The following prayer was offered up by Rev. Thomas H. Stockton, Chaplain of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, at its opening session on the first Monday of December, 1862:

O God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, giver of the Holy Spirit, maker of angels and of men, ruler of nations and of governments, have mercy upon us, and inspire us with all needful aid to the performance of the solemn duties which devolve upon us as a people and as legislators in this crisis of our nation. We thank thee for this reopening of Congress; that thy servants, having visited their homes, and seen and heard the state and feeling of the country, are now returning to these halls of supreme legislation to renew their deliberations and enactments in behalf of our noble and cherished Union. We thank thee that our Government still stands in full and pristine power; that nations abroad that might have taken advantage of any apparent weakness to aid in dividing our land and nation, so humbling our position and reducing our influence in the world, are restrained by the development and resources with which thou hast enriched and strengthened us, and which transcend our own former foolish boastings as much as they have proved to transcend the estimate of those nations and empires who have so jealously watched us from afar. We thank thee that the life of our beloved and honored President has been preserved; that the Cabinet and Judiciary are in full union, and in harmony with the Executive, and our Legislature with both; that our armies and navies are daily multiplying and extending their national energies and intensifying their moral aim, and that our people are becoming more convinced of the necessity of and more content with the management of our conservative and progressive war. Believing more profoundly that thou art superintending all its forms and all its issues, and bringing all things to thy own plans, and that thou wilt ultimately accomplish thy will in the promotion of the best interests of our country and of the whole world, we thank thee for the brightening prospects for the liberty of the slave, not the result of our own goodness and wisdom, but, as we trust, of thy gracious and urgent ordination. We pray for the entire abolition of the system which has involved us in so much sin and sorrow and shame, and which would be sure if continued to increase our guilt and grief forever. Yet, O Father, our common Father, we most earnestly beseech thee, of thy infinite mercy, to grant that this end may be secured, not by violence, with blood and tears and helpless cries of pain, but by repentance and faith and prudence, by forbear ance and wisdom and love, with mutual concessions and consent and co-operation, followed by reconciliation and a restored Union, by perpetual peace and joy. So shall these United States by these blessings become the praise of the whole earth. We thank thee for the recent official and national recognition of the sanctity of the Sabbath. Bless, O Lord, in our land the seventh day of rest, and hallow it, and enable us, under all circumstances, to remember and keep it holy. We pray for a proclamation that will rebuke that covetousness which is idolatry

and that profanity which is blasphemy and indignity to the glory of thy name. And as we are now brought in thy providence again to these halls, we pray that we may solemnly reaffirm with a whole heart thy whole law, not by the assent of hundreds of thousands, but by the amen and hosannas and hallelujahs of all our millions, shaking the continent and the heavens which are above us with the voice of praise and prayer. We pray, O Lord, that the time may soon come when the saints of the Most High shall take and convert and hold the land forever, even forever, that righteousness may spread like the morning upon the mountains, like the noon in our valleys, and like the evening upon our prairies, and when the whole circle of our Confederacy shall rejoice in the smile of Jehovah. We pray that in our conflicts just so far as thou seest right thou wilt give us victory and advancement. Be mindful. O Lord, of the havoc and desolation that is falling upon the land through this war. Remember the sick and the wounded and the dying. We pray for our brethren now in arms against us. We thank thee that it is so easy for us to obey the precepts of our Redeemer, Love your enemies. We cannot cease to love them. May they soon be induced to relinquish the evil that is amongst them, and place higher value on the great principles of the charter of our independence, and show that they regard "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as the right of all mankind, and as beyond all mere local advantages, so that there shall be a restored Union, with increased goodness, and love and glory and joy upon the earth for ever and ever.

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

As the Capitol was consecrated to union, liberty, and virtue, it is proper to record, in a work like this, the act of worship and the scenes and resolutions of a great Union meeting held in its halls on the 11th of April, 1863. The President of the United States, his Cabinet, many officers of the army and navy, and a vast multitude of citizens, were present, filling the House of Representatives, the Senate Chamber, the rotunda, and the halls. It was the largest political gathering ever held in the Capitol, and its object was sanctioned by the purest patriotism and piety. Its deliberations were opened by a solemn prayer offered by Dr. Sunderland, as follows:

Thou everlasting and glorious Lord God, whom we are bound to acknowledge through Jesus Christ thy Son; the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; the God of thy people in all generations; the God of our fathers, and our God, and the God of our children after us: we implore

thee to look down upon the hearts of this vast assemblage as now again we come unto thee for help in prayer; and we beseech thee to add thy blessing to the deliberations of this public assemblage on this occasion. We pray thee to bless thy servants, the President and rulers and lawgivers and magistrates and all the people of this land.

We pray thee especially to bless the officers and men of our army and of our navy, and do thou grant to be the arm of their strength and the power of their inspiration and their defence in the fearful day of battle; and we beseech thee, O Lord, that thou wilt make all this people, from the highest to the lowest, of one spirit, of one mind; and may we never, no, never, no, never give it up, until the cause of civil and religious liberty shall be thoroughly established, not only in our own land, but through all the earth, that the honor of thy great name and the saving help of thy power may be known among all the nations of mankind, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The following resolutions, prepared and presented by ExGovernor Bell, of Ohio, were unanimously adopted:

We, the people of Washington, assembled in the National Capitol, do this day resolve and proclaim:—

1. That in this hour of peril, abjuring every minor consideration, we swear allegiance to the Great Republic, one and indivisible, and rally around her constituted authorities-come life or come death-while one traitor or rebel North or South dare plot sedition, flaunt a flag, or fire a gun.

