Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804)

Was Alexander Hamilton a product of the atheistic “Enlightenment?”

Alexander Hamilton arrived in New York in 1772 at age 16 from the British West Indies. His education was sponsored by William Livingston, Signer of the Constitution. He studied at Grammar School in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, entering King’s College at age 17, from which he graduated with honors. On April 13th, 1787, by Act of the Legislature of the State of New York, he was appointed a Trustee of King’s College (Columbia), together with the Right Rev. Samuel Provoost, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York, (who preached George Washington’s Inaugural Sermon); Rev. John H. Livingston; James Wilson, L.L.D. (Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution); five other Protestant pastors; and Gershom Seixas, Jewish Rabbi.¹

In “A Letter from the Governors of the College of New York (King’s College), respecting the Collection that was made in this Kingdom in 1762 and 1763, for the Colleges of Philadelphia and New York,” we find that the origin and purpose for the establishment of King’s College was a “Seminary of Learning, for the Instruction of Youth in useful Knowledge, and the Principles of Virtue, Religion and Loyalty…”

King’s College, in the City of New York, was originally founded by Royal Charter, in the year 1754. The Trustees of King’s College, as appointed by Royal Charter, A.D. 1754, were:

The Most Rev. Father in God, Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury,
The Right Honourable Dunk, Earl of Halifax, President of the Board of
Trade and Plantations,
The Governor of the Province,
The Judges of the Supreme Court,
The Secretary of the Province,
The Attorney General for the Province,
The President of His Majesty’s Council.
The Speaker of the House of Assembly,
The Treasurer of the Province.
The Mayor of the City of New York,
The Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church,
The Senior Pastor of the Dutch Church,
The Pastor of the Lutheran Church,
The Pastor of the French Protestant Church,
The Pastor of the Presbyterian Church…
and twenty-four citizens.²

From the above we understand that King’s College was founded to train youth in “useful knowledge, and the Principles of Virtue, Religion and Loyalty,” its first Board of Trustees being headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Rectors of five Protestant denominations in New York – Episcopalian, Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, French Protestant and Presbyterian – thereby precluding atheism. In 1787 the name of King’s College was altered to Columbia College. ³

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Bibliography:

¹

Original Royal Charter of King’s College, New York City, 1754. (Renamed Columbia College in 1787.) Library of Congress, Rare Book Collection.

²

Ibid.

³

Ibid.