{"id":"01KG8AMJWK171QC7TVWGRA4KZ1","cid":"bafkreifthhx2ts2tvtuiuh4x55k7a7dtpaxqmaq56mgg5zernud3szjmiq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6079,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.271Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":6015,"text":"efficacious, in all despotic governments, it is for the throne and\r\naltar to go hand-in-hand.\r\n\r\nThe accommodations of our chapel were very poor. We had nothing to sit\r\non but the great gun-rammers and capstan-bars, placed horizontally upon\r\nshot-boxes. These seats were exceedingly uncomfortable, wearing out our\r\ntrowsers and our tempers, and, no doubt, impeded the con-version of\r\nmany valuable souls.\r\n\r\nTo say the truth, men-of-war’s-men, in general, make but poor auditors\r\nupon these occasions, and adopt every possible means to elude them.\r\nOften the boatswain’s-mates were obliged to drive the men to service,\r\nviolently swearing upon these occasions, as upon every other.\r\n\r\n“Go to prayers, d——n you! To prayers, you rascals—to prayers!” In this\r\nclerical invitation Captain Claret would frequently unite.\r\n\r\nAt this Jack Chase would sometimes make merry. “Come, boys, don’t hang\r\nback,” he would say; “come, let us go hear the parson talk about his\r\nLord High Admiral Plato, and Commodore Socrates.”\r\n\r\nBut, in one instance, grave exception was taken to this summons. A\r\nremarkably serious, but bigoted seaman, a sheet-anchor-man—whose\r\nprivate devotions may hereafter be alluded to—once touched his hat to\r\nthe Captain, and respectfully said, “Sir, I am a Baptist; the chaplain\r\nis an Episcopalian; his form of worship is not mine; I do not believe\r\nwith him, and it is against my conscience to be under his ministry. May\r\nI be allowed, sir, _not_ to attend service on the half-deck?”\r\n\r\n“You will be allowed, sir!” said the Captain, haughtily, “to obey the\r\nlaws of the ship. If you absent yourself from prayers on Sunday\r\nmornings, you know the penalty.”\r\n\r\nAccording to the Articles of War, the Captain was perfectly right; but\r\nif any law requiring an American to attend divine service against his\r\nwill be a law respecting the establishment of religion, then the\r\nArticles of War are, in this one particular, opposed to the American\r\nConstitution, which expressly says, “Congress shall make no law\r\nrespecting the establishment of religion, or the free exercise\r\nthereof.” But this is only one of several things in which the Articles\r\nof War are repugnant to that instrument. They will be glanced at in\r\nanother part of the narrative.\r\n\r\nThe motive which prompts the introduction of chaplains into the Navy\r\ncannot but be warmly responded to by every Christian. But it does not\r\nfollow, that because chaplains are to be found in men-of-war, that,\r\nunder the present system, they achieve much good, or that, under any\r\nother, they ever will.\r\n\r\nHow can it be expected that the religion of peace should flourish in an\r\noaken castle of war? How can it be expected that the clergyman, whose\r\npulpit is a forty-two-pounder, should convert sinners to a faith that\r\nenjoins them to turn the right cheek when the left is smitten? How is\r\nit to be expected that when, according to the XLII. of the Articles of\r\nWar, as they now stand unrepealed on the Statute-book, “a bounty shall\r\nbe paid” (to the officers and crew) “by the United States government of\r\n$20 for each person on board any ship of an enemy which shall be sunk\r\nor destroyed by any United States ship;” and when, by a subsequent\r\nsection (vii.), it is provided, among other apportionings, that the\r\nchaplain shall receive “two twentieths” of this price paid for sinking\r\nand destroying ships full of human beings? How is it to be expected\r\nthat a clergyman, thus provided for, should prove efficacious in\r\nenlarging upon the criminality of Judas, who, for thirty pieces of\r\nsilver, betrayed his Master?\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBSW778JG41ZCTCXETZ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJWKVZWS347CZ33JHXXH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJWKGBW32V6T178P22CG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.875Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:47.601Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}