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An Outline of American Government

Explaining the Constitution: The Federalist Papers

....But what is Government.....

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"BUT WHAT IS GOVERNMENT ITSELF BUT THE GREATEST OF ALL REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN NATURE?"

JAMES MADISON, The Federalist Papers

THE FEDERALIST: A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, WRITTEN IN FAVOR OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION, AS AGREED UPON BY THE FEDERAL CONVENTION, SEPTEMBER 17, 1787.
Written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison.

Thomas Jefferson called The Federalist Papers "the best commentary on the principles of government ... ever written." For the 19th-century English philosopher, John Stuart Mill, The Federalist, (as the collection of 85 short essays was usually titled) was "the most instructive treatise we possess on federal government." The astute French political commentator, Alexis de Tocqueville, thought it "an excellent book, which ought to be familiar to the statesmen of all countries." In the 20th century, historians, jurists and political scientists have generally agreed that The Federalist is the most important work of political philosophy and pragmatic government ever written in the United States. It has been compared to Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics and Hobbes' Leviathan. And it has been consulted by the leaders of many new nations in Latin America, Asia and Africa as they were preparing their own constitutions.

The delegates who signed the drafted Constitution in Philadelphia on September 16, 1787, stipulated that it would take effect only after approval by ratifying conventions in nine of 13 states. Although not stipulated, a negative vote by either of two key states -- New York or Virginia -- could destroy the whole enterprise because of their size and power. Both New York and Virginia delegates were sharply divided in their opinions of the Constitution. And New York governor George Clinton had already made clear his opposition.

One would imagine that a work so highly praised and so influential as The Federalist Papers was the ripe fruit of a long lifetime's experience in scholarship and government. In fact, it was largely the product of two young men: Alexander Hamilton of New York, age 32, and James Madison of Virginia, age 36, who wrote in great haste -- sometimes as many as four essays in a single week. An older scholar, John Jay, later named as first chief justice of the Supreme Court, contributed five of the letters.

Hamilton, who had been an aide to Washington during the Revolution, asked Madison and Jay to join him in this crucial project. Their purpose was to persuade the New York convention to ratify the just-drafted Constitution. They would separately write a series of letters to New York newspapers, under the shared pseudonym, "Publius." In the letters they would explain and defend the Constitution.

Hamilton initiated the venture, outlined the sequence of topics to be discussed, and vigorously addressed most of them in 51 of the letters. But Madison's 29 letters have proved to be the most memorable in their combination of frankness, balance and reasoning power. It is not clear whether The Federalist Papers, written between October 1787 and May 1788, had a decisive effect on New York's grudging ratification of the Constitution. But there can be no doubt that they became, and remain, the most authoritative commentary on that document.

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