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Convention: A Daily Journal

Center for Civics Education

Convention: A Daily Journal

Convention: A Daily Journal is a day-by-day journal of the 1787 Constitutional Convention convened by twelve of the original thirteen states to amend the Articles of Confederation and create a “more perfect union.” It chronicles the daily activities of the Convention, profiles the delegates and their interactions with each other, and looks back to life in America in the 1780s. Writing in the first person, the story is told from an “observer” hearing events as told in contemporary newspaper accounts and delegates’ personal notes and letters.


Sunday, August 19, 1787

August 19, 2020 - 4 minute read


Colonial painting

The bell in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House cracked on its first test ring in 1752. Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, had ordered a bell for the bell tower from the Whitechapel Foundry in London in 1751. When it cracked, two local craftsmen, John Pass and John Stow, twice cast a new bell using metal from the original. For the bell’s inscription Norris chose a verse from the Old Testament Book of Leviticus: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” an instruction to the ancient Israelites to return property and free slaves every fifty years.

Later in time, the bell will be known as the Liberty Bell, with its own storied history, but for now, and since its recasting, the bell is rung to call lawmakers to their legislative sessions, call the people together to hear the news, and signal the alarm for emergencies. In the autumn of 1755, Benjamin Franklin signed a letter to his close friend Catherine Ray, writing, “Adieu. The Bell rings, and I must go among the grave ones, and talk politicks.” On Sunday mornings, bells ring from church belfries throughout the city to call the faithful to worship, including the bell at St. Michael’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.

German immigration to the North American colonies began as early as the mid-1600’s. Large numbers settled in Pennsylvania and in 1683 founded Germantown. Among them were German Quakers, Mennonites, Moravians, Dunkards, Dutch and German Reformed, and Lutherans, the latter two groups being by far the largest. On November 15, 1742, Philadelphia greeted the arrival of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg from Germany. He had come to Pennsylvania at the request of colonists to organize the Lutheran church in America.

Muhlenberg had studied theology at the University of Gottingen and later secured a teaching a position at the Francke Foundation Historic Orphanage, founded by August Hermann Francke in 1695 near Halle, Germany, as a Christian school for deprived and orphaned children. It was Francke who encouraged Muhlenberg to answer the call to America. Muhlenberg served several congregations from Maryland to New York before calling together the first permanent Lutheran Synod in America on August 26, 1748.

By then, Muhlenberg had married Anna Maria Weiser, the daughter of Conrad Weiser, an extraordinary German pioneer who served for many years as an interpreter and diplomat, negotiating many agreements between the Pennsylvania colony and various tribes of Native Americans. When he was sixteen, at the request of a local chief and with his father’s permission, Conrad lived with a Mohawk tribe in the upper Schoharie Valley, learning their language and customs. In 1748, he drew the plan for the city of Reading, was appointed as its chief justice, and began serving as a lay Lutheran pastor. During the French and Indian War, Weiser was appointed Lt. Colonel in the militia. His many adventures and exploits included working with Benjamin Franklin to construct a series of forts on the Pennsylvania frontier between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers.

This remarkable man’s legacy continued through his grandsons, the sons of his daughter Anne and her husband Henry. Three of their eleven children became Lutheran ministers. Their youngest son, Henry Ernst, pastored Zion Lutheran Church in Oldwick, New Jersey, became a famous naturalist, and was chosen as the first president of Franklin College. His two older brothers, Peter and Frederick, combined their ministry with public service.

All three brothers were sent to Halle for their education. Peter left school in Halle for a brief stint to learn business, but it ended badly. He found a quick way back to America by enlisting in the 60th Royal American Regiment. Returning to Philadelphia, his father settled his debt to the British Army, and he was given an honorable discharge, completing his education at the Academy of Philadelphia. Finding his calling to the ministry, he was ordained in 1769. Two years later, he married Hanna Meyer and accepted an offer to pastor a church in Woodstock, Virginia. But there was a problem. The Church of England was the official church of Virginia. In order to legally preach and collect tithes to support a church and the poor, the minister must have been ordained by a bishop of the Church of England. On March 2, 1772, Muhlenberg set sail for London and returned in mid-summer an ordained minister of the Church of England, ready to pastor a Lutheran Church.

As opposition to British rule spread throughout the colonies, Muhlenberg was elected to the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, where he likely heard Patrick Henry’s stirring “give me liberty or give me death” oration. Months later, in December 1775, Muhlenberg was selected to command a new regiment of regulars, the 8th Virginia. On the day scheduled for his farewell sermon, the church was overflowing. Details of the event vary, hidden in the mists of history, but it is beyond doubt that he stood at the pulpit dressed in his military uniform, exhorting his congregation to join the fight for liberty.

A major general by war’s end, Muhlenberg had led his troops through the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and the severe encampment at Valley Forge. Ending the war at Yorktown, he was later elected Vice President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania and will be elected to the First Congress under the new Constitution in 1789.

Peter’s brother, Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, is also a Lutheran minister. Like Peter, Frederick joined the Patriot cause. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1779 and served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1780 – 1783. Later this year, 1787, he will chair the State Convention to ratify the new Constitution. Two years from now, he will be elected to the new House of Representatives and elected as its first Speaker. In that capacity, he will be the first to sign the Bill of Rights in 1791.

These are but a few of the contributions of this distinctive family, but in the end, the legacy of Henry and Anne Muhlenberg is undoubtedly due to their faithful commitment to a simple maxim that guided their lives - “ecclesia plantanda” - The Church must be planted.

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