Voluntary chaplains.
Editors Dispatch:--In your issue of the 11th instant appeared ‘"a plea for chaplains,"’ the manifest design of which was to secure higher salaries for the chaplains employed by the Confederate Government.
I shall make no comment on the ground of the plea — the baptism of a dying man; but I would fain hope that our Government will not increase the pay of chaplains.
Fifty dollars per month is enough for any chaplain who has the patriotism that is demanded by the present war, and is willing to economise for the good of the country and the rights of the tax-payer.
While so many are ready to prey on the
Confederate treasury, let the ministers of
Jesus Christ set an example of self-denial, by being contented with the present salaries.
If the
Government allowance ‘"is below a living salary,"’ if the chaplain is the man whom the soldiers like and want, they will contribute something extra to his support.
In fact there is no necessity for any paid chaplains for this city.
The pastors of the different churches have voluntarily agreed to attend to the hospitals and camps about the city without fee or reward.
This looks like patriotism that may and doubtless will be copied by other cities.
This arrangement, moreover, will enable the different denominations to have the services of ministers of their own persuasions, which the pious sick always desire; and the pastors are cheerful in the offer of these labors of love without further pay than that they receive from their own churches and congregations.
The writer of this article has no salary from any source, and yet he has officiated willingly in his ministerial office at the hospitals, without pay, whenever called upon, ever since the
battle of Manassas.
He is willing to continue to do so on the same terms.
I hope again, therefore, that our wise Government will keep the salaries of their chaplains at their present amounts.
There are men enough, and good men too, that can be had for that figure; and, I repeat, that something is due from the patriotism of chaplains.
Put up the salaries to $1,500 and the
Government will be as much annoyed by preachers in black as it is for office in the secular departments.
These are times that try men's souls, and let the preachers bear their part without looking to see if there is a dollar in prospect for labor done.
A Chaplain Without Pay.
Richmond, Nov. 11, 1861.
