towards his contemporaries, and which ought ever to distinguish the genuine Christian philosopher and naturalist from the narrow-minded despot in science, who would exalt his own fame even at the expense of those around him."

A man of his particular habits and caste of thought, could not be expected to take an active part in politics; he, however, always manifested a deep interest in the progress of events. A Whig of the Revolution, a Republican of '99, the personal friend and correspondent of Jefferson and other leading Democrats, he continued through life firm and unshaken in his attachment to the principles of the Democratic party. From 1780 to the day of his death, in May, 1815, he was in charge of the Lutheran congregation in the city of Lancaster. As a divine he enjoyed the veneration of his people, the highest consideration of his church, the love and confidence of all Christians. Tolerant of others' opinions, decided in his own-indulgent of the follies, stern in his reproof of the vices, of society-inviting intimacy by the childlike simplicity of his manner, repelling rude familiarity with dignity-conversant in all learning, yet the delight alike of the ignorant and learned, he well illustrated that old school of gentlemen and of scholars which is fast passing away.

Having thus presented these faint sketches of the lives and characters of those from whom the late Henry A. Muhlenberg derived his honored name, it remains to show how worthily he sustained and added to its reputation. In speaking of those long numbered with the dead, the mind addresses itself to the contemplation of their memories with a philosophic calmness not unfavorable to a just and perfect appreciation of their merits. Written under the influence of this state of feeling, the former part of this memoir was an easy and a grateful labor; what follows, weighed down as the heart of the writer is by the recent loss of that dear friend, whose portraiture he is about to attempt, can be no more than a dim outline, seen through a tearful eye, drawn by a faltering hand.

Henry Augustus Muhlenberg, the eldest son of the venerable and learned man, to whom the last brief notice was devoted, was born at Lancaster on the 13th day of May, 1782. His elementaVOL. XVI.-NO. LXXIX.

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ry instruction, received immediately under the direction of his father, was of the most thorough and liberal kind. It embraced a wide range of languages and mathematics; and as, for the greater part of its course, he enjoyed the peculiar advantage of private tuition, his progress was much in advance of his years. That he never entered a college was owing to the fact, that before the period of life at which young men ordinarily are sent to such an institution, he had completed the usual collegiate studies.

Brought up in a family so essentially Republican as was his, and enjoying the unbounded affection of his uncle, General Muhlenberg, with whom his relations were like those of a son, it was natural, particularly in high party times, that he should, in early boyhood, adopt the political principles of those he loved and reverenced. Accordingly, during the extraordinary scenes that ensued on the passage of the Sedition Law, when the Germans of Pennsylvania were so sorely tried, he was found with all the ardor and activity of youth, throwing himself into the contest. Even then, but sixteen years old, writing in defence of McKean and Jefferson, his pen gave promise of the potent influence it was in his after-life to wield over the German mind of his native State.

Having attained an age when his reason could give its deliberate assent to the wishes of his father, he was sent to New York to enter upon the study of theology, under the auspices of his uncle, the Rev. Dr. Kunze, a divine eminent for his profound learning and exemplary piety. The devoted zeal which he exhibited in preparing himself for the ministry, inspired the highest expectations of his friends and of the church. These expectations were fully realized in his subsequent career. In 1802, having been licensed as a candidate of the ministerium, he accepted the charge of the congregation in Reading. The connection there formed, continued a union of uninterrupted harmony between the pastor and people for twenty-seven years. How well and how acceptably he discharged the duties of the ministerial office, is best known to those thousands of living witnesses whose hearts he filled with the knowledge and the love of God, and whose regard for his memory is as tender as that of children for a parent.

Great as was the love of his congregation, it was equalled by the honor and esteem in which he was held by his clerical brethren. By these he was at different times called to fill the secretaryship and treasurership of the Synod, and finally, by their unanimous suffrage, was raised to the presidency of that highest council of the church, in which he was continued, by successive re-elections, as long as the constitution would permit. In the councils of his church, his character for integrity and moderation gave him a just and prominent influence. With an energy equal to any emergency, still was he ever the friend of peace and conciliation, by the exercise of whose gentle arts he well understood how to allay discord and dissension. In seasons of difficulty, the advice of no one was listened to with more submission, or acted upon with greater confidence-a confidence often justified by salutary results.

