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Nov 23, 2020 · These obstacles, no doubt, suppressed the wealth, fame, and influence of Black inventors—and yet, many succeeded in making important contributions to American technological and economic...
- Overview
- The Articles of Confederation and Constitutional Convention
- The Federalist Papers
- What do you think?
In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay made the case for ratifying the new US Constitution.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government did not have the power to regulate interstate commerce, nor was it authorized to raise taxes. Shays’s Rebellion, an uprising of farmers from western Massachusetts demanding an end to what they perceived as the unjust economic policies and political corruption of the state legislature in Boston, had revealed the inability of the federal government to put down the insurgency. It provided further evidence in support of the view that the very survival of the young nation required strengthening the federal government.1
To this end, 55 delegates from twelve states convened in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787 for the Constitutional Convention, which assumed as its primary task the replacement of the Articles of Confederation. The United States Constitution emerged out of a series of compromises on a number of acrimonious debates over the structure and functions of the federal government.
The Federalist was originally planned to be a series of essays for publication in New York City newspapers, but ultimately expanded into a collection of 85 essays, which were published as two volumes in March and May 1788. They did not become known as "The Federalist Papers" until the 20th century. The essays were aimed at convincing opponents of the US Constitution to ratify it so that it would take effect as the nation’s fundamental governing document. (Opponents of the Constitution drafted their own series of essays, which became known collectively as the Anti-Federalist Papers.)2
The essays comprising the Federalist Papers were authored by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, three of the most influential nationalist thinkers. The nationalists urged the creation of a stronger central government that would be sufficiently empowered to confront the many challenges facing the young nation. Though the authors primarily sought to influence the vote in favor of ratifying the Constitution, Federalist No. 1 framed the debate in much broader terms, by questioning “whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”3
Many of the most influential essays in The Federalist were penned by either Hamilton or Madison:
•In Federalist No. 10, Madison reflects on how to prevent rule by majority faction and advocates the expansion of the United States into a large, commercial republic.
•In Federalist No. 39 and Federalist 51, Madison seeks to “lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty,” emphasizing the need for checks and balances through the separation of powers into three branches of the federal government and the division of powers between the federal government and the states.4
•In Federalist No. 84, Hamilton advances the case against the Bill of Rights, expressing the fear that explicitly enumerated rights could too easily be construed as comprising the only rights to which American citizens were entitled.
What was the purpose of the Federalist Papers? Was that purpose achieved?
Why do you think The Federalist was published anonymously? Why wouldn’t the authors want to reveal themselves?
Which of the essays in The Federalist do you think was most important and why?
[Notes and attributions]
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- Reference
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