William Linn (1752-1808) was elected on May 1, 1789, as the first Chaplain of U.S. House of Representatives and given a salary of $500 from the Federal Treasury. In 1772, William Linn graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and was ordained by the Donegal Presbytery in 1775.
Linn served as a chaplain during the American Revolutionary War and was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Big Springs, Pennsylvania. William Linn moved to Maryland to be principal of the Washington Academy. In 1787, William Linn was appointed a trustee of Queen's College. He became the second President of Queen's College, now Rutgers University, and served for 21 years as a Regent of the University of the States of New York. The father of the poet John Blair Linn (1777-1804), Reverend William Linn was described as:
<A most ardent and impassioned minister.> 1752WL001
Reverend William Linn stated:
<Let my neighbor once persuade himself that there is no God, and he will soon pick my pocket, and break not only my leg but my neck. If there be no God, there is no law, no future account; government then is the ordinance of man only, and we cannot be subject for conscience sake.> 1752WL002
--
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1752WL001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Linn, Rutgers University, President. Rutgers University, Leadership on the Banks: Rutgers' Presidents, 1766-2004, William Linn, President Pro Tem, 1791-1795. http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/university_archives/linn.shtml 1752WL002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Linn, first chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives. Linn, William. May 1, 1789, elected chaplain of the United States House of Representatives. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 4. 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.