Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles about the United States Constitution, first published serially in New York City newspapers (the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet and the Daily Advertiser) between October 27, 1787 and May 28, 1788. A compilation, called The Federalist, was published in 1788.

Related Topics:
85 articles - United States Constitution - New York City - October 27 - 1787 - May 28 - 1788

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The articles were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, under the pseudonym "Publius" in honor of Publius Valerius Publicola. Madison is generally credited as the father of the Constitution and became the fourth President of the United States. Hamilton was an influential delegate at the Constitutional Convention, and later the first Secretary of the Treasury. John Jay would become the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Hamilton penned the majority and Madison made several significant contributions to the series. Jay, who fell ill early in the project, wrote but five. The authorship for 73 of the papers is fairly certain. But there are 12 of them that are in dispute, with no definitive way to say who wrote them, though all 12 were generally considered to be written by either Madison or Hamilton. Adding to the difficulty, Hamilton claimed authorship of some of them well after they were written. Statistical analysis has been undertaken a number of times to try to decide based on word frequencies and writing styles, and nearly all of the statistical studies show that all 12 papers were written by Madison.{{ref|mosteller-wallace}}{{ref|fung}}

Related Topics:
James Madison - Alexander Hamilton - John Jay - Publius Valerius Publicola - President of the United States - Constitutional Convention - Secretary of the Treasury - Chief Justice - Supreme Court

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The Federalist Papers were intended to explain the new Constitution to the residents of New York state and persuade them to ratify it. In particular, they were a response to articles arguing that the Constitution should be rejected, which began appearing in New York's papers shortly before the Federalist series started — the important Anti-Federalist authors Cato and Brutus debuted on September 27 and October 18 of 1787. Hamilton organized the project and established the pseudonym, and recruited Jay and Madison to assist with the writing. Between them, they kept up a rapid pace of writing, with at times three or four new essays by Publius appearing in the New York papers each week.

Related Topics:
Constitution - New York - Ratify - Anti-Federalist - Cato - Brutus - September 27 - October 18

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The Federalist Papers serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution. They also outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government, as it was presented by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay. The authors of the Federalist Papers were not above using the opportunity to provide their own "spin" on certain provisions of the constitution to (i) influence the vote on ratification and (ii) influence future interpretations of the provisions in question.

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Federalist No. 10 and Federalist No. 51 are generally regarded as the most influential of the 85 articles; 10 advocates for a large, strong republic, 51 explains the need for separation of powers.

Related Topics:
Federalist No. 10 - Federalist No. 51 - Republic - Separation of powers

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