Education and Early Writings: 1773–1775 Cruger and Knox realized
that the young Hamilton, who had little formal education,
required a crash course to prepare him for the academic rigors
of the College of New Jersey. They arranged for Alexander to
study Latin and Greek at the Presbyterian Academy in
Elizabethtown, New Jersey. There, Hamilton met many prominent
individuals and intellectuals, and befriended many of the
trustees, and even the headmaster. Hamilton worked hard for
several months, and was deemed prepared enough to enter college
by the summer of 1773. He was now sixteen years old. Knox and
Cruger obtained for Hamilton an interview with the president of
the College of New Jersey, Dr. John Witherspoon, who had
acquired a reputation for being one of the most intelligent
scholars and clergyman of his time, and would later go on to
sign the Declaration of Independence. Hamilton's interview with
Witherspoon did not go well. Hamilton asked Witherspoon to admit
him to the college as a special student so that