To George Washington from the Ebenezer, Ga., German Congregation, 14 May 1791
From the Ebenezer, Ga., German Congregation
Savannah, d. 14. May 1791.
Permittas, quaeso, Illustrissime Washington! ut devoti piique animi sensa TIBI declarem, cui contigerit insignis illa felicitas, TE Savannae adeundi, virum, tot tantisque factis illustrem. Profecto admiratus sum TUAM humanitatem et indulgentiam, qua me hominem ignotum excepisti, qui non ausus essem ad TE accedere nisi ab amico optimo certior factus essem, tristem abs TE discedere neminem. Georgia laetatur de TUA Splendidissima praesentia, qua eam exhilarare dignatus es. Diu vivas o Washington! deliciae americani populi, tuumque nomen, et facta illustria Sera posteritas celebrabit. Semper precabor Deum Optimum Maximum, qui TE Praesidem harum civitatum constituit, ut omnibus rebus conatibusque Tuis propitius adsit. Accipe hanc tenuiorem epistolam, nullo ornatu commendabilem, eadem indulgentia, qua me excipere dignatus es. Anglia quidem scripturus eram si facultate pollerem eleganter scribendi, et ut dignum esse posset insignibus virtutibus et illustrissimis factis TUIS. Peregrinus, in hanc provinciam missus sum benignissimam doctrinam Redemtoris nostri profitendi inter posteros colonorum Salisburgensium, quos inprimis quia curae meae concrediti sunt, cum omni gente germanica Georgiae Americanae Tuo potentissimo patrocinio magnopere commendo. Ego vero nunquam desinam ardentissimas preces mittere ad Deum benignissimum, pro totius populi Americani salute.1
John Earnst Bergman,
Minister of the German Congregation of Ebenezer.
ADS, DLC:GW.
Ebenezer, Ga., was founded twenty-five miles northwest of Savannah in 1734 by German Lutherans. Johann Ernst Bergmann (John Earnst Bergman; c.1755–1824), from a poor family of Peretz, Saxony, studied at the University of Leipzig before being ordained at Augsburg. He immigrated to America in 1786 and succeeded the Loyalist minister, who was not permitted to return to Ebenezer. The scholarly Bergmann, who spoke only broken English, served as pastor of Jerusalem Church at Ebenezer until his death.
1. No reply to the Latin address, which was probably presented to the president the same day it was written, has been found.