[Various Authors], Constitution and By-Laws of the Amana Society (1859)

Whereas the Community of True Inspiration has in the year 1843, and in the years following, emigrated from Germany into the United States of America, for the sake of enjoying the noble civil and religious liberties of this country, and has settled at Ebenezer, in the County of Erie and State of New York, on the former Buffalo Creek Indian Reservation, where it has since existed, under the protection of God, in peace and prosperity; and whereas the said Community, in the year 1854, according to the known will of God, resolved unanimously, to sell the Ebenezer lands, and to undertake a new settlement in the western country, and has consequently, in the year 1855 and the years following, purchased a tract of land in the State of Iowa, and has paid for the same out of the funds of the Community; and whereas a beginning has since been made of this new settlement, with the purpose to continue and accomplish such resettlement by degrees, as the times and circumstances permit. ¹