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| Source for the painting and history |
The American Revolution propelled Frederick and Peter Muhlenberg to positions of prominence in the new nation. Frederick had no hesitations supporting independence. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1776 before New York was occupied by the British. In 1779-80 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He served in the Pennsylvania Assembly from 1780 to 1783, where he presided as its Speaker. Frederick wrote many letters and articles, in both English and German, supporting the revolution. In one letter during the darkest hours of the war, he exhorted his brothers to “be steadfast, rely on God, and our own strength, and endure courageously, then we shall after be sure of reaching our goal.”
As a minister, Frederick’s support of independence did not include military service. Peter, on the other hand, stepped down from the pulpit to take on the uniform of an officer in the Continental Army. There is a legend that he ended a sermon on January 21, 1776, in dramatic fashion, throwing back his black ministerial robe to reveal a military uniform.
Although there is no contemporary evidence to back up the story, it does reveal the importance of the clergy’s support for the revolution. The British even referred to such support as “the Black Robe Regiment.” The myth, however, was so powerful and persistent that Blanche Nevin’s 1889 granite statue of Muhlenberg in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection depicts him with the ministerial robe draped around his right arm and shoulder as he stands proudly in his military uniform.