As a pulpit orator, it has been said by enlightened and competent judges, that Mr. Muhlenberg was the subject of general and deserved admiration. Indeed the many invitations that he received from the churches of the large cities, would indicate his contemporary reputation in this respect. The favorable judgment of the people was confirmed by the severer criticism of the ministry-his eloquence was alike acceptable to both. A commanding presence, a deep sonorous voice, a manner earnest but graceful, prepossessed the senses of his hearers. His mastery of all the rich resources of the German languages, his evidently intense interest in his subject, the copious learning with which he informed the mind, the glowing warmth with which he touched the heart, achieved the rest. Always instructive, he was never merely didactic. His power over the feelings was never exercised in such a way that the judgment could not sanction the emotions excited.

Towards the year 1827, the health of Mr. Muhlenberg becoming impaired by the sedentary nature of his pursuits, he expressed a determination to withdraw from the charge of his congregation, and retire upon a farm. This resolution was no sooner made known than the attention of the Democracy of old Berks was directed to him as a man in every way qualified to represent the district in Congress. His quiet and

consistent support of Democratic measures, had been observed for more than a quarter of a century, his honesty and capacity were known to all. Pressed by numerous friends, he at last yielded to the wishes of the people, and in the following year was elected a representative to the Twenty-First Congress. In June, 1829, in a letter addressed to the Synod, every line of which shows how sadly he took the step, he resigned his ministerial office. The resolution of the Synod upon the occasion, bore ample testimony to the regard in which Mr. Muhlenberg was held by that body, and bade him an affectionate God-speed in his new career.

He entered public life, perhaps, under the only circumstances that could have drawn him forth. To have toiled up through the devious and crooked paths of the lower politics would have been revolting to his manly and ingenuous nature. The petty intrigues and paltry arts, by which unworthy ambition daily rises to place and power, were abhorrent to his soul. It would have disdained an elevation purchased by selfabasement. If he could not have taken his seat in the councils of the nation, uncontaminated by the servile labors of which that exalted station is too frequently the object or the reward, he had never sat there.

The Congress to which he was elected, was filled with the earnest and determined spirits whom the recent revolution in the politics of the country had called into action. The Democratic party, rent by the growth of factions, and long sunk into inactivity by the non-resistance of its ancient enemy, required, and had found a leader, whose popularity overwhelming all rivals, would restore to the party its unity, and whose iron nerve would not shrink from drawing anew the almost forgotten lines. In the indolence of undisputed sway, the party had proved faithless to its mission. The time of its regeneration had come. The leader of the new movement was Andrew Jackson. No timid time-server, no man of doubts and fears, was in his proper sphere under such a chief, or in such a Congress. The hour was at hand which required hearts as brave, and heads as cool, as the exigencies of desperate times had ever yet demanded. In that Congress, Mr. Muhlenberg was, at an early day, regarded as amongst the sternest and most

inflexible of Democrats; a man wise in council, resolved in action. If he was inexperienced in the forms of legislation, he understood thoroughly its objects, and, as he came to act upon these, applying to them always the severest tests of principle, and throwing himself boldly upon whatever ground was that of right, regardless of expediency, he established in the first session a position in the House, and an influence in the party, which few men attain in many years of service. A character like this could not fail of attracting the respect and confidence of General Jackson. In the arduous work before him, the President needed friends, high-souled and generous, upon whose honesty, energy, and courage he could rely in whatever extremity, and in Mr. Muhlenberg found one in whom his highest trust was never misplaced.

An occasion upon which Mr. Muhlenberg signally displayed the fearless independence of his character, and his sagacity as a politician, was his opposition to the appropriation for the Maysville Road. That appropriation involved the question of National Internal Improvements. Opinion in Pennsylvania was at the time settled in favor of the so-called American System, of which a gigantic scheme of Canals and Roads, a High Tariff and a National Bank, constituted the parts. The delegation from Pennsylvania, with but two exceptions, voted for the appropriation: Mr. Muhlenberg and his colleague, Mr. Frey, against it. Not only did he vote against it, he stood side by side with James K. Polk, and those true-hearted men stood almost alone, in resisting the fatal measure in debate. In a speech replete with clear and sound views, he exposed the wide-spread corruption, the enormous national debt, the necessity for an onerous tariff, to which the appropriation asked for was but the initiatory step. The voice of warning was raised in vain. The combination of local interests, having many similar projects in reserve, triumphed. The bill passed. The Veto by which it was arrested, taking the same grounds of

objection that had been urged in the House, was, after a severe struggle, sustained by Congress, and approved by the country. The fate that has since overtaken many of the States, would unquestionably, but for the defeat of this bill, have fallen upon the nation.

On the Tariff question, the opinions of Mr. Muhlenberg, whilst decided, were moderate. He considered permanency in the system as of more importance than the amount of protection. In a speech that he delivered in opposition to the Compromise Act, he advo cated the adjustment of duties so as to furnish revenue for an economical administration of government, with incidental protection to such interests as are truly national. Upon this basis alone can a tariff ever rest undisturbed.

