(January 11, 1755–July 11, 1804), was a signer of the U.S. Constitution. He was known as the “Ratifier of the Constitution,” writing 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers. These were of immense significance in influencing the States to ratify the Constitution, which was much needed, as two-thirds of the States were required to approve it in order for it to go into effect. Although Alexander Hamilton was raised on the island of Nevis, West Indies, he supported the American’s cause. In 1772, at age 15, he came to America. In 1773, he attended King’s College, New York, where he worked for independence and wrote patriotic pamphlets, including “The Farmer Refuted.” Alexander Hamilton became captain of a New York artillery unit. He was chosen as an aide-de-camp by General George Washington, retained as his staff lawyer and later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He was the first Secretary of the Treasury, founded of one of the first banks in New York, and established the New York Post.
Alexander Hamilton’s roommate at King’s College, Robert Troup, described him as:
Attentive to public worship and in the habit of praying upon his knees both night and morning. … I have lived in the same room with him for some time, and I have often been powerfully affected by the fervor and eloquence of his prayers.
He had read many of the polemical writers on religious subjects, and he was a zealous believer in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. … I confess that the arguments with which he was accustomed to justify his belief, have tended in no small degree to confirm my own faith in revealed religion.1450
In February of 1775, in “The Farmer Refuted,” Alexander Hamilton wrote:
The Supreme Being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving and beautifying that existence. He endowed him with rational faculties, by the help of which to discern and pursue such things as were consistent with his duty and interest; and invested him with an inviolable right to personal liberty and personal safety.1451
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the Hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power. …
Good and wise men, in all ages … have supposed that the Deity, from the relations we stand in to Himself, and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institutions whatsoever.1452
This is what is called the law of nature, which, being coval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is, of course, superior in obligations to any other. It is binding all over the globe, in all countries, and at all times.
No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their authority, mediately, or immediately, from this original.1453
On June 22, 1787, in a speech at the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Hamilton spoke of the biblical concept that mankind has a sinful nature:
Take mankind in general, they are vicious—their passions may be operated upon. … Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions. There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives.
One great error is that we suppose mankind is more honest that they are, our prevailing passions are ambition and interest; and it will be the duty of a wise government to avail itself of those passions, in order to make them subservient to the public good.1454
After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Alexander Hamilton stated:
For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.1455
Alexander Hamilton was known to lead his household regularly in the observance of family prayers.1456 In April of 1802, he wrote to his friend, James Bayard:
In my opinion, the present constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banner bona fide must we combat our political foes, rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provided for amendments. By these general views of the subject have my reflections been guided.
I now offer you the outline of the plan they have suggested. Let an association be formed to be denominated “The Christian Constitutional Society,” its object to be first: The support of the Christian religion. second: The support of the United States.1457
Alexander Hamilton stated:
I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man.1458
In refuting those who had a misunderstanding of the nature of liberty, Alexander Hamilton stated:
The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false reasoning, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges.
You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator, to the whole human race; and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice.1459
Political disagreements between Hamilton and Aaron Burr led to a duel, set for July 11, 1804. On July 8, 1804, in the event he might not live, Alexander Hamilton wrote his Last Will and Testament:
In the name of God, Amen.
Though, if it should please God to spare my life, I may look for considerable surplus out of my present property; yet if He should speedily call me to the eternal world, a forced sale, as is usual, may possibly render it insufficient to satisfy my debts. I pray God that something may remain for the maintenance and education of my dear wife and children.1460
The day before the duel, Alexander Hamilton wrote to his wife, Elizabeth:
I need not tell you of the pangs I feel from the idea of quitting you, and exposing you to the anguish I know you would feel. Nor could I dwell on the topic, lest it should unman me. The consolation of religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God, and be comforted. With my last idea I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world … 1461
In a second note to his wife regarding the duel set for the next morning, Alexander Hamilton wrote:
The scruples of a Christian have determined me to expose my own life to any extent, rather than subject myself to the guilt of taking another … Heaven can preserve me, and I humbly hope will; but, in the contrary event, I charge you to remember that you are a Christian. God’s will be done! The will of a merciful God must be good … 1462
Since Alexander Hamilton had been successful in helping to outlaw dueling in New York, he and Aaron Burr took their places on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. On July 11, 1804, Hamilton was fatally shot. He suffered for ten hours before death. The Reverend Benjamin Moore, Episcopalian Bishop of New York, stayed with him, ministering the last rites.1463 He recorded Hamilton’s last word:
I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me.1464
In the eulogy given for him, Alexander Hamilton was quoted as saying:
Mortals hastening to the tomb, and once the companions of my pilgrimage, take warning, and avoid my errors. Cultivate the virtues I have recommended. Choose the Saviour I have chosen. Live disinterestedly, and would you rescue anything from final dissolution, lay it up in God.1465
On May 17, 1923, at the unveiling of a statue of Alexander Hamilton, President Warren G. Harding stated:
It was from Hamilton’s lips that came the finest utterance ever made concerning human liberty: “The sacred rights of mankind are written as with a sunbeam, by the hand of Divinity itself, never to be erased or obscured by mortal power.”1466