This post will briefly interrupt the series of posts that have been centering on Hamilton's religion, and steer to recent events that do distantly relate to that very same subject.
This post is quite late to announce the establishment of the Alexander Hamilton Institute in Clinton, New York, on this year's September 17 -- Constitution Day.
The history of the Institution's establishment is interesting.
Several professors from Hamilton College, which is also based in Clinton, desired to establish a center or program honoring Hamilton's life, legacy, and his ideals of freedom and capitalism. Initially, the program was to rest under the mantle of the College; but the College abruptly withdrew from sponsoring and becoming affiliated with the program, since the program is coming from a point of view which honors our true constitutional and biblical foundations, whereas Hamilton College is does not tolerate such a viewpoint.
Although I am happy that the standpoint of the Alexander Hamilton Institute is so favorable towards Alexander Hamilton's real political and religious views was strong enough to make Hamilton College back off, I think that it is unfortunate that their religious and political biases make them opposed to those of the institution, and not in favor of them. Hamilton College never used to be that way, and was never intended to be that way. Alexander Hamilton, for whom the university was named, was a Christian, and its founder, Samuel Kirkland (who buried on the campus of the college) was a Christian missionary to the Iroquois Indians. In fact, this school was to be a great extension of Kirkland's missionary work, and said that among its purposes would be to teach the Indians "the more plain and express doctrines of Christianity." (1) Kirkland's journal relates that in 1793, he traveled to Philadelphia, and sought out the support of Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, and President George Washington. Kirkland offered Hamilton the position of honorary trustee of the academy, which position, Hamilton accepted, and added that he would do whatever was in his power to do for the benefit of the university. George Washington also expressed his warm wishes for the success of the academy. It was named in Hamilton's honor, first as the Hamilton Oneida Academy, and later, when it became a university in 1812, as Hamilton College. It is sad to see that such an institution drifted so far from its original and glorious foundations.
I am thrilled that such a fantastic organization as the Alexander Hamilton Institute is is underway, and that its headquarters are based in my own Upstate New York. I am confident that the establishment of this institution is a great leap forward, not only in the understanding of Alexander Hamilton and our true history, but also in how to apply Hamilton's Christian principles and the true principles of freedom, to present-day New York and present-day America.
Updates on the college can be found at the website of the Hamilton College Alumni for Governance and Reform. The charter of the Institute is also available here.
