Federalist Papers

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FEDERALIST PAPERS

The Federalist Papers, a series of eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, were intended to win public support for the Constitution by explaining in detail how the proposed system of government would work. The essays, signed with the pseudonym "Publius," appeared in several New York newspapers from October 1787 to April 1788, and were also reprinted in other states. Their carefully crafted arguments in favor of the Constitution convinced many Americans to support its ratification and influenced later interpretations of constitutional principles.

origins and authorship

Supporters of the Constitution realized that winning ratification in New York would be a difficult task. Governor George Clinton, who led the opposition, attacked the Constitution in several published letters signed "Cato," charging that the framers had no authority to devise a new system of government, and that the Constitution threatened the rights of the citizens as well as the states.

Hamilton realized that an effective response was necessary. Believing that a well-reasoned defense of the Constitution would win over many voters, he decided to publish a series of papers explaining the principles of the Constitution and why it was an improvement over the current Confederation government. Hamilton wrote the first "Publius" letter and enlisted John Jay and, later, James Madison to assist in the undertaking. Madison composed about one-third of the essays, Jay five, and Hamilton the remainder (the authorship of several is un-certain). The essays describe how the Constitution would operate as well as how the new system of government would mesh with both the principles that had inspired the Revolution and the lessons learned from the experience of the Revolution itself.

key political principles

More than half of the essays emphasized the need for a stronger central government. The Federalist arguments for this were based on the need to preserve liberty while maintaining domestic order, and the essays sought to modify the political ideas of republicanism in light of the lessons of the Revolution. Republican ideology held that the virtue of the people would insure their commitment to the common good, but wartime experience had convinced the Federalists that people were more likely to ignore political ideals to pursue selfish ends at the expense of the public interest.

During the Revolution power had remained in the hands of Congress and the states. Because state and sectional interests were often in conflict, the United States had found it difficult to formulate and carry out policy even in times of crisis. States had refused to contribute the taxes and troops demanded by Congress, jeopardizing the war effort. Sectional disputes over the goals sought in peace negotiations had caused difficulty in settling the treaty with Great Britain. American farmers had refused to sell grain to their own troops for Continental paper money, yet sold food to their British enemies for gold. Without an executive strong enough to carry out the mandates of Congress, or a mechanism to compel either states or individuals to comply with congressional decisions, it proved nearly impossible to execute any coherent policy. This was demonstrated again after the war, when the Confederation government was unable to respond effectively to Spain's closure of the Mississippi River to American commerce, or to Britain's refusal to evacuate forts as required by the peace treaty.

The authors of the Federalist Papers explained at length how the Constitution would remedy these deficiencies. In Federalist No. 26, Hamilton declared that an energetic government was not the enemy of liberty, but rather the best means of securing people's rights. For Hamilton, the energy of this government was centered in the executive. A strong president, he asserted in Federalist No. 70, is necessary for government to be effective. "A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government," he wrote, and this was equivalent to "a bad execution; and a government ill executed… must be in practice, a bad government."

Hamilton also refuted claims that because the Constitution granted the federal government direct power over citizens, it threatened liberty. He noted in Federalist No. 21 that the Confederation's inability to enforce its own laws was a "striking absurdity." This weakness was a greater threat to liberty than the power granted to the national government, for the current Confederation government was powerless to intervene if a tyrant should gain control of a state and oppress the citizens. Furthermore, Hamilton explained in Federalist No. 31, without the power to collect taxes, the national government would be unable to meet even its ordinary financial needs. The Revolution had shown that the states could not be relied upon to supply requested funds—only the authority to collect taxes directly from the people could provide the revenues that were the "essential engine" of effective government.

In a glaring break with republican beliefs, Hamilton argued in favor of the Constitution's provision for a standing army. The idea that a professional army could be employed to oppress the people was a key element of republican thought, and the Constitution's creation of a powerful federal government combined with the possibility of a standing army at its disposal frightened many Americans; opponents of the Constitution found this to be a powerful argument against ratification. Hamilton maintained that a standing army would not be an instrument of tyranny, but instead leave citizens free to pursue their livelihoods to their benefit and that of the United States. In Federalist No. 24 he stated that taking people from their farms and businesses for extended militia service "would be as burdensome and injurious to the public as ruinous to private citizens." Hamilton dismissed the idea of the army being used to oppress the people in Federalist No. 26, noting that such a scheme would require the unlikely collusion of the executive and legislative branches, while in Federalist No. 27 he stated that there would be no need to use the army to enforce the laws, as the Constitution granted that power to the federal judiciary.

MADISON'S DEFINITION OF A FACTION FROM FEDERALIST PAPER NO. 10

"By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."

Another key principle of republican thought invoked by opponents of the Constitution was the belief, based on historical examples, that a large republic could not survive for long without falling under the grip of tyranny. Madison addressed this issue in Federalist No. 10. He did so by focusing on a fear shared by supporters and opponents of the Constitution, that of faction, which he defined as "a majority or minority… united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community." Should any faction gain power, Americans believed their liberty would be endangered. Madison conceded that faction could not be eliminated, only controlled, but that it was more easily controlled in a large republic than a small one. A large republic would benefit from a larger electorate as well as from a larger pool of qualified leaders, both of whom were less likely to fall under the influence of factions. Also, competing regional interests would be better balanced in a geographically large country.

Other key points discussed in the Federalist Papers included the separation of powers, the role of the judiciary, and the limits of federal power. Madison dealt with the first as it related to the division of state and national power in Federalist No. 14, writing that the two-tiered system allowed the federal government to focus on issues of national concern while the states focused on domestic responsibilities, so that the people would be well served in both spheres. In Federalist No. 51 he added that the state and national governments would help preserve liberty by serving as a check upon one another; Madison also noted that the structure of the federal government would protect liberty by distributing power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, a point also made in Federalist No. 47. Hamilton addressed the function of the federal judiciary in Federalist No. 78, in which he stated that the primary role of federal judges was to review laws to insure their compatibility with the Constitution. By invalidating laws that conflicted with constitutional principles, judges would uphold the will of the people as expressed by their ratification of the Constitution. Hamilton defended the Constitution's controversial "necessary and proper" clause in Federalist No. 33, declaring that it merely gave the federal government the means to carry out the responsibilities granted to it by the Constitution. The national government itself and the people were, Hamilton, wrote, the final judges of what policies were necessary and proper.

the federalist legacy

The Federalist Papers had a lasting influence on how Americans have understood the Constitution, and thus on American society and culture. Acting on principles contained in the Federalist Papers regarding the need to control factional domestic unrest, George Washington suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, Andrew Jackson demanded South Carolina's compliance with federal tariff laws in 1832, and Abraham Lincoln resisted secession in 1861. The elasticity of federal powers contained in the "necessary and proper" clause has justified a variety of actions, including Thomas Jefferson's 1803 Louisiana Purchase and Franklin Roosevelt's internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. The principle of judicial review proved crucial to the success of the Civil Rights Movement by enforcing the terms of the Fourteenth Amendment. In explaining how the framers intended the Constitution to work, the Federalist Papers have enabled subsequent generations of Americans to better comprehend and apply constitutional principles, and the Federalist Papers remain among those documents that best define American political ideas.

bibliography

Carey, George W. The Federalist: Design for a Constitutional Republic. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.

Kramnick, Isaac. "The 'Great National Discussion': The Discourse of Politics in 1787." William & Mary Quarterly 45, no. 1 (January 1988): 3–32.

Wright, Benjamin Fletcher, ed. The Federalist, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961.

Jim Piecuch

Americans at War