The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers were written to persuade New Yorkers to ratify the Constitution. The first essay appeared on October 27, 1787, in New York newspapers under the pen name Publius, and 85 essays were published by August 1788, the last of them first in a two-volume book edition titled The Federalist. Alexander Hamilton conceived the project and wrote most of the essays, about 51, James Madison wrote about 29, and John Jay, who fell ill, wrote five. Authorship of a dozen essays was long disputed, and a 1964 statistical study of word usage attributed them to Madison.

The essays are a systematic account of how the Constitution's parts were meant to work. Federalist No. 10 argues that a large republic can control factions, No. 39 defines a republic, No. 47 to 51 explain the separation of powers and checks and balances, with No. 51 famously arguing that ambition must be made to counteract ambition, No. 70 defends an energetic single executive, No. 78 calls the judiciary the least dangerous branch and defends judicial review, and No. 84 argues that a bill of rights was unnecessary. Opponents answered in essays by writers such as Brutus and the Federal Farmer, now called the Anti-Federalist Papers.

The Federalist Papers are the most cited source on the framers' intentions outside the Constitution itself. The Supreme Court has quoted them in hundreds of opinions, on subjects from presidential power to federalism, and justices of every interpretive school rely on them, though scholars caution that they were persuasive advocacy written quickly for a political campaign and that their authors later disagreed with each other, notably over the national bank and executive power in the 1790s.