olitical affairs of the country.

[illustration: "The Old Swamp Church"]

The partial reconciliation that had been brought about by Muehlenberg
between the Dutch and the German congregations was occasionally
disturbed by a pamphletary warfare conducted by their respective
pastors, Weygand and Gerock.

Weygand died in 1770. He was succeeded by Hausihl (or Houseal, as he
spelled his name in later years), a native of Heilbronn, who had served
congregations in Maryland and in eastern Pennsylvania. Tradition reports
that he was a brilliant preacher of distinguished appearance and of
courtly manners. He succeeded in maintaining a large congregation.

But a serious change was going on in the church in the matter of
language. In spite of the secession in 1750 other Germans kept coming
into the Broadway church to such an extent that they outnumbered the
Dutch eight to one, and finally the use of the Dutch language in the
Lutheran Church of New York came to an end. Houseal had the distinction
of conducting the obsequies at the preparatory service on Saturday,
November 30, 1771, and at the administration of the Lord's Supper on
the following day.

But the death of the Dutch language by no means put an end to the
language difficulties of our Lutheran ancestors. In the midst of the
original contestants a new set of combatants had sprung up in the
persons of the children of both parties. These spoke neither Dutch nor
German. They understood English only and demanded larger consideration
of their needs.

Events, however, were impending which soon gave the people something
else to think about and caused a postponement of actual hostilities for
another generation.

The church on Broadway was destroyed by fire in 1776, and was never
rebuilt. The congregation worshipped for a time in the Scotch
Presbyterian Church on Cedar Street.

The American Revolution broke out. On political questions our ancestors
differed almost as widely as do their successors on synodical questions.
Some of them were for George the Third, others were for George
Washington. In this respect, however, they were not unlike other
inhabitants of New York.

Frederick Muehlenberg, the pastor of the Swamp Church, was an ardent
patriot. At the beginning of the war, as we have seen, he fled to
Pennsylvania.

During the war the services were conducted by the chaplains of the
Hessian troops. The Hessians were good church-goers and also generous
contributors, so t