Peter Muhlenberg | |
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| United States Senator fromPennsylvania | |
| In office March 4, 1801 – June 30, 1801 | |
| Preceded by | William Bingham |
| Succeeded by | George Logan |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's4th district | |
| In office March 4, 1799 – March 4, 1801 | |
| Preceded by | John Chapman |
| Succeeded by | Isaac Van Horne |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania'sat-large district | |
| In office March 4, 1793 – March 4, 1795 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| In office March 4, 1789 – March 4, 1791 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| 8th Vice-President of Pennsylvania | |
| In office October 31, 1787 – October 14, 1788 | |
| President | Benjamin Franklin |
| Preceded by | Charles Biddle |
| Succeeded by | David Redick |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746-10-01)October 1, 1746 Trappe, Pennsylvania, British America |
| Died | October 1, 1807(1807-10-01) (aged 61) Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Relations | Muhlenberg family Conrad Weiser (maternal grandfather) |
| Profession | Minister, Politician, Soldier |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | Continental Army |
| Years of service | 1776–1783 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands | 8th Virginia Regiment |
| Battles/wars | |
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (October 1, 1746 – October 1, 1807) was an American clergyman and military officer who served during theAmerican Revolutionary War. A member ofPennsylvania's prominentMuhlenberg family political dynasty, he became a respected figure in the newly independent United States as aLutheran minister and member of theUnited States House of Representatives andUnited States Senate.[1]
Muhlenberg was born October 1, 1746, inTrappe in theProvince of Pennsylvania to Anna Maria Weiser, the daughter ofPennsylvania Dutch pioneer and diplomatConrad Weiser, andHenry Melchior Muhlenberg, a GermanLutheran pastor.
In 1763, along with his brothers,Frederick Augustus andGotthilf Henry Ernst, he was sent toHalle, where they were educated inLatin at theFrancke Foundations.[2] In 1767, he left school to begin his career as a sales assistant inLübeck, but returned the same year to Pennsylvania.
He briefly served in theBritish Army's60th Regiment of Foot,[3] and also served for a short while in the Germandragoons, earning thenickname "Teufel Piet" (Devil Pete) before returning to Philadelphia in 1767, where he was given a classical education from theAcademy of Philadelphia (the modernUniversity of Pennsylvania). He was ordained in 1768 and headed a Lutheran congregation inBedminster, New Jersey, before moving toWoodstock, Virginia.
Muhlenberg visited England in 1772 and was ordained into the priesthood of theAnglican Church, although he served a Lutheran congregation. Since the Anglican Church was the state church of Virginia, he was required to be ordained in an Anglican church in order to serve a congregation in Virginia. Besides his new congregation, he led theCommittee of Safety andCorrespondence forDunmore County, Virginia. He was elected to theHouse of Burgesses in 1774, and was a delegate to theFirst Virginia Convention. He owned slaves.[4]
After theAmerican Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, theContinental Army was formed. Muhlenberg was authorized to raise and command the8th Virginia Regiment of theContinental Army'sVirginia Line as itscolonel. He was very likely chosen due to his influence in the German-American community. Of the eight colonels in the Virginia Line, Muhlenberg was the youngest at 29 and onlyPatrick Henry had less military experience.[5]
According to a biography written by his great-nephew in the mid-19th century,[6] on January 21, 1776, in the Lutheran church inWoodstock, Virginia, Muhlenberg took his sermon text from the third chapterEcclesiastes, which starts with"To every thing there is a season..."; after reading the eighth verse, "a time of war, and a time of peace," he declared, "And this is the time of war," removing his clerical robe to reveal his Colonel's uniform. Outside the church door the drums began to roll as men turned to kiss their wives and then walked down the aisle to enlist, and within half an hour, 162 men were enrolled.[7] The next day he led out 300 men from the county to form the nucleus of the8th Virginia Regiment. Though it is accepted that Muhlenberg helped form and lead the 8th, historians doubt the account of the sermon, as there are no reports prior to Muhlenberg's great-nephew's biography.[6][8]
Muhlenberg's unit was first posted to theSouth, to defend the coast ofSouth Carolina andGeorgia. In early 1777, the Eighth Regiment was sent north to join Washington's main army. Muhlenberg was made abrigadier general of theVirginia Line and commanded thatBrigade inNathanael Greene's division atValley Forge. Muhlenberg's Headquarters',[9] assigned by Washington during the 1777-1778 Winter Encampment[10] at Valley Forge, is now known as theMoore-Irwin House[11] inKing of Prussia, PA, and was also the estate Washington wrote in his diary of[12] visiting with otherFounding FathersGouverneur Morris andRobert Morris during a rare break in the 1787Constitutional Convention inPhiladelphia. Muhlenberg saw service in the Battles ofBrandywine,Germantown, andMonmouth. After Monmouth, most of the Virginia Line was sent to the far south, while General Muhlenberg was assigned to head up the defense of Virginia using mainlymilitia units.
