Publication of the Federalist Papers
Eighty-five newspaper essays published in New York between 1787 and 1788 became the standard commentary on the American constitution. They were written to win a ratification fight. New York was doubtful, its governor opposed, and the state convention would probably decide the question for the whole enterprise since a union without it was geographically absurd. Hamilton organised the series, wrote about fifty-one, recruited James Madison, who wrote twenty-nine including the most philosophically substantial, and John Jay, who wrote five before falling ill. All appeared under the name Publius. The argument is against the received wisdom of the age, which held on Montesquieu's authority that a republic must be small. Madison's tenth paper turns it round: a large republic is safer than a small one precisely because it contains more factions, none of which can form a majority, and because representation refines opinion rather than transmitting it. The fifty-first supplies the mechanism — ambition made to counteract ambition, each department given the means and the motive to resist the others — with the observation that if men were angels no government would be necessary. Hamilton's papers on the executive and the judiciary are the foundation of American constitutional law on both. They were written at speed, sometimes several a week, and their reputation is largely posthumous; the ratification in New York was probably decided by news from Virginia rather than by them. The Supreme Court cites them constantly. Hamilton and Madison ended as political enemies within five years, arguing about the meaning of the document they had explained together. Their disagreement about federal power is roughly the disagreement American constitutional law has been having ever since.
- Year: 1787 CE
- Category: Social
