What is the Federalist Papers?

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 essays published in New York newspapers between October 27, 1787 and August 16, 1788 to persuade the people of New York to ratify the proposed Constitution, written under the pseudonym Publius by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. The essays were collected and published in book form as The Federalist in two volumes in March and May 1788, and have since become the most influential commentary on the Constitution and a primary source for American political theory.

Hamilton conceived the project after returning from the Constitutional Convention to a New York City where Governor George Clinton and his Anti-Federalist allies were attacking the proposed Constitution in print. Hamilton recruited Madison, who was in New York attending Congress, and Jay, the experienced diplomat and minister of foreign affairs. Jay wrote the first four essays and Federalist No. 64 before falling ill. Madison contributed roughly 29 essays, Hamilton roughly 51, and three are jointly credited or disputed. Modern scholarship using stylistic analysis pioneered by Frederick Mosteller and David Wallace in 1964 has resolved most authorship questions, attributing previously contested essays to Madison.

The essays were first printed in The Independent Journal, the New York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser at a pace of three or four per week. They covered the entire Constitution. Federalist No. 1 by Hamilton stated the project's purpose: to consider the new Constitution on calm and rational arguments. Federalist No. 10 by Madison defended the Constitution against the Anti-Federalist claim that a republic could not govern a large territory, arguing that an extended republic would actually dilute the dangers of faction. Federalist No. 51 by Madison explained the system of separation of powers and checks and balances, with the famous observation that if men were angels, no government would be necessary. Federalist No. 78 by Hamilton defended judicial review, arguing that courts had a duty to set aside laws contrary to the Constitution because the Constitution was the supreme law and judges its servants.

Other essays addressed taxation (Hamilton, Nos. 30 to 36), the national defense and standing armies (Nos. 23 to 29), the Senate's role (Nos. 62 to 66), the executive (Nos. 67 to 77), and the absence of a Bill of Rights (Hamilton, No. 84).

The essays did not single-handedly produce ratification in New York, where Federalist victory on July 26, 1788 owed more to the news that Virginia had ratified on June 25 and that the Constitution would take effect even without New York. But the essays profoundly shaped subsequent constitutional understanding. The Supreme Court has cited The Federalist hundreds of times, and the essays are studied in law schools and history courses around the world.