Philip Schuyler

"Extream as my distress is, and indisposed as I have been, and still unwell, it has pleased the divine being to support me in the severe tryals Bishop Moore’s account of the last moments of my dearly beloved son has conveyed great consolation to me and doubtless to you my dear afflicted child. My Hamilton’s spirit is now in heaven and that of your parent hopes in God’s due time to meet in the abodes of bliss. I have too long neglected the sacred ordinances directed by our Saviour, but I hope soon to become a partaker ..." Soon after Hamilton was conveyed to the Bayard household after the duel, he asked to see Reverend Benjamin Moore, the rector of Trinity Church, the Episcopal bishop of New York, and president of Columbia College, in order to receive last rites from him. At first, Moore balked at giving Hamilton holy communion, because he had not been a regular churchgoer and because he had engaged in the sinful and barbarous act of dueling.

At the urging of John M. Mason, the pastor of the Scotch Presbyterian Church near Hamilton's home, Moore returned for another audience with Hamilton. "My dear Sir," Hamilton told Moore, "you perceive my unfortunate situation and no doubt have been made acquainted with the circumstances which led to it. It is my desire to receive the communion at your hands ... It has for some time past been the wish of my heart ... to take an early opportunity of uniting myself to the church by the reception of that holy ordinance." With Hamilton's declaration of faith in God's mercy and admission that he never intended Burr any harm, Moore relented and gave him holy communion (Chernow, pp. 707–708).

Hoping to recover soon from yet another episode of gout, General Schuyler vowed "to devote myself to those duties towards you and my dear grandchildren." He concludes his letter with soothing words of advice that his daughter preserve her faith in God and turn her attentions to the living: "Grief is natural on such an occasion as we experience but we owe duties to the living, which together with an humble resignation to the divine should induce to exert ourselves to become calm. A mind so pious as yours, so deeply embarrassed with the duties of a mother will feel the force of my remarks. May indulgent heaven support you and rain those blessings on you and my dear grandchildren which your affectionate parent implores of heaven for you and them. Let the children participate with you in my love. Assure them of my … invariable affection. Adieu my dearly beloved, my amiable, my good, my virtuous child."