At theBattle of Yorktown, he commanded the first brigade inLafayette's Light Division.[13] His brigade was part of the Corps of Light Infantry, consisting of the light infantry companies of the line regiments ofMassachusetts (ten companies),Connecticut (five companies),New Hampshire (five companies), andRhode Island andNew Jersey (one each). They held the right flank and manned the two trenches built to move American cannons closer to Cornwallis' defenses. The battalion commanded by American Lt. ColonelAlexander Hamilton and French Lieutenant ColonelJean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat led the night bayonet attack that stormed Redoubt No. 10 on October 14, 1781.
At the end of the war (1783), he wasbrevetted tomajor general and settled inMontgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Muhlenberg was also an original member of the PennsylvaniaSociety of the Cincinnati.[14]
After the war, Muhlenberg was elected to theSupreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1784. He was electedVice-President of the Council, a position comparable to that ofLieutenant Governor, on October 31, 1787. His term as Vice-President ended on a mysterious note. On October 14, 1788, the minutes of the Executive Council report that Muhlenberg had left Philadelphia without tendering his resignation—why his resignation was needed or expected is not noted—so a messenger was sent after him. That night, after the messenger returned with the resignation, the Council met at PresidentBenjamin Franklin's home to choose Muhlenberg's successor, electingDavid Redick to the position.
Muhlenberg was elected to the1st Congress (1789–1791) and3rd Congress (1793–1795) as one of theat-large representatives from Pennsylvania. His brotherFrederick was theSpeaker of the House for that same Congress. He was the first founder of theDemocratic-Republican Societies in 1793. Muhlenberg served in Congress as a Republican during the5th Congress 1799–1801 for the 4th district, previously running for this district in 1796.[15] He was the Anti-Administration nominee in the1795 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania.[16] Muhlenberg was elected by the legislature to the U.S. Senate on a second ballot in February 1801 overGeorge Logan, but resigned on June 30 of that same year.[17]
PresidentThomas Jefferson appointed him thesupervisor of revenue for Pennsylvania in 1801 and customs collector for Philadelphia in 1802. He served in the latter post until his death.
On August 3, 1805, Muhlenberg wrote a letter to the residents of the primarily-German Northampton and Berks counties in a successful attempt to tilt those counties toward incumbent GovernorThomas McKean, who, in the midst of a badly fractured state Republican Party, was running with Federalist support, in his bid for reelection. Muhlenberg noted that although McKean's opponent,Simon Snyder, was of German descent, his election would elevate the Republican Party's radical Democratic faction to power and, with calls for a Constitutional Convention to elevate the power of the state legislature over the governor and especially the judiciary, result in anarchy.[18] McKean's margin of victory, 6,772-3,216, over Snyder in Northampton and Berks secured his narrow, 43,644-38,483, statewide margin of victory over Snyder.[19]
On November 6, 1770, he married Anna Barbara "Hannah" Meyer, the daughter of a successful potter.[20] Together they had six children, including:[21]
On his 61st birthday, Muhlenberg died inGray's Ferry, Pennsylvania, on October 1, 1807, and is buried at theAugustus Lutheran Church in Trappe, Pennsylvania.
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