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An Introduction to The Federalist
P URPOSE AND A UTHORSHIP
The Federalist was written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. The essays were published in New York City between 27 October 1787 and 28 May 1788 and were addressed to the “People of the State of New-York.” First and foremost, The Federalist essays were political documents intended to convince the people of New York of the absolute necessity of ratifying the Constitution. According to Alexander Hamilton—in the first essay—the purpose of the series was to show the necessity of the “ UNION ,” the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, and the nature and benefits of the new Constitution. Furthermore, the essays were “to give a satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made their appearance that may seem to have any claim” to the public’s “attention” (Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 30 October 1787). Whether or not Alexander Hamilton or John Jay originated the idea for he series is uncertain, but it is known that the two New Yorkers sought the assistance of a collaborator. Four other men were either asked to be or were considered as possible contributors. It seems likely that Gouverneur Morris was first sought out as a collaborator. Morris, an experienced political publicist, had been a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he had played a major role in drafting the Constitution. Morris recalled years later that he had been “warmly pressed by Hamilton to assist in writing the Federalist,” but he declined the offer. This invitation was probably extended while Morris was in New York City between mid- September and late October 1787 After Morris refused, it appears that William Duer, secretary of the Board of Treasury and Hamilton’s close friend, was asked to participate. Duer “wrote two or perhaps more papers, which tho’ intelligent & sprightly, were not continued; nor did they make a part of the printed Collection” Duer later published his essays as “Philo-Publius” in several New York newspapers. Hamilton apparently then asked James Madison to join him and Jay in writing The Federalist. Madison accepted and wrote George Washington on 18 November that “I will not conceal from you that I am likely to have … a degree of connection with the publication …” (Rutland, Madison , X, 254). Madison’s first contribution—No. 10–was printed on 22 November
John Jay became ill, probably at about the time his essay—No. 5–appeared on 10 November, and, for several months, he was unable to contribute to the series. Perhaps in response to the loss of Jay, Madison recommended to Hamilton that Rufus King of Massachusetts “might be a proper auxiliary, as he had been a member of the Convention, and well understood the subject to be discussed.” Hamilton, however, “spoke respectfully of Mr [King’s] talents but did not consider them as altogether of the sort required for the task in view” (“Madison’s ’Detatched Memoranda,’” 564–65). Consequently, Hamilton and Madison continued the series alone, except for one more essay by Jay which appeared in March 1788. James Madison described the manner in which The Federalist essays were written and published, and to what extent the authors were responsible for each other’s work. He stated
that the essays “were written most of them in great haste, and without any special allotment of the different parts of the subject to the several writers, J. M. being at the time a member of the then Congress, and A. H. being also a member, and occupied moreover in his profession at the bar, it was understood that each was to write as their respective situations permitted, preserving as much as possible an order & connection in the papers successively published. This will account for deficiency in that respect, and also for an occasional repetition of the views taken of particular branches of the subject. The haste with which many of the papers were penned, in order to get thro the subject whilst the Constitution was before the public, and to comply with the arrangement by which the printer was to keep his newspaper open for four numbers every week, was such that the performance must have borne a very different aspect without the aid of historical and other notes which have been used in the Convention and without the familiarity with the whole subject produced by the discussions there. It frequently happened that whilst the printer was putting into type the parts of a number, the following parts were under the pen, & to be furnished in time for the press. “In the beginning it was the practice of the writers, of A. H. & J. M. particularly to communicate each to the other, their respective papers before they were sent to the press. This was rendered so inconvenient, by the shortness of the time allowed, that it was dispensed with. Another reason was, that it was found most agreeable to each, not to give a positive sanction to all the doctrines and sentiments of the other; there being a known difference in the general complexion of their political theories” (“Madison’s ‘Detatched Memoranda,’” 565). Madison also declared that occasionally the writers did not have the time to read over their own work before it was sent to the printer (James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 10 August 1788). In general, the authors did not refer by name to specific critics of the Constitution. Nevertheless, the publication of The Federalist essays in Commentaries in chronological sequence with other major writings on the Constitution makes it clear that “Publius” was fully