Linn, Serious Considerations on the Election of a President: Addressed to the Citizens of the United States (NY: 1800), p. 19. March 23, 2000, The Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin was chosen to be the Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives.
1789US013. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). List of Chaplains of the U.S. House of Representatives. http://chaplain.house.gov/chaplaincy/history.html