HAMILTON INSTITUTION. 1841

FOR THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

HAMILTON INSTITUTION.

PS The “Hamilton school” in 19th-century New York refers to the Baptist educational institution at Hamilton, New York, which began as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and later developed into the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, then Madison University, and finally Colgate University. Its theological seminary line later fed into what became Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. Colgate’s own history says that in 1817 thirteen men met in Hamilton, N.Y., to found the Baptist Education Society, famously connected with “13 dollars and 13 prayers.” (Colgate University)

Its purpose was ministerial education. The 1819 New York charter described the Society’s object as the education of “pious young men to the gospel ministry.” That phrase is important, because it shows the school was not originally a general college in the modern sense. It was created to prepare Baptist ministers. (Colgate at 200 Years)

The institution opened in 1820. Thomas Armitage says the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution opened May 1, 1820; Daniel Hascall was its first professor, and Nathanael Kendrick soon lectured on moral philosophy and theology. The first regular divinity class was organized in 1822, and among its students were Jonathan Wade and Eugenio Kincaid, both later connected with missions to Burma. (Reformed Reader)

In the 1830s and 1840s, the school expanded from a ministerial training school into a broader literary, collegiate, and theological institution. Colgate’s bicentennial history says the name Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution was used from 1833 to 1846. It originally served ministerial students, but by 1839 it was opened more broadly to students of “good moral character,” though still with the ministry as its chief purpose. (Colgate at 200 Years)

By 1846, it became Madison University, and in 1890 it became Colgate University. A Baptist historical listing gives the sequence clearly: Baptist Literary and Theological Seminary, Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, Madison University, then Colgate University. The theological side became the Theological Department of Madison University, later Hamilton Theological Seminary, then Colgate Theological Seminary, and eventually part of Colgate Rochester Divinity School. (baptisthistoryhomepage.com)

In plain terms, the Hamilton school represented the rising 19th-century Baptist confidence in organized ministerial education. It stood for the idea that churches needed trained, educated, theologically prepared ministers, and that Baptist institutions could help supply them. It was connected with the broader Baptist movements of education, missions, denominational organization, and professional ministerial preparation.

From an Old School Baptist standpoint, this was exactly the kind of system that raised alarm. Old School Baptists did not object to a minister studying Scripture, doctrine, language, history, or preaching. Their objection was to the idea that societies, seminaries, boards, and institutions could “prepare ministers” as though the ministry were a profession manufactured by religious machinery. The Hamilton school therefore became a symbol of the New School direction: organized education, missionary interest, denominational structure, and a trained ministry.

So the short summary is this: the Hamilton school in 19th-century New York was a Baptist ministerial training institution that later became Madison University and Colgate University. It was founded to educate young men for the gospel ministry, became a leading Baptist educational center, and helped shape the New School Baptist vision of educated, institutionally prepared ministers. To Old School Baptists, it illustrated the danger of replacing divine calling and church recognition with human systems of ministerial production. - ed.

DEAR BRO. BEEBE:—I am a Hamilton student, and as you are free to publish your views of the Hamilton institution, permit me to unfold to your attention a state of things which I have for some time mourned over. I will state to you a number of particulars which sorely trouble me.

1st. The New York Baptist Education Society is a growing monied aristocracy. That this is the case will appear from the following facts:

On the 1st of June, 1836, this society owned, irrespective of their debts, (see 20th annual report, p. 857,109,50. On the first of June, 1837, this society owned (see 21st report) $77,246,35. On the 1st of June, 1838, this society owned (see same report) $98,074,72. Thus we see an increase of property, during these two years, of over $20,000 a year. The last two reports I cannot now put my hand on; but their property at present is probably not far from $140,000. Continuing thus, in a few years they will be perfectly independent of the denomination and may exert a tyrannical influence at pleasure. And who are they that own all this property? Not the churches, but individuals, such as life-members, life-directors, and one-dollar annual members. When these annual members cease contributing, they lose their membership. The time is not distant when these monied contributions will not be asked and will not be obtained; and then the life directors and members will form an overwhelming monied aristocracy, and the ministers and churches over the country will be compelled to submit to their power. I say it will be so. I hope the Lord will avert it, but I greatly fear it will be so.

2d. This institution and society are rapidly losing their original character as a means for preparing poor young men that God has called to preach for usefulness in the ministry. This will appear by the following facts:

I. When this society was at first formed, poor young men had their tuition and, I believe, their board gratuitously bestowed upon them.

II. In a short time this rule was changed and the board and tuition were put very low, and every young man was required to pay for them—if he could not in money, his note was given.