aware of and concerned with the influential Antifederalist literature appearing almost daily in newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets. “Publius” did not engage in personal attacks, but he was not above deliberately misrepresenting the position of Antifederalists. A good example of such misrepresentation was the portrayal of Antifederalists as supporters of the idea of separate confederacies. In 1787 and 1788 the identity of “Publius” was unknown to the general public. Only two newspaper accounts insinuated that Hamilton was the author. In the preface to a Boston reprinting of essay No. 13, “Philo-Publius” referred to “a respectable and worthy member of the late Convention from New-York” who had considered the question of separate republics in “one of a series of papers on the new Constitution” ( Massachusetts Centinel , 8 December 1787). On 5 March 1788 the Antifederalist Philadelphia Freeman’s Journal printed a spurious letter from Benjamin Rush to Alexander Hamilton, in which Rush described the “60 numbers of Publius” as “your writings.” A third newspaper item, one never published, also suggested that Hamilton was “Publius.” Hugh Hughes, a New York Antifederalist, drafted an attack on essay No. 15, published on 1 December 1787. Hughes states “You really Speak as tho’ you had been a Member of the late Convention, and experienced, in your own Person, all the Improprieties and Excesses which
recognize one of the pens concerned in the task. There are three in the whole …” (Rutland, Madison , X, 254). On 2 December Madison forwarded two essays to Governor Edmund Randolph and told him that “You will probably discover marks of different pens. I am not at liberty to give you any other key than that I am in myself for a few numbers & that one besides myself was a member of the Convention ” ( ibid ., 290). On 10 August 1788 Madison informed Jefferson that The Federalist “was undertaken last fall by Jay Hamilton and myself ( ibid ., XI, 227). Three days later Hamilton sent Washington a two-volume set of The Federalist and declared that “I presume you have understood that the writers of these Papers are chiefly Mr. Madison & myself with some aid from Mr. Jay.” John Jay was perhaps suggesting himself as an author when he sent Washington a copy of volume one of The Federalist. The authorship of sixty-nine of the eighty-five essays is certain. Hamilton wrote fifty essays—Nos. 1, 6–9, 11–13, 15–17, 21–36, 59–61, 65–85; Madison fourteen—Nos. 10, 14, 37– 18; and Jay five—Nos. 2–5, 64. The disputed essays are Nos. 18–20, 49–58, and 62–63. The most recent scholarship suggests that Madison probably wrote all of the disputed essays. (See Douglass Adair. “The Authorship of the Disputed Federalist Papers”).
CIRCULATION
Between 27 October 1787 and 2 April 1788, seventy-six numbers of The Federalist were printed in four New York City newspapers—the Independent Journal , the New York Packet , the Daily Advertiser , and the New York Journal. John and Archibald M’Lean reprinted these essays in two volumes—the first volume appeared on 22 March 1788; the second on 28 May. The second volume included eight new essays, making a total of eighty-four. The Independent Journal and the Packet printed all eighty-four essays; the Daily Advertiser , Nos. 1–50; and the New York Journal. Nos. 23–39. The numbering in the M’Lean volumes differs from that in the newspapers Hamilton and Madison helped to distribute The Federalist in Virginia. On 30 October 1787 Hamilton forwarded the first essay to George Washington. In November and December Madison transmitted the first twenty-two numbers to Washington, asking that they be printed in Richmond to impress Virginians with the “importance of the Union.” Madison also sent two numbers to Governor Edmund Randolph in Richmond. Washington complied with Madison’s request and sent The Federalist to Richmond partly because he believed the essays would answer those persons who wanted to divide the United States into separate confederacies. The weekly Virginia Independent Chronicle of Richmond reprinted Nos. 1 to 3 of The Federalist on 12, 19, and 26 December. Edward Carrington, a Virginia delegate to Congress, sent the first twenty-four numbers to Archibald Stuart—a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in Richmond. Stuart gave them to John Dixon of the weekly Virginia Gazette and Independent Chronicle , and Dixon reprinted some of them. Only a few issues of Dixon’s newspaper are extant; two extant issues– 22 and 29 December 1787–contain Nos. 4 and 5. In mid-November 1787 Hamilton sent several numbers of The Federalist to Benjamin Rush to be used to influence the Quaker members of the Pennsylvania Convention. On 30 January 1788 Madison transmitted Nos. 44 and 45 (M’Lean’s Nos. 45 and 46) to Tench Coxe of
Philadelphia so that he could use them to answer Antifederalist arguments that the Constitution would create a consolidated government (Rutland, Madison , X, 445, 445n). Early numbers of The Federalist also circulated in Connecticut. Massachusetts, and North Carolina. In mid-December Jeremiah Wadsworth a delegate-elect to the Connecticut Convention, asked Rufus King and Henry Knox in New York City to send him “Publius” if it appeared as a pamphlet so that he could use it to counteract the voluminous Antifederalist material coming into Connecticut from New York (17 and 23 December. On 23 December Christopher Gore, a Boston lawyer and delegate-elect to the Massachusetts Convention, wrote George Thacher, a Massachusetts delegate to Congress, that “if any thing new turns up let me hear it and whatever is written (viz all Publius pieces at least) on the Constitution I will thank you to send me.” Sometime in late December 1787 or early January 1788, James Iredell sent Charles Johnson, a Chowan County, N.C., planter, “papers” containing several “Publius” essays. On 22 January William R. Davie, a Halifax, N.C., planter-lawyer, heard that twenty-five numbers of The Federalist had been printed and asked Iredell to forward as many as he could, “as we are in greater want of its assistance here than you are in Edenton, etc.” The newspaper circulation of The Federalist subsided significantly in January and February 1788. It was next to impossible for American newspapers, most of them weeklies, to continue reprinting the voluminous series. Probably more important, however, was the announcement on 2 January that the series would be published in book form. On 22 March 1788 the first volume of The Federalist was published by John and Archibald M’Lean. It included an unsigned preface by Hamilton and thirty-six essays, the second volume appeared on 28 May and contained forty-nine essays. The volumes totalled more than 600 pages. In all, 500 copies of each volume were printed. Hamilton, probably as a member of a committee which had commissioned the volumes, paid for more than half the cost of printing them. The volumes circulated widely. Individual volumes were sent to every part of the United States, many to people who had subscribed in advance, Large shipments were also distributed. For example, in April 1788–shortly before the elections to the New York Convention—at least sixty copies of volume I were forwarded to Montgomery and Albany counties. In May Hamilton, upon Madison’s request, sent fifty-two copies of volume I to the care of Governor Edmund Randolph. Three weeks later Hamilton also forwarded copies of volume II to Randolph in Richmond (Rutland, Madison , XI, 54, 100). Both volumes were obviously intended for use in the Virginia Convention, scheduled to meet in early June.
P UBLIC AND P RIVATE COMMENTARIES ON T HE F EDERALIST
In 1787 and 1788 The Federalist was praised in private letters and newspapers. In early November 1787 “Curtius” III asserted that “the writings of Publius will reflect a pleasing lustre upon many of those beautiful intricacies, that are retired from superficial observation, and which require a master discernment to be brought into public notice” (New York Daily Advertiser , 3 November, supplement). “A Customer” wrote that the first essay revealed that succeeding numbers would be written “in the spirit of cool discussion” and would be directed “to the judgment, and not the passions, of men” (Lansingburgh Northern Centinel , 13 November 1787). On 21 November the Norfolk and Portsmouth Journal reported that “Publius”
“A Countryman” IV (DeWitt Clinton) remarked that all he had learned from “Publius” was “that it is better to be united than divided …” ( New York Journal , 10 January 1788). “Brutus” VI and VII castigated “Publius” for his defense of the financial and military powers of Congress and for his concept of federal-state relations ( ibid ., 27 December 1787 and 3 January 1788). “Twenty-seven Subscribers” charged that “Publius’” principles were possibly “despotic” and his ideas of government could only be achieved through the use of military force ( ibid ., 1 January 1788). In his An Additional number of Letters ., the “Federal Farmer” dismissed “Publius” because his writings had “but little relation to the great question, whether the constitution is fitted to the condition and character of the people or not. ” Antifederalists also attacked “Publius” personally. An “Anecdote of PUBLIUS” pictured him as an individual “who pants for a fat office under the new system of government” ( Independent Gazetteer , 5 January 1788). Hugh Hughes, in an unpublished essay, described “Publius” as “ Solicitor General for the New Constitution (perhaps with a View of being Attorney General or Ld. Chief-Justice under it) …” ([post 1 December 1787], Hughes Papers, DLC). An unidentified Antifederalist satirist accused “Publius” of prolixity and plagiarism ( Freeman’s Journal , 5 March 1788). Even some Federalists were critical of “Publius,” although their criticisms were confined to technique and style. Rufus King thought that The Federalist was too “elaborate” (to Jeremiah Wadsworth, 23 December 1787). Charles Johnson praised The Federalist effusively, but could not understand why “Publius” took such pains to indicate what seemed so evident, namely that a strong, efficient government was better “than the States disunited into distinct, independent governments, or separate confederacies” (to James Iredell, 14 January 1788). Archibald Maclaine, a North Carolina lawyer, did not think that “Publius” was “well calculated for the common people” (to Iredell, 4 March 1788). And Louis Guillaume Otto. French charge d’affaires, stated that The Federalist “is not at all useful to educated men and it is too scholarly and too long for the ignorant.” Despite these censures. The Federalist quickly became a textbook for the study of political science, constitutional government, and the nature of the Constitution. It has gone through dozens of editions in several languages and has been quoted as an authority to justify different political positions.
Cite as: The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution Digital Edition, ed. John P. Kaminski, Gaspare J. Saladino, Richard Leffler, Charles H. Schoenleber and Margaret A. Hogan. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009. Original source: Commentaries on the Constitution, Volume XIII: Commentaries on the Constitution, No. 1
