Henry A. Muhlenberg, Lawyer, was born in the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, July 21st, 1823. He was the son of Henry A. Muhlenberg, the elder, and Rebecca, daughter of Governor Joseph Hiester. He was instructed under the direction of his father, and received at his hands a most thorough education, enabling him, at the age of fourteen, to matriculate at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, where he remained a year, passing thence to Dickinson College, Carlisle, where he entered the Sophomore Class, and graduated therefrom with the highest honors in the autumn of 1841. He was a close student, especially in the classics and history. Of the latter he was particularly fond, as he considered that an accurate and complete knowledge of past events, their causes and consequences, was an indispensable requisite for those who hoped themselves to assist in making history. He passed the three years, from 1841 to 1844, in the office of his preceptor, Hon. J. Pringle Jones, a ripe scholar and an eminent jurist, engaged in the study of the law. The examination for admission to the Reading bar was then conducted in open court, and any member was allowed to examine the candidate. He here acquitted himself so well as to receive the highest praise for his acquirements from the Hon. Wm. Strong, John Banks, and other leading counselors. His father, who had been, in March, 1844, nominated as the candidate of the Democratic party for the Gubernatorial chair of Pennsylvania, made his son his private secretary. The latter conducted all his father's correspondence during the canvass. The very sudden death, two months prior to the election, of his father, to whom he was devotedly attached, was such a shock to him, that for a year or more he could turn his attention to nothing save the duties of his profession. In 1846, when the Mexican War broke out, he raised a company of Volunteers in Reading, and personally tendered their services to the Governor; but the complement of Pennsylvania having already been filled, the offer was declined. In the county convention of 1846, he, with his brother Hiester--the President of that body--was mainly instrumental in causing the adoption of a Resolution approving of the principles of the Tariff of 1842, and demanding "that as it was passed by Democratic votes, it should receive a fair consideration from a Democratic Congress." He also delivered a speech, in the same body, on the Oregon Question, in which he strongly favored the claims of the United States to all that district of country lying south of the parallel of 54° 40´. In 1847 and 1848 he was occupied in writing a life of General Peter Muhlenberg, of Revolutionary fame, which was published, early in 1849, by Carey & Hart, Philadelphia. It was dedicated to Jared Sparks, as a slight recognition of his services in elucidating our Revolutionary history. The volume was favorably received by the public, and a complimentary notice appeared in the North American Review, of 1849, from the pen of Francis Bowen of Harvard University. In the fall of 1849, he was elected to the Legislature as Senator from Berks county, and served the full term of three years. He there acquired such a reputation for integrity, eloquence and business ability as made him the leader of his party, in a body which contained within it some of the most brilliant men in Pennsylvania. Shortly after taking his seat, he delivered a powerful speech on the supplement to the Act incorporating the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, which greatly influenced the Senate in its decision to pass the measure, and by so doing prevented the impending ruin of that great corporation. He was, throughout his term, a member of the committees of Finance, the Judiciary and the Militia, and for two years chairman of the first-named body. In the second year of his Senatorial career he was the Democratic candidate for Speaker, though the youngest member of that house, his competitor on the Whig side being Hon. John H. Walker of Erie (the President of the Constitutional Convention of 1872-'73). The Senate then contained sixteen Whigs, sixteen Democrats and one Native American, and a majority of all who voted was required to elect. On the eighth ballot--and on the third day--when it was evident that no choice could be made unless the Whig candidate should vote for himself, the Democratic candidate, together with Messrs. Packer and Guernsey, also Democrats, out of political courtesy abstained from voting. Throughout the whole contest the two candidates respectively voted for Thomas Carson and William F. Packer. The early history of the Commonwealth was always a subject of great interest to him, and as chairman of a select committee, to which was referred that portion of Governor Johnston's message for 1851 treating of the care and preservation of the State archives, he reported a Bill for the publication, at the expense of the State, of the records of the Proprietary government, and of all papers relating to the Revolutionary war, down to 1783. The report of the committee, written by him, was considered by men of all parties a most able production. The bill afterwards became a law. He procured also the passage of an Act, making an appropriation to continue the geological survey of the State, conducted by Professor Rogers. He introduced many important bills to the notice of the