III. When I at first heard of the institution, there were three tables, or three prices for board. The prices were, I think, at one table 50 cents a week, at another 93 cents, and at the third $1.—— Now every young man must [obscured] a week. The tuition then, I think, was [obscured] dollars a year. Now it is $20 a year for the first two years, $30 for the next four years, and gratuitously the last two years. At first, a young man finished his studies in three years; then it was changed to four—then to six; and now eight years are required. Thus at first a young man got his education for nothing; when six years was the term, the whole would cost, (say 65 cents a week for board,) about $250.—Now his education, exclusive of clothing, would cost him nearly $700. Thus Hamilton is becoming a retreat for the wealthy while the poor find no place within its walls. At first, a professor’s salary was $400 a year; eight years ago, it was only $500 a year: then it was raised to $600—then to $700—and now $800 a year is almost too little. When I at first heard of the institution, four or five professors were sufficient, and then it had almost 150 students: now it has only 180 students, and yet ten professors and tutors are almost too few!! The public must make their own comments.

3d. But what grieves me most of all is the great deception under which the great body of Baptists who support this institution lie. I will particularize:

I. It is generally supposed that poor young men at Hamilton are gratuitously supported by the Education Society, and thousands of dollars are given by the churches yearly to aid these poor young men, whereas not a young man at Hamilton gets anything whatever without paying for it, or giving his note promising to pay, unless it be the mere privilege of occupying a room. I know of one case (and I presume many exist) in which a poor young man went from a church, and such efforts an agent from Hamilton came to that church and called upon its members to come [obscured] to help support their student at Hamilton—[obscured] received $10, some $20, &c. &c. to aid [obscured] but he was required to pay for all he [obscured] that subscription was yearly all paid to [obscured] as if no such young man existed.

II. There are now and have long been Female Sewing Societies in churches, who have made shirts and other garments for the poor young men at Hamilton, and have given them to the Education Society for this purpose, and yet I was two years at Hamilton, and was all the time very poor, and I never received such a garment, and, what is more, I never, in all the time I was there, knew or heard of an instance where a garment of that kind had been given to any one of the poor students. They may be given, but if so, I have always been neglected (though sometimes suffering for decent clothes) and kept ignorant of these gratuities, III. I have known young men to live for weeks on mere potatoes and salt, because they could not consent to run in debt to the Education Society, and I have done so myself with the addition of a little bread and milk. Such cases have come to the ears of the agents, and they have made pitiable appeals to the sympathies of churches in behalf of Hamilton that has such men within its walls; moved by sympathy, many have given largely, but we had still to live on potatoes, salt, dry bread and milk, unless we could obtain something by personal application to our friends.

IV. I know ministers now in the field who are laboring in churches that give their twenties, their thirties, their fifties a year to aid the Hamilton institution, and these ministers dare not speak out the fact that the students at Hamilton all support themselves, or run in debt, giving their notes for payment. Thus, while the pastor of the church is struggling under a debt of one or two hundred dollars to Hamilton, the church to which he labors is lavishing their property upon that institution, but the pastor’s advisory voice cannot be lifted, because his debts to the Education Society have tied his tongue.

I labored hard for more than two years to sustain myself at Hamilton; but after all my efforts I am yet in debt to them. The churches to which I have belonged have given hundreds of dollars to that institution, but I have not been aided. Had I dared to exhibit these facts, I should long since have been unembarrassed, but I have feared to do so. The professors at Hamilton I love; they have always been kind to me, and I regard them as pious men. I have spent happy days at Hamilton. I have no desire to injure anyone; but my conscience will not allow me to conceal my feelings any longer. I should be glad to return to Hamilton to finish my studies, if I could do it without running in debt, and if my presence there would not assist this growing aristocracy. As it is, I must remain out, pay my debt when I can, and preach or teach as the Lord may enable me, and trust to God for my future support.

What I have stated you can get confirmed by almost any Hamilton student who will be willing to unburden his mind.

Yours,
A HAMILTON STUDENT.

P. S. The increase of the property of the Education Society arises from the fact that they are paid twice for all they do for the students. The benevolent community pays their ten or twelve thousand annually to educate and board the poor young men at Hamilton, and the students themselves also pay or give their notes for all they receive. There is deception somewhere. Who are the authors of it, the judgment day will reveal. I dare not judge.

This communication I should have made to the Baptist Register or Advocate, but I presumed they would refuse it any attention. They dare not publish the truth, if indeed they are not duped on the subject. I am not directly an “Old School Baptist,” but such conduct as I here exhibit is forcibly urging me over to such sentiments, and I know ministers and churches who are troubled on the matter. “TRUTH IS MIGHTY AND WILL PREVAIL.”