Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg. Letter, 9 March 1790. Accession 24720. Personal papers collection. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, New York, 23 October 1957.

Biographical Information

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was born 1 October 1746 in Trappe, Pennsylvania. He attended the Academy of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania), and studied at the University of Halle in Germany from 1763 to 1766. He returned to Philadelphia, studied theology, and was ordained in 1768. Muhlenberg served Lutheran churches in New Jersey before moving to Woodstock, Virginia. He was ordained in the Anglican Church in 1772. Muhlenberg served in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1774. When the American Revolution began, he raised and commanded the 8th Virginia (German) Regiment. He was commissioned a brigadier general in the Continental Army in 1777 and brevetted a major general in 1783. After the Revolution, he settled in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Muhlenberg was elected to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania in 1784 and served as its vice president from 1785 to 1788. He was elected to the United States Congress three times, serving from 1789 to 1791, from 1793 to 1795, and from 1799 to 1801. Elected to serve in the U.S. Senate in 1801, he resigned his seat 30 June. President Thomas Jefferson appointed Muhlenberg supervisor of revenue in Pennsylvania in 1801 and collector of the port of Philadelphia in 1802. He married Anna Barbara Meyer (1751-1806) in Philadelphia 6 November 1770, and they had six children. Muhlenburg died 1 October 1807 in Philadelphia, and was buried in the Augustus Lutheran Church Cemetery in Trappe.

Scope and Content Information

Letter, 9 March 1790, from John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746-1807), of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and United States Congressman to Patrick Henry (1736-1799) of Prince Edward County, Virginia, concerning their efforts to purchase land in Georgia. Muhlenberg sends information which might affect their purchase that he has acquired from the Georgia delegation to Congress. He also briefly comments on the Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's funding plan.