"Let an Association Be Formed ...": Part One

On April 16, 1802, Alexander Hamilton penned a letter to a friend and political ally James Asheton Bayard, who was then serving as a Federalist Congressman from Delaware. Hamilton's letter was a reply to Bayard's letter which discussed the possible intrigues of Aaron Burr, who had been gaining the support of the Federalist Party ever since Burr's first attempt at running for President in 1800.

Hamilton wrote to Bayard proposing the establishment of what Hamilton called the "Christian Constitutional Society," which would have a two-fold purpose: (1) to support the Christian religion through the writing of pamphlets and articles in newspapers to defend its authenticity before the American public, and (2) to support the United States Constitution and the original intent its Framers (of whom Hamilton himself was one). This Society would also take an active roll in the political process by selecting, nominating, and supporting for election those who supported the goals of this Society.

Some modern historians and scholars have insisted that Hamilton's motives for the establishment of the Christian Constitutional Society were not grounded in Hamilton's faith; but rather, that his motives for employing Christianity were merely political -- that he wanted to regain the political power he lost in the so-called "Revolution of 1800," that he wanted to revitalize the Federalist Party (of which he was considered a founder and leader) -- in other words, Hamilton wanted to use Christianity as a Machiavellian tool. After all, these historians claim, no one would DARE transgress the wall of separation of church and state (hallowed be thy name) unless his own craving for political power drove him to do so.

But a look at the body of Hamilton's writings as a whole disproves this assertion. Yes, Hamilton's motives were political, but his political motives were religiously based. The motives for Hamilton's political actions are found in a phrase he repeatedly used throughout his public and private writings: "religion and morality."

"I am mistaken if it be not his [Burr's] object to play the game of confusion, and I feel it to be a religious duty to oppose his career." (1)

"They ought not to hinder the taking of a legal and constitutional step to prevent an atheist in religion, and a fanatic in politics [probably referring to Jefferson], from getting possession of the helm of state [becoming President]." (2)

"My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the practice of duelling, and it would ever give me pain to be obliged to shed the blood of a fellow-creature in a private combat forbidden by the laws." (3)

"Were not the disadvantages of slavery too obvious to stand in need of it, I might enumerate and describe the tedious train of calamities inseparable from it. I might show that it is fatal to religion and morality; that it tends to debase the mind, and corrupt its noblest springs of action." (4)

"Another and a very serious evil, chargeable on the system opposite to that proposed, is that it leads to frequent and familiar violations of oaths, which by loosening one of the strongest bands of society, and weakening one of the principal securities to life and property, offends, not less against the maxims of good government and sound policy, than against those of religion and morality." (5)

"While the observance of that good faith, which is the basis of public credit, is recommended by the strongest inducements of political expediency, it is enforced by considerations of still greater authority. There are arguments for it which rest on the immutable principles of moral obligation. And in proportion as the mind is disposed to contemplate, in the order of Providence, an intimate connection between public virtue and public happiness, will be its repugnancy to a violation of those principles." (6)

"How laudable was the example of [Queen] Elizabeth, who, when she was transferred from the prison to the throne, fell upon her knees, and thanking Heaven for the deliverance it had granted her from her bloody persecutors, dismissed her resentment. 'This act of pious gratitude,' says her historian, 'seems to have been the last circumstance in which she remembered any past injuries and hardships. With a prudence and magnanimity truly laudable, she buried all offences in oblivion, and received with affability even those who acted with the greatest virulence against her.' She did more, she retained many of the opposite party in her councils." (7)

"Reason, religion, philosophy, policy, disavow the spurious and odious doctrine, that we ought to cherish and cultivate enmity with any nation whatever." (8)

"These particulars are stated as evidence of the temper of the day, and of a policy, which then prevailed, to bottom our system with regard to foreign nations upon those grounds of moderation and equity, by which reason, religion, and philosophy had tempered the harsh maxims of more early times. It is painful to observe an effort to make the public opinion, in this respect, retrograde, and to infect our councils with a spirit contrary to these salutary advances toward improvement in true civilization and humanity." (9)

"Let me add as a truth—which, perhaps, has no exception, however uncongenial with the fashionable patriotic creed—that, in the wise order of Providence, nations, in a temporal sense, may safely trust the maxim, that the observance of justice carries with it its own and a full reward." (10)

"Unfortunately, however, for mankind, a species of moral pestilence has so far disordered the mental eye of a considerable portion of it, as to prevent a distinct view of the deformities of this prodigy of human wickedness and folly. It is the misfortune of this country in particular, that too many among its citizens have seen the monster, in all its dreadful transformations, with complacency or toleration. Nor is it among the least of the contradictions of the human mind, that a religious, moral, and sober people should have regarded with indulgence so frightful a volcano of atheism, depravity, and absurdity; that a gentle and humane people should have viewed without detestation, so hateful an instrument of cruelty and bloodshed; that a people having an enlightened and ardent attachment to genuine liberty, should have contemplated without horror so tremendous an engine of despotism and slavery." (11)

