Jul 4, 2024

Byron Sunderland

It was a typical hot, muggy day in Washington, DC., when President Lincoln called the 37th Congress into emergency session on Tuesday, July 4, 1861. Confederate troops were advancing toward the capital, and many feared an assault was imminent. Confederate forces had attacked Ft. Sumter, South Carolina only three months earlier, plunging an already divided nation into Civil War. Abraham Lincoln took swift action, calling for a larger militia and ordering a blockade of southern ports. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus that required the government to justify the detention of people considered dangerous to public safety. Abe Lincoln’s critics claimed he had overstepped his role as chief executive officer in not seeking congressional approval for his decisions.

President Lincoln labored over his speech to the emergency session, a copy of which is on display at the Library of Congress. His message—which is not nearly as well-known as it deserves to be—artfully expresses his reasoning and defends his actions. He closes with the words, “Let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.”

When Vice President Hannibal Hamlin brought the gavel down, calling the 37th Congress into session on that fateful July 4th, one-third of the Congressional delegates were not at their desks, having already defected to the Confederate cause. Byron Sunderland (1819-1901), who served as chaplain of the Senate and pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Washington, DC, led Congress in prayer. His prayer was printed in its entirety in the Congressional Globe, the precursor to the Congressional Record. How much we need this prayer in our day of political strife and partisan politics:

Almighty and everlasting God, be not angry with us for our sins, which we only confess and deplore, but pardon our offenses and extend to us Thy favor. We thank Thee for Thy goodness on this anniversary of our nation—a day tenfold more precious by reason of our present troubles and sacred to the heart for the ever-memorable declaration of our fathers, in which Thou didst begin more openly to give us a name among the nations of the earth. We thank Thee for all Thy manifold and abundant mercies hitherto to make our nation exceedingly great and glorious, but now disasters have befallen us, and darkness broods in the land. And now we ask Thy mercy as the Senate is convening at a most momentous crisis of our history. Give to Thy servants all needed help. Add to their deliberations wisdom and unanimity, profit, and speed to their conclusions. Bless Thy servant, the President of the United States, our veteran Commander-in-Chief, and all that have functions in the civil and military power. May the angel of Thy presence walk in the Cabinet and in the Congress and in the camp, to go before, to purify and to direct the now greatly and universally awakened love of country. And we beseech Thee to guide us, to overrule and order all things, and so to cause that nothing shall fail, that the disorders of the land may be speedily healed, that peace and concord may prevail, that truth and righteousness may be established, and that Thy Church and Kingdom may flourish in a larger peace and prosperity, for Thy Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

The Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, First Session, July 4, 1861

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.