Muhlenberg College - Ciarla Yearbook (Allentown, PA)

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Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg IHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERG MUHLENBERGMUHLET delegates to the Virginia Convention which was held in the summer of 1774. After the convention, he returned to Woodstock troubled over the inconsistency between the clergy and politics. He attempt- ed to resign his political positions, but his neighbors would not allow him. He attended the second meeting of the Virginia Convention, and as a result, was called upon to be the leader of the German regiment of the Virginia militia. Frederick Augustus Conrad Mulhenberg saw his brother’s drawing away from the clergy and tried in vain to dissuade him. Ironically, he found himself having to make the same choice four years later, when in March of 1779, he was called upon by the Pennsylvania Assembly to complete an unexpired term of a delegate to the Continental Congress. He accepted and did such a magnificent job that he 6

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General Muhlenberg throwing off ministerial robes after final sermon IGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERG MUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMU The three sons of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg were important leaders in the age of the American Revolution and in the establishment of American Republic. One provided military leadership, another political leadership, and the third provided intellectual leadership. In the times immediately prior to the Revolution, tensions mounted with regard to British authority. These tensions inevitably affected Peter’s congregation — and therefore Peter also. The congregation found a leader for the times in Peter Muhlenberg. After the Virginia legislature was dismissed by the governor for resisting Imperial authority, there was a move to establish a legislature independent of the crown which would derive its power from the people. Muhlenberg was chosen to lead the delegate selection convention in his county. In the end, he was chosen to be one of the 5

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Gotthilf Henry Ernest Muhlenberg GMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUHLENBERGMUI was elected to a full term of his own the followin g November. After that, his neighbors drafted him to the General Assembly where he was so well regarded that he was chosen to be that body’s speaker. His next position was chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention for the ratification of the Constitu- tion in 1787. Shortly, he was joined in politics by Peter, who was elected to the Supreme Executive Council of the State in 1784, and then to its vice-presidential post. Peter had to assume many of the responsibilities of the President, Ben Franklin, who was in failing health. Both Peter and Frederick were elected shortly to the House of Representatives and so were part of the First Congress of the United States. On April 1, 1789, Congress, on its initial organizing act, elected Frederick Muhlenberg as its first Speaker. He served continuously from 1789 to 1797, declining to run for re-election in 1796. 7