Federalist Papers

Federalist Papers (1787–1788).The Federalist Papers are the most important American contribution to political theory. Conceived by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, this series of essays, written under the pseudonym “Publius,” countered the political campaign mounted by opponents of the Constitution during the months after the adjournment of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Planned as a modest series of essays to appear in New York City newspapers, the Federalist Papers grew to eighty‐five numbers. Newspapers in others states reprinted the first numbers, but with the announcement in January 1788 that the essays would appear as a book, the out‐of‐state reprintings dwindled. Eventually the series filled two volumes published in March and May 1788. Hamilton wrote about fifty of the essays. Illness restricted Jay to only five, and James Madison (joining the consortium later) contributed the balance. Disagreement persists over whether Hamilton or Madison was the author of a handful of the essays. It was widely believed at the time that Hamilton and Madison were the primary contributors.

Written in a nonpartisan style, the Federalist Papers extolled the benefits of the union, demonstrated the inefficacy of the Articles of Confederation, explained and clarified the principles and provisions of the Constitution, and justified the exclusion of various provisions such as a Bill of Rights and a religious test for office‐holding. Hamilton introduced the series on 27 October 1787 with an essay suggesting that Americans must “decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force”. Conceding that the love of liberty could lead to an “illiberal distrust” of government, he nevertheless insisted that “the vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty”.

While Hamilton's essays emphasized the importance of an energetic federal government, Madison, especially in Federalist No. 39 and 51, stressed the restraints placed on that government by free and frequent elections, the checks and balances built into the government through the separation of powers, and the healthy tension created by the division of power between the states and the federal government. Federalist No. 10, also by Madison, is particulary celebrated for its argument that in a large republic like the United States under the proposed Constitution, conflicting interest groups—notably economic interests—would be sufficiently numerous and dispersed to counterbalance each other, and thereby promote rather than endanger political stability, with no one interest group gaining complete dominance.

The original objective of the Federalist Papers was to convince New Yorkers to elect to their state ratifying convention delegates who would support the Constitution. In this the authors failed, as two‐thirds of New York's convention delegates initially opposed ratification unless the Constitution was first altered by amendments. But the series succeeded beyond the authors' expectations in other ways. Arguments espoused by “Publius” became the standard explanations used by other Federalists in the public debate waged in newspapers and pamphlets as well as in speeches in the state ratifying conventions. Thomas Jefferson, writing to Madison, praised the Federalist Papers as “the best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written”. To his son‐in‐law Jefferson observed, “descending from theory to practice there is no better book than the Federalist”. Since the adoption of the Constitution, scholars, judges, and lawyers have elevated the Federalist Papers to a unique status as the most authoritative source for discerning the framers' original intent.
See also Federalism; Revolution and Constitution, Era of.

Bibliography

Jacob E. Cooke, ed., The Federalist, 1961.
Thomas S. Engeman, Edward J. Erler, and Thomas B. Hofeller, eds., The Federalist Concordance, 1980.

John P. Kaminski