2. That we well remember and will never forget the day when, a previous Administration having given up half our priceless heritage as not to be fought for, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States; when armies and navies we had none; when open enemies were in our front, their allies in our midst, and traitors in our rear; when the Potomac was blockaded, and the railways cut off; when patriots rushing to our relief were slain in the streets of Baltimore; when our forts and armies were basely surrendered; and when not only the Gulf States, but Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, were lost. How changed is now the scene! We are deliberating in the Capitol. Maryland stands by the flag; Missouri and Kentucky are redeemed; Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas are soon to be added; New England is not "left out in the cold," but South Carolina and all the other Gulf States are to be "plucked as brands from the burning." 3. That more than half the battle is already fought and won. To the timid we say, Safety is in the front, and not in the rear. To advance is to save the republic, maintain our nationality, preserve our liberty, prove our manhood, challenge the respect of our enemies, and commend our institutions to all mankind. To retreat, to hesitate, to parley with treason, is to dismember the nation, trail our flag in the dust, assume the debts of traitors and repudiate our own, abandon our fathers, enslave our wives and children, and consign our names to eternal infamy.

4. That in this great struggle there is no middle ground for half-way men to stand upon. It is loyalty or treason, liberty or bondage, demo

cracy or despotism,-on one side free government, free homes, free schools, security, peace, and American progress,-on the other the mongrel aristocrats who dream of empire, coronets, and titles of nobility, who sigh for the sympathy of the ruling classes of the Old World, to aid them to enslave the poor, oppress honest toil, and shut the light of knowledge out from the soul of man.

5. That, laying on the altar of our country all past political feuds, we here tender to the President and his Administration our confidence and admiration, for stemming the torrent of treason, allaying dissensions at home, holding at bay the enemies of freedom abroad, calling into being, as from nothing, great armies and navies, and money for their support, for striking boldly at slavery, the main-stay of the rebellion, and thus deserving and receiving the plaudits of the good and the brave of all lands, "the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

6. That the Congress just terminated will ever share this glory, for its unfaltering support of the President with men and money, for its foreign and internal revenue acts, for its great national currency, national loan, and national enrolment laws, and its determined and firm protest against all foreign intervention, interference, or counsel in the domestic affairs of our beloved country, for freedom in the District of Columbia, for the national homestead, Pacific railway, Agricultural Colleges, and other great measures beyond enumeration.

7. That we tender to our Union brethren of Kentucky, and to the fifteen thousand brave Union volunteers of East Tennessee now fighting in General Rosecrans's army, and to every loyal heart in all the South, our plighted faith that not one of them or their little ones shall ever be abandoned, but that, in the language of the Constitution, we “guarantee to every State of the Union a republican form of government," under the now dearer than ever flag of our fathers.

8. To our brethren in arms on land and sea we say, All hail! We will, "with our voices, our votes, and our treasure, sustain you in the trials of the camp and the dangers of the field, console your families in their fears and their privations, and willingly prepare wreaths to crown, when your service ends, the returning soldiers of freedom, defenders of the republic, and saviors of the Union."

9. That we will never despair of the American republic. In the cheering language of our greatest living friend abroad, John Bright, "We cannot believe that civilization, in its journey with the sun, will sink into endless night to gratify the ambition of the leaders of this revolt, who seek to wade through slaughter to a throne, and 'shut the gates of mercy on mankind.' We have another and far brighter vision before our gaze. Through the thick gloom of the present we see the brightness of the future as the sun in heaven. We see one vast confederation stretching from the frozen North in one unbroken line to the glowing South, and from the wild billows of the Atlantic to the calmer waters of the Pacific main; and we see one people, and one law, and one language, and one faith, and over all this wide continent the home of freedom and a refuge for the oppressed of every race."

The District of Columbia, in which is located the Capitol of the nation, has become free territory by the abolition of slavery. On the 16th day of April, 1862, an act was passed by Congress and approved by the President, of which the following is the first section :

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled, That all persons held to service or labor within the District of Columbia by reason of African descent are hereby discharged and freed from all claim to such service and labor; and from and after the passage of this act neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in said District.

This act was in harmony with the spirit and precepts of the Christian religion and with the genius and demands of the civil institutions of the nation, as well as with national justice, honor, and consistency. Lafayette expressed, in a letter published in the "Historical Magazine" of 1827, his earnest desire to see some measure of gradual emancipation in the District of Columbia adopted, and declared that "the state of slavery, particularly in that emporium of foreign visitors and European ministers, is a most lamentable drawback on the example of independence and freedom presented to the world by the United States." His wishes and those of many of his illustrious associates in the cause of universal emancipation, as well as those of all true lovers of their country at the present time, are at length consummated, and the Goddess of Liberty which crowns the magnificent dome of the Capitol overlooks a national territory forever consecrated to freedom. The influence of this act has inspired a new life into the enterprise of the city of Washington; and, if moral and Christian culture shall sanctify and direct the material prosperity and the political operations of all departments of the Government, the capital of the American republic will yet be the seat of virtue and religion, the centre of beneficent influences to the nation, and realize the fondest hopes of Washington and the patriotic and Christian founders of this seat of civil empire.