Paid Chaplains.
With little anticipation of eliciting a newspaper controversy did I pen the article (‘"A Plea for Chaplains"’) which recently appeared in your columns. But as ‘"A Chaplain Without Pay"’ has given vent to his patriotism through the same channel, I must beg the privilege of a reply. That the ‘"manifest design"’ of my article was to prevent the reduction of the Chaplain's pay is evident; but that it was to increase their salaries, to make the Chaplaincy a moneyed office, to secure the services of ‘"preachers in black,"’ which all Chaplains without pay certainly are, or to ‘"annoy Government"’ by provoking applications from ministers who preach for money and not for the salvation of souls, is too enormous to be denied. By a law of the Southern Congress, all Chaplains are commissioned officers, with the rank of 1st Lieutenant. A 1st Lieutenant's pay is ninety dollars per month. Why should the Chaplain's be less? Further, the Chaplaincy is an office of fearful responsibility, and a position of influence, dignity, and weight. A Chaplain must not simply be a preacher; he must be a man of social qualities, a man of nerve, a man of industry, and, most of all, a man of talents; and, unless their salaries be such as to afford partial inducements for them to sacrifice their positions at home, they would be justified in absenting themselves from the ranks, and do, as doubtless many a Chaplain without pay has done, congregate in cities, live on the bounty of friends, sing patriotic psalms to their brethren in the field about low salaries, and never once during the war endure the fatigue of a forced march, or the discomforts of a bivouac on picket for three rainy days and nights. The profession of the Chaplain is not to bear arms, and he cannot perform the duties of his office if he has to live as many of our noble, heroic soldiers are compelled to live.--He must have more leisure, more comforts, and better living; and to defray his own expenses, to say nothing of his clothing, will cost more than half the salary allowed him. In the meantime what is to become of his deserted family? The minister who is worthy being a Chaplain, is apt to be, as is the case with the majority of able preachers, a man of family, a man of mind, and a man of poverty. Patriotism would dictate to such a man to remain at home, sustain his family, Christianize his community, and endeavor by his prayerful eloquence to secure for his bleeding country the assistance of a merciful God, rather than his little ones should suffer or be thrown upon the charities of his neighbors, while he was laboring almost free of charge in the tented field for a country abounding in wealth. ‘"A Chaplain Without Pay"’ will excuse me for agreeing with him, exactly, when he says, ‘"in fact there is no necessity for any paid Chaplains for this city."’ My ‘"plea"’ was exclusively perhaps should have been so stated, for whose men of God, who, in addition to the usual concomitants of the pulpit, buckle on the armor of Mars, and undergo the privations of the camp. As to the ‘"soldiers contributing something extra to the support"’ of the man they want, and who won't stay for $50 per month, this is all stuff. Many a poor soldier here, near Centreville, who, while at home in his little hut, surrounded by his industrious wife and barefoot little children, can luxuriate without cost upon rich milk and sweet butter, and all kinds of vegetables, can scarcely lay up, per month, enough to buy his wife a calico dress, if he ventures to gratify his palate with these luxuries once a week. A word more, Mr. Editor, if you please, and I address it particularly to ‘"A Chaplain Without Pay."’ Since the reduction by Congress of the Chaplains' pay, many of the regiments in the ‘"Army Corps of the Potomac"’ have lost their Chaplains by resignations. Be the cause what it may, such is the fact, and if the resigned officers are not justified, they and their consciences must suffer for it. One thing is clear; the way is open for all Chaplains who are willing to work without pay; and I, for one, hope they will not all the winter ensconce themselves in snug booths about Richmond, while the patriots of the South, destitute of spiritual admonitions, are freezing upon the heights of Centreville.
