FRtR > Outlines > The American Government > Explaining the Constitution: The Federalist Papers > The Perennial Question of Politics
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The memorable observations in The Federalist Papers about government, society, liberty, tyranny and the nature of political man are not always easy to locate. Much in these essays is dated or repetitious or archaic in style. The authors had neither the time nor the inclination to put their thoughts in an orderly and comprehensive form. Yet The Federalist Papers remain indispensable to anyone seriously interested in the perennial questions of political theory and practice raised by Hamilton and Madison. "No more eloquent, tough-minded and instructive answers have ever been given by an American pen," wrote the distinguished political historian, Clinton Rossitor. Rossitor wrote in his commentary on the essential wisdom in The Federalist Papers:
The message of The Federalist reads: no happiness without liberty, no liberty without self-government, no self-government without constitutionalism, no constitutionalism without morality -- and none of these great goods without stability and order.
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