The first statutory authority for compensation of members and officers of the Senate and House was enacted on September 22,1789. Act of Sept. 22, 1789, ch. 17,1 Stat. 70. Included in the provisions for compensation of officers was authority to pay "each chaplain of Congress, at the rate of five hundred dollars per annum during the session of Congress." Id. § 4. Three days later, the House and Senate reached agreement on the Amendments to the Constitution, including the First Amendment, which they would send to the states for ratification. 1 House J. 121; 1 Senate J. 88.
Legislative chaplaincies were not unique to the national legislature. The election and compensation of chaplains, and the use of opening legislative prayers, were just as common in colonial and state legislatures, as well as the state constitutional ratifying conventions of 1787-1790. See, e.g.. Marsh, 463 U.S. at 789-90, 794; Votes & Proceedings of the Lower House of Assembly of the Province ofMd., Dec. 12, 1754, at 4; J. of the Proceedings of the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, Feb. 23 and Mar. 9,1784, at 7,63. For example, the State of Virginia, which took a leading role in the framing and adoption of the First Amendment, elected and compensated a chaplain as a legislative officer in its colonial legislature and in its ratifying convention. SeeJ. of the House of Burgesses ofVa., Nov. 20 and 21,1712, at 34,36; J. of the House of Delegates ofVa., June 24 and 30,1788, at 1,151; Debates and Other Proceedings of the Convention of Virginia, June 2,1788 at 13 and June 26,1788 at 670. To this day, most state legislatures begin their sessions with prayer. Marsh, 463 U.S. at 789 n.l 1.
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