The Federalist (they did not become known as ‘The Federalist Papers’ until the 20th century) is a series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay between October 1787 and May 1788.
The essays were published anonymously, under the pen name “Publius,” in various New York state newspapers of the time.
The Federalist Papers were written and published to urge New Yorkers to ratify the proposed United States Constitution, which was drafted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787.
In lobbying for adoption of the Constitution over the existing Articles of Confederation, the essays explain particular provisions of the Constitution in detail.
For this reason, and because Hamilton and Madison were each members of the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers are often used today to help interpret the intentions of those drafting the Constitution.
The Federalist Papers were published primarily in two New York state newspapers: The New York Packet and The Independent Journal. They were reprinted in other newspapers in New York state and in several cities in other states.
Beginning on October 27, 1787, these papers are generally considered to be one of the most important contributions to political thought made in America.
The essays appeared in book form in 1788, with an introduction by Hamilton. Subsequently they were printed in many editions and translated to several languages.
The authors of the Federalist papers argued against the decentralization of political authority under the Articles of Confederation.
They worried, for example, that national commercial interests suffered from intransigent economic conflicts between states and that federal weakness undermined American diplomatic efforts abroad. Broadly, they argued that the government’s impotence under the Articles of Confederation obstructed America’s emergence as a powerful commercial empire.
The authors were also critical of the power assumed by state legislatures under the Articles of Confederation – and of the characters of the people serving in those assemblies. In the authors’ view, the farmers and artisans who rose to power in postrevolutionary America were too beholden to narrow economic and regional interests to serve the broader public good.
Of particular concern to the authors was the passage by state legislatures of pro-debtor legislation and paper money laws that threatened creditors’ property rights.
Unlike most Americans of the period, who typically worried about the conspiracies of the elite few against the liberties of the people, the authors were concerned about tyrannical legislative majorities threatening the rights of propertied minorities.
The Articles of Confederation, in their view, had provided no safeguards against the vices of the people themselves, and the American Revolution’s enthusiasm for liberty had diminished popular appreciation of the need for good governance. The Federalist papers presented the 1786–87 insurrection of debtor farmers in western Massachusetts – Shays’s Rebellion – as a symptom of this broader crisis.
The authors of the Federalist papers argued for an increase in the ‘energy’ of the federal government to respond to this crisis.
However, the national government’s increased power would have to be based in republican principles and retain a federal distribution of power; there would be no return to monarchical rule or consolidation of central authority.
In one of the most notable essays, “Federalist 10,” Madison rejected the then common belief that republican government was possible only for small states.
He argued that stability, liberty, and justice were more likely to be achieved in a large area with a numerous and heterogeneous population.
Although frequently interpreted as an attack on majority rule, the essay is in reality a defense of both social, economic, and cultural pluralism and of a composite majority formed by compromise and conciliation.
Decision by such a majority, rather than by a monistic one, would be more likely to accord with the proper ends of government. This distinction between a proper and an improper majority typifies the fundamental philosophy of the Federalist papers; republican institutions, including the principle of majority rule, were not considered good in themselves but were good because they constituted the best means for the pursuit of justice and the preservation of liberty.
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was accepted by the delegates. Nine states needed to vote for the Constitution for it to be accepted.
On July 26, 1788 New York, by a vote of 30-27, became the 11th state to ratify the Constitution. The New York Ratifying Convention, having approved the Constitution, also voted unanimously to prepare a circular letter to the other states, asking them to support a second general convention to consider amendments to the Constitution.
Largely through the efforts of James Madison, the first Congress in September 1789 proposed a Bill of Rights, which was adopted with little public debate in December 1791.
Click the following link to a general summary about The Federalist:
