Title page of an early Federalist compilation.

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. Download high resolution version (466x850, 45 KB)federalist title page PD This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... Download high resolution version (466x850, 45 KB)federalist title page PD This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... This is a listing of the Federalist Papers. ... Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Syng inkstand, with which the Constitution was signed The Constitution of the United States is the supreme... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. ... October 27 is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 65 days remaining. ... 1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

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. (Fung, 2003) Order: 4th President Vice President: George Clinton; Elbridge Gerry Term of office: March 4, 1809 – March 4, 1817 Preceded by: Thomas Jefferson Succeeded by: James Monroe Date of birth: March 16, 1751 Place of birth: Port Conway, Virginia Date of death: June 28, 1836 Place of death: Montpelier, Virginia First... A portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull, 1792. ... John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States Oil painting by Gilbert Stuart, 1794 John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat and jurist. ... Publius Valerius Publicola (or Poplicola, his surname meaning friend of the people) was a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic. ... Seal of the President of the United States The President of the United States is the head of state of the United States. ... A constitutional convention is an informal and uncodified procedural agreement that is followed by the institutions of a state. ... The United States Secretary of the Treasury is the finance minister of the Federal Government of the United States. ... The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the Judicial Branch of the government of the United States, and presides over the Supreme Court of the United States. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States...

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. State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki (R) Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... Ratification is the process of adopting an international treaty, or a constitution or other nationally binding document (such as an amendment to a constitution) by the agreement of multiple subnational entities. ... The Anti-Federalist Party, though not a true political party, but a faction, left a major legacy on the country by initiating the Bill of Rights. ... Cato can refer to several different things. ... Brutus is a Roman cognomen used by several politicians of the Junii family, especially in the Roman Republic. ... September 27 is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 95 days remaining. ... October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in Leap years). ...

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.

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. Broadly defined, a republic is a state or country that is led by principles established by the state for the benifit of its own populace, independent of the political power of outside influences. ... Separation of powers is the idea that the powers of a sovereign government should be split between two or more strongly independent entities, preventing any one person or group from gaining too much power. ...

The Federalist papers are remarkable for their opposition to what later became the United States Bill of Rights. The idea of adding a bill of rights to the constitution was originally controversial. The idea was that the constitution, as written did not specifically enumerate or protect the rights of the people, and as such needed an addition to ensure such protection. However, many Americans at the time opposed the bill of rights: If such a bill were created, many people feared that this would later be interpreted as a list of the only rights that people had. Hamilton wrote: The Bill of Rights is the name given to the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution. ...

It has been several times truly remarked, that bills of rights are in their origin, stipulations between kings and their subjects, abridgments of prerogative in favor of privilege, reservations of rights not surrendered to the prince. Such was Magna Carta, obtained by the Barons, sword in hand, from king John....It is evident, therefore, that according to their primitive signification, they have no application to constitutions professedly founded upon the power of the people, and executed by their immediate representatives and servants. Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing, and as they retain every thing, they have no need of particular reservations. "We the people of the United States, to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America." Here is a better recognition of popular rights than volumes of those aphorisms which make the principal figure in several of our state bills of rights, and which would sound much better in a treatise of ethics than in a constitution of government....

I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why for instance, should it be said, that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed? I will not contend that such a provision would confer a regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power.

(Alexander Hamilton, Federalist, no. 84, 575-581, 28 May 1788)

Supporters of the bill of rights argued that a list of rights would and should not be interpreted as exhaustive; i.e. that these rights were examples of important rights that people had, but that people had other rights as well. People in this school of thought were confident that the judiciary would interpret these rights in an expansive fashion. Magna Carta placed certain checks on the absolute power of the English Monarchs. ... A portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull, 1792. ...

References

• Fung, Glenn, The disputed federalist papers: SVM feature selection via concave minimization, New York City, ACM Press, 2003. (9 pg pdf file)

Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. ...

Further reading

• Dietze, Gottfried. The Federalist: A Classic on Federalism and Free Government, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1960.
• Epstein, David F. The Political Theory of the Federalist, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984.
• Gray, Leslie, and Wynell Burroughs. "Teaching With Documents: Ratification of the Constitution," Social Education, 51 (1987): 322-324.
• Patrick, John J., and Clair W. Keller. Lessons on the Federalist Papers: Supplements to High School Courses in American History, Government and Civics, Bloomington, IN: Organization of American Historians in association with ERIC/ChESS, 1987. ED 280 764.
• Schechter, Stephen L. Teaching about American Federal Democracy, Philadelphia: Center for the Study of Federalism at Temple University, 1984. ED 248 161.
• Yarbrough, Jean. "The Federalist". This Constitution: A Bicentennial Chronicle, 16 (1987): 4-9. SO 018 489.
• Webster, Mary E. The Federalist Papers: In Modern Language Indexed for Today's Political Issues. Bellevue, WA.: Merril Press, 1999.
• Wills, Gary. The Federalist Papers: By Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, New York: Bantam Book, 1982.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to Federalist Papers. File links The following pages link to this file: Abraham Lincoln Aristotle Ayn Rand Adolf Hitler Al Gore A Modest Proposal Articles of Confederation Arthur Schopenhauer Albert Einstein Amhrán na bhFiann Arthur Conan Doyle Ada programming language Antarctic Treaty System Andrew Jackson Andrew Johnson Adam Smith Bill Clinton Bible... Wikisource is a sister project to Wikipedia that aims to create a free wiki library of primary source texts, and translations of source texts in any language. ...

• Speaker of the House: The Federalist Papers
• The Federalist Papers at the Library of Congress
• Teaching the Federalist Papers teaching the federalist papers
• The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: The Federalist Papers
• Federalist Papers on the Bill of Rights