When the Bank of the United States arrayed itself against the administration, and produced those extraordinary convulsions in the business of the country, by which it sought to coerce Congress through the sufferings of the people, to grant a renewal of its charter, Mr. Muhlenberg stood fast and firm in his hostility to the institution. Through all the stages of that memorable conflict, he never for a moment wavered: others might give way to their fears, produced by the terrors around them, he was made of sterner stuff. He was, during those portentous times, in the emphatic words of a distinguished senator, a pillar of strength in support of the administra tion. It was he, who, on the 18th of February, 1834, when the country had been agitated for more than two months by the daily appeals of the friends of the bank, moved the previous question, and, by its decisive operation, finished a contest, held too long in doubt.*

Mr. Muhlenberg occupied his seat in Congress for nine years, with credit to himself, and honor to his constituency. In that time he maintained a character for integrity of action and purity of motive, which never was questioned No one enjoyed in a higher degree that confidence of the House, which is the reward of diligent and upright discharge of duty. As chairman of the standing

committee on Revolutionary claims, in which he was indefatigable in his efforts to obtain justice for the old soldiers, he had only to say a bill was just to insure its passage. His ability for public affairs was rather substantial than showy. The observation and study of a life had stored his mind with knowledge. He was patient in investigation, and possessed a judgment of uncommon clearness and quickness of perception. He was not a frequent speaker; questions only of the gravest import drew him out. When he did speak, however, he was always listened to with the most marked attention, and to whatever subject he addressed himself, took an enlarged and comprehensive view of its more important features. His speeches were concise, forcible, and direct; not studied and elaborated by rules of art, but thrown off as occasion seemed to require the effort, the productions of matured reflection and earnest conviction. In truth, German had been for so many years the language of his profession, and of his social intercourse, that he felt an embarrassment in the formal use of English, of which he never could entirely divest himself, though nothing in his diction or accent implied his German origin and education.

As for his public, so he was much esteemed for his private qualities. A party man of inflexible constancy, acting in times of intense political excitement, he, nevertheless, by his generosity, frankness, and kindliness of disposition, commanded the general friendship of his fellow members. It was an effort in which he never relaxed his exertions, to soften the asperities of politics by the cultivation of the refining charities and courtesies of life.

In the year 1835, Mr. Muhlenberg permitted his friends to use his name as a candidate for the governorship of Pennsylvania. The excellent man, who then filled that office, had been an incumbent of it for two terms, a period which the later practice of the Democracy, since the days of Snyder, had fixed as the limit of service, and which subsequently to 1835 has received a constitutional sanction. Much warmth and excitement were elicited during the progress of the canvass, and when at length the convention which was to make a nomination met at Harrisburg, it was soon found that the eager strife

of interest and passion would render its deliberations nugatory. The convention, being unable to make a nomination, finally came to a vote dissolving itself, and recommending the assembling of another convention at Lewistown. On the day after this dissolution, that portion of the convention which had been friendly to Governor Wolf, nominated him, and his friends afterwards declining to take part in the election of delegates to meet at Lewistown, a full convention met at that place, and placed Mr. Muhlenberg also before the people. The candidates thus presented were in the hands of their friends. The fatal consequences of the division were apparent, and no man more sincerely wished and sought an accommodation of difficulties than did Mr. Muhlenberg. He went as far towards accomplishing that object as propriety or a due regard for the honor of his friends would permit, but without effect. Both candidates submitted their claims to the people, and the election resulted in the choice of Mr. Ritner by a plurality vote. The bad feeling engendered in this contest seemed likely to survive the election, and to produce a permanent schism in the party. With every day the breach was widening. Violent partizans were hurling at each other menace and defiance. Their common defeat, failing to teach them the necessity of union and harmony, filled them with bitterness and hate. In the midst of all this, the Presidential election of 1836 was coming on. One section had its electoral ticket in the field; the other was about to form one. It was not to be hoped that either would give way to the other. Mr. Muhlenberg could not look on this state of things with indifference. He owed too much to the Democracy, and loved it too well to see it fall away into miserable factions without making an honest effort to avert the calamity. Not doubting that his friends had right and justice on their side, he addressed them with the feelings of a patriot, and entreated them to set the example of magnanimity by concurring in support of the ticket already formed. The voice of the man they honored, they cheerfully obeyed; and in the ensuing campaign, both sections, turning their united arms against the common enemy, in the ardor of battle, soon forgot their recent animosities.

When the question of reforming the State Constitution was agitated, Mr.