Treason perverts church service
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch June 12, 1862:
How the people are to pray.
Usurping the prerogative of the Almighty, as will be seen by the following order, our enemies have undertaken to prescribe the from and the substantiae of the people’s prayers. They are required to pray for the success of those who have invaded their homes, insulted their wives and daughters, and attempted to arm their slaves and incite them to insurrection — or, which is the same thing, they are forbidden to invoke the blessings of Heaven upon a gallant army in expelling such a foe from their midst. In forbidding us to pray for the success of our, cause, they require us to pray for the success of theirs.
Office Mil’y Comm’dt of New Orleans.
City Hall, May28, 1862.
hereafter, in the churches in the city of New Orleans, prayers will not be offered up for the destruction of the Union or Constitution of the United States, for the success of the rebel armies, for the Confederate States, so called, or any officers of the same, civil or military, in their official capacity.
While protection will be afforded to all churches, religious houses and establishments, and religious “services are to be had as in times of profound peace,” this protection will not be allowed to be perverted to the upholding of treason or advocacy of it in any form. Where thus perverted, it will be withdrawn. G. F. Shepley,
Military Commandant.
A lawyer from Maine, George Foster Shepley began his Civil War career as the colonel of the 12th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He served as military governor of Louisiana from 1862-1864. He later ran Richmond from mid-April into June 1865.
Our federal Union must be preserved, by Gum!
From St. Patrick's, New Orleans 1852