"The attempt by the rulers of a nation to destroy all religious opinion, and to pervert a whole nation to atheism, is a phenomenon of profligacy reserved to consummate the infamy of the unprincipled reformers of France. The proofs of this terrible design are numerous and convincing.
"The animosity to the Christian system is demonstrated by the single fact of the ridiculous and impolitic establishment of the decades, with the evident object of supplanting the Christian Sabbath. The inscriptions by public authority on the tombs of the deceased, affirming death to be an eternal sleep, witness the desire to discredit the belief of the immortality of the soul. The open profession of atheism in the convention,⁴ received with acclamations; the honorable mention on its journals of a book professing to prove the nothingness of all religion⁵; the institution of a festival to offer public worship to a courtesan decorated with the pompous title of 'Goddess of Reason'; the congratulatory reception of impious children appearing in the hall of the convention to lisp blasphemy against the King of kings, are among the dreadful proofs of a conspiracy to establish atheism on the ruins of Christianity,—to deprive mankind of its best consolations and most animating hopes, and to make a gloomy desert of the universe." (12)

"Equal pains have been taken to deprave the morals as to extinguish the religion of the country [France], if indeed morality in a community can be separated from religion. . . . The pious and moral weep over these scenes as a sepulchre [sic] destined to entomb all they revere and esteem. The politician who loves liberty, sees them with regret as a gulf that may swallow up the liberty to which he is devoted. He knows that morality overthrown (and morality must fall with religion), the terrors of despotism can alone curb the impetuous passions of man, and confine him within the bounds of social duty." (13)

"How clearly is it proved by this that the praise of a civilized world is justly due to Christianity;—war, by the influence of the humane principles of that religion, has been stripped of half its horrors. The French renounce Christianity, and they relapse into barbarism;—war resumes the same hideous and savage form which it wore in the ages of Gothic and Roman violence." (14)

"Americans, rouse—be unanimous, be virtuous, be firm, exert your courage, trust in Heaven, and nobly defy the enemies both of God and man!" (15)

"To maintain it [the defense of the honor and sovereignty of America] with firmness is the most sacred of duties, the most glorious of tasks. The happiness of our country, the honor of the American name, demands it; the genius of independence exhorts to it; the secret mourning voice of oppressed millions in the very country whose despots menace us, admonish to it by their suffering example; the offended dignity of man commands us not to be accessory to its further degradation; reverence to the Supreme Governor of the universe enjoins us not to bow the knee to the modern Titans² who erect their impious crests against him and vainly imagine they can subvert his eternal throne." (16)

"These important questions naturally give birth to the following serious reflections. The issues of human affairs are in the hands of Providence. Those intrusted with them in society have no other sure guide than the sincere and faithful discharge of their duty, according to the best of their judgments." (17)

"I would appoint a day of humiliation and prayer. In such a crisis [pending war with either Britain or France] this appears to me proper in itself, and it will be politically useful to impress our nation that there is a serious state of things—to strengthen religious ideas in a contest, which in its progress may require that our people may consider themselves as the defenders of their country against atheism, conquest, and anarchy. It is far from evident to me that the progress of the war may not call on us to defend our firesides and our altars. And any plan which does not look forward to this as possible, will, in my opinion, be a superficial one." (18)

"Principles [ of the New-York Manumission Society].
The benevolent Creator and Father of Men having given to them all, an equal Right to Life, Liberty and Property; no Sovereign Power, on Earth, can justly deprive them of either; but in Conformity to impartial Government and Laws to which they have expressly or tacitly consented." (19)

The large majority of the above quotes give a strong evidence to Hamilton's view that it was his duty as an American, as well as the duty of his fellow Americans, to defend the country from the atheism which was ravishing the nation of France and was poised to carry out the destruction of American liberty, should the French principles find great influence in America.

Alexander Hamilton's "Christian Constitutional Society" letter was written in the year 1802 -- two years after Thomas Jefferson, a supporter of the French Revolution, had won the presidency. Ironically, Jefferson's victory in the race was partially due to Hamilton's influence. But Hamilton's decision to support Jefferson was not in spite of his own religious motives, but rather because of them.

"There is no doubt but that, upon every virtuous and prudent calculation, Jefferson is to be preferred. He is by far not so dangerous a man; and he has pretensions to character. As to Burr, there is nothing in his favor. His private character is not defended by his most partial friends. He is bankrupt beyond redemption, except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement, per fas et nefas. If he can, he will certainly disturb our institutions, to secure to himself permanent power, and with it wealth." (20)

But Hamilton still saw Jefferson's victory as proof that America was sliding toward humanism and atheism. After all, why would Americans support such a man for the Presidency when his religious and political beliefs were well known? Hamilton believed that without the Christian religion, which Hamilton believed to be true religion, calling it the "divinely authoritative religion (21), there could be neither order nor morality in American society, and that without order and morality in a society, there could not be true liberty or any lasting form of republican government.

Hamilton's desperation intensified as he witnessed the folly of his own political party, who called themselves "Federalists," after advocating a more energetic and more federal government under a strong national Constitution. During the last few years of the 1700s, the Federalists had been losing much popularity and their very existence as a political party was endangered. They began to support for high offices on both state and national level men like Aaron Burr. Hamilton, who had been personally acquainted with Burr for nearly twenty years, had every reason to fear that the Federalists were making a fatal mistake in assuming that by supporting a man who aimed for gaining and centralizing all power in himself (22), and who had been a supporter of the Jacobin faction in America. Hamilton also believed that the Federalists were making another big mistake in thinking that by returning more and more political positions to Federalists that they would effectively defend their tenets (23).

Instead, Hamilton proposed a different method of repairing the problem of intruding atheism and loss of Constitutional government.

Stay tuned for Part Two, which will explain Hamilton's strategy, which has been long lost in a century of revisionism.