In the aftermath of the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Rev. John G. Butler, pastor of Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., and chaplain of both the U. S. House of Representatives (1865–1875) and the Senate (1886–1893), organized interfaith inaugural prayer meetings in the nation’s capital commencing in 1869. These services continued well into the twentieth century.<ref>http://www.nationalcathedral.org/about/presidentialInaugurals.shtml</ref> | In the aftermath of the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Rev. John G. Butler, pastor of Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., and chaplain of both the U. S. House of Representatives (1865–1875) and the Senate (1886–1893), organized interfaith inaugural prayer meetings in the nation’s capital commencing in 1869. These services continued well into the twentieth century.<ref>http://www.nationalcathedral.org/about/presidentialInaugurals.shtml</ref> |