Legislature; among others, one embodying all the provisions of our present postal money-order system. He favored also the building of new railroads to develop the resources of the Commonwealth, though he was opposed to the State granting any direct aid to these objects. During the whole of his Senatorial term, he was, in the words of Hon. C.R. Buckalew, "the bulwark of the Treasury against the assaults of outside interested parties." He was strongly hostile to the enactment of a prohibitory law in Pennsylvania--similar to the Maine Liquor Law--as he considered that Government had no moral right to pass sumptuary laws, or to interfere with private or vested rights. He was ever outspoken in defence of a tariff of such amount and so levied as to protect the great manufacturing interests of the country, and to enable them to enter into competition with the foreign made article. He also thought that as iron was an indispensable requisite for any nation, to provide against the contingency of a war, and to render the United States independent of any other country, that a high, though not a prohibitory duty, should be imposed on that article. In the Senate, and in the County Conventions, he--in connection with Judge Strong and other distinguished Democrats--demanded a modification of the Tariff of 1846, in favor of the Iron interest--in accordance with the views of Hon. Robert J. Walker, the author of that tariff, views expressed at the time of its passage. He was an earnest opponent of Slavery, and considered it "a curse to that community on which it was inflicted; no one could dislike it more than he did; nor did he ever wish to be thought the friend and advocate of the institution." In his devotion, however, to the Union, and in his desire to do away with all causes which might inflame one section of the country against the other, looking upon the compromise measures of 1850 as a solemn compact between the North and South, he thought those measures, and the laws resulting from them, should be executed fully, honestly and completely. His devotion to the Union was one of the cardinal principles of his political faith. The words used by his father, in Congress, at the time of Clay's Compromise Act of 1833, might be placed in his mouth also: "The Union is the first and greatest of our national blessings, and to preserve it nothing can or ought to be deemed too precious. I go for the Union, the whole Union, and nothing but the Union. It must be preserved, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." No one who knew him intimately can doubt for a moment that he would have been foremost in the van of those Democrats who in the hour of greatest danger rushed to the rescue of their Government, and of their Union. At such a time he would not have been behind his brother Hiester, or his uncle, Dr. F.A. Muhlenberg of Lancaster, in forming that party which, in their opinion, held the true Democratic doctrine, in that it advocated the greatest good to the greatest masses. In July, 1852, he was nominated by acclamation the Democratic candidate for Congress, in Berks county, and was elected in the following October by a large majority. He left Reading, late in November, 1853, for Washington, and was present at the opening of the 34th Congress, but had scarcely taken his seat ere he was stricken down by illness. Everything was done for him that was possible, and it was believed at one time that he was materially improved; but a relapse occurred, and he died January 9th, 1854, of hemorrhage and congestion of the lungs. His remains were laid to rest in the Charles Evans Cemetery near Reading. He was a warm and true friend; no act of kindness was ever forgotten by him, and nothing within the limits of possibility was deemed too difficult when done in the cause of a friend. His fearlessness in all departments of life was one of the most marked traits of his character; he never shunned bearing the responsibility of any of his actions; he did what he considered his duty no matter what the consequences might be. Above all, throughout the whole of his public life, he was a man of un-swerving integrity, and unblemished honor; he would do nothing, however great the inducements to the contrary, which could lower himself in his own esteem, or in that of others. His standard was ever a high one, and when he believed himself to be right, no power on earth could divert him from the path which honor, good faith, good feeling, and his own judgment pointed out. He possessed an ample fortune, from which he was ever ready to contribute to all objects whether charitable, religious, political, or literary, which deserved his sport. As a citizen of Reading, he was foremost in advancing, by pen, tongue and purse, all projects which could benefit or increase the prosperity of his native place. Had he lived, he would have written his name on the historical records of his country, and would have impressed his character on her legislation cut off, ultimately in the flower of his youth, and in the very maturity of his power, his loss was a great calamity to the Commonwealth. He was married, in November, 1847, to his cousin, Annie H., daughter of the late Dr. F.A. Muhlenberg of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a son and only child, born October 27th, 1848, survives him.
Source: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1874, pp. 277-278.
Contributed by: Nancy.