Who Wrote the Federalist Papers

If you intend to interpret and understand the Constitution of the United States of America - there can be no better source that the Federalist Papers which created quite a buzz in America between 1787 and 1788. Basically, this era of American history was marked by the federalists vs anti-federalists tussle - with federalists advocating the need of replacing the Articles of Confederation with a new US Constitution and anti-federalists opposing this move. The federalists put forth their stand on this issue by publishing the Federalist Papers which advocated the need for ratification of the US Constitution.

What Were the Federalist Papers?

The Federalist Papers refers to a series of eighty-five articles supporting the ratification of the US Constitution which were published in some of the leading dailies in the United States between 1787 and 1788. These articles urged the citizens of the United States to support the ratification of proposed constitution. These articles were written in response to Anti-Federalist Papers which highlighted the alleged dangers of the proposed constitution and urged people not to support its ratification. The Federalist Papers countered the Anti-Federalist Papers by highlighting how the new government would operate and why was it an ideal government for the United States of America. Most of these articles were published in the leading dailies of New York such as The Independent Journal and The New York Packet in a series titled The Federalist. (The use of name by which they are known today - The Federalist Papers, only began in the 20th century.)

Authors of the Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay in 1787 and 1788. These articles clearly highlighted the fact that the author's intention was to influence people to vote in favor of the ratification of proposed United States Constitution, but nobody actually knew who this author was. Going by the style of writing many people did guess that there were more than one people involved and the needle of suspicion always pointed towards some of the most famous federalist leaders of that period. The articles were originally published in newspapers under the pen name 'Publius' - perhaps in honor of the Roman consul Publius Valerius Publicola, between October 1787 and August 1788.

On 2nd March, 1788, the New York publishing firm J. & A. McLean published the first thirty-six essays in a bound volume titled 'The Federalist', and followed it up with the second volume, which comprised the remaining forty-nine essays, on 28th May, 1788. In 1792, a French edition of the Federalist Papers was published with the names of its authors as "MM Hamilton, Maddisson E Gay" all of whom were the citizens of New York - thus bringing an end to the anonymity of the authors of the Federalist Papers. In 1802, an American edition published by George Hopkins also had the same names. Even then, however, who wrote which Federal Paper was something that nobody was aware of. It only came to light in 1810 edition which was published with reference to the list of articles left back by Alexander Hamilton. In 1818, however, Jacob Gideon published a new edition with the list of authors left by James Madison. Both the lists were different, and that resulted in some chaos in the years to come.

Even today, the Federalist Papers are considered to be the best reference material for understanding the US Constitution and the federal government. Some of these papers are so famous that they are often cited in context with present day situation, the best examples of this being the Federalist Paper 10 (which addressees how to deal with factions with interests contrary to those of the whole community) and Federalist Paper 51 (advocating the separation of powers within the federal government.)