The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-24
New York Herald.l

(NeW YORK Hefald.D
| In the ninety-ninth year of his age.
and almost seeing the dawn of another
century, William Birth recently pene-
| trated the veil between time and eter-
/ nifty in Washington city. One after
noon when he was in comparatively
good health, he said TO the narrator:
Il have lived in this national capital
all my life and have seen it grow from
! infancy to splendid maturity. l have
known many of our presidents and
/ have seen all but one of them.
/ My earliest TecOllections are of
stories told me by participants of the
war of 1872 1t has always been diff
cult for me to distinguish between
what / then heard and what | actually
saw. / do not believe that l saw the
/ burning of the capitol, and yet / heard
so many stories concerning it that /
/ have pictures of it in my mind, so
/ that il has seemed to me that l could
actually see it all of these years.
Il never saw President Washington,
/ but l heard so much of him from those
who knew him that l feel as though l
had known him in my childhood. |
presume that washington was our
| greatest Christian president and that
/ Jackson was furthest from being an
ideal wOrshiper.
-Four of our presidents were church
| officers. trustees or vestrymen. name
| " Washington, John Quincy Adams
/ Garfield and Benjamin Harrison; Mad
/ isOn, Monroe Tyler, Fillmore, Hayes
and Mckinley were communicates.
Everybody knows that Washington
was an Episcopalian, and all visitors
to this city who have the time go
/ to Alexandria, Va, to see Christ
church, where Washington wOrshiped.
! The old POhick church, out in the
country, is seldom visited. and yet,
as il was nearer Mount Vernon than
Alexandria is, Washington wOrshiped
there more frequently. In fact, Wash
ington selected the site of that church
AMI contributed the greater part of
the funds for building and maintaining
it. During the civil war the Pohick
church was vandalized and part of
the time it was used as a stable for
/ the horses of cavalrymen. 1t is now
restored. and a little congregation wor-
ships there regularly.
John Adams was COngregatiOnalist
and ultimately became a Unitarian.
| There was no church of either one of
those denominations in Washington;
so President Adams went to either an
Episcopalian or a little Methodist
church. Methodism was not popular
| in those days. He always walked to
walked about the capital city and min
gled with their fellow citizens as free
ly as they did at their homes until the
civil war came, and since then they
have been less accessible to the public.
President Thomas jefferson attend
ed different churches and was what
might be called a gOdly man. and he
was an apprOachable man, too. He
was not church member and was de-
nounced in political campaigns as
| French infidel His own daughters
were educated in a Catholic convent in
France.
President Madison was educated at
Princeton, where Presbyterianism was
and has been Graded; but he was an
Episcopalian always and a regular at
tendant and communicate.
President Monroe was also an Epis-
cOpalian and regular in mis- attendance
at church But he was reserved man
and people thought him an aristocrat
in his tendencies. He never stopped
to talk to the folks after meetings and
did not mingle with the people very
freely.
Although John Quincy Adams at
tended the Second Presbyterian church
in Washington, he was a Unitarian
There was no Unitarian church in
| Washington, so he attended the Sec
ond Presbyterian services.
President Jackson was scotch
Presbyterian. and he also attended the
Second Presbyterian church. The Rev
Mr.. Campbell was an eloquerE preach
er and had large congregations He
was unfriendly to the wife of John H
Eaton, secretary of war, a very beau
tiful woman whose name was roughly
handled by the gOssips and President
Jackson left the church on that ac-
count He stood by the abused wom-
an, always to the day of his death de-
Tending her and saying to the Chris
| tians who attacked her; This is a good
woman and good mother. Even if
half of the SANDER were true. in tie
name of Christ, only he who is without
sin should cast a stone at her.