John Peter Muhlenburg, born in Trappe, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of
October, 1746, was the son of Reverend Henry Melchior Muhlenburg, D.D.,
the founder of the Lutheran Church in America. At the age of sixteen
he was sent to Germany to be educated, but while at Halle enlisted
in a regiment of dragoons, from which he was released through the
intervention of friends. Returning to this country in 1766, he studied
theology with his father, and was for a time pastor of the Lutheran
churches in New Germantown and Bedminster, New Jersey. In 1772, he
accepted a call to a church of the same denomination in Woodstock,
Virginia; but finding he could not enforce the payment of tithes unless
he had received Episcopal ordination, he went to England to secure
this, and returning, continued his labors in the same State. Watching
with keenest interest the train of events, he educated his congregation
as well as himself for the duties of freemen, which he believed would
soon devolve upon them. In 1775, at the earnest solicitations of
Washington, to whom his ardent patriotism and military spirit were well
known, he resolved to abandon his pulpit and enter the army. He took
leave of his congregation in an eloquent sermon on the text, “The Lord
of hosts shall arm the right,” and concluded, after rehearsing the
wrongs this country had suffered from Great Britain, by exclaiming,
“There is a time for all things,--a time to preach and a time to pray;
but there is also a time to fight, and that time has now come;” and
throwing off his gown, he appeared in complete uniform. By his orders
the drum and fife of the recruiting officer at this moment sounded at
the church door, and over three hundred of his congregation enlisted
and marched with their former pastor at their head to the relief of
Charleston, South Carolina.
Muhlenburg’s war record includes the battles of Sullivan’s Island,
Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown, his
commission as brigadier-general in the Continental army bearing date
the 21st of February, 1777. At the close of the Revolution he was
elected to the Pennsylvania council, and in 1785 became vice-president
of the State, with Benjamin Franklin as president. After the
organization of the federal Government he acted as representative and
senator, was appointed by President Jefferson supervisor of the revenue
for the district of Pennsylvania, and in 1803 collector of the port
of Philadelphia. While holding this office, he died near Schuylkill,
Montgomery County, on the 1st of October, 1807,--the anniversary of his
birthday.