The Federalist
Ratifying the U.S. Constitution was by no means an historical inevitability. Although most Americans agreed that the Articles of Confederation were insufficient, the new frame of government had many powerful critics. Without a doubt, though, the most important and influential defense of the document was The Federalist, a series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym “Publius.” Published between October 1787 and April 1788, these papers shaped the debate in New York and beyond. They remain a guide to the Framers’ original intent as well as one of the best articulations of the American political tradition ever penned.
Both the Constitution and The Federalist were written in a period of genuine crisis for the young United States. Domestic insurrections, such as Shays’s Rebellion, threatened to tear the new nation apart at the seams. Meanwhile, foreign empires menaced the borders of the republic, eager to subvert the independence Americans won in the Revolution through both military force and political subterfuge. Publius argued that only a stronger union and more energetic federal government—restrained by suitable checks and balances to preserve liberty—could address this particularly daunting situation and others which may arise in the future to threaten American independence.
At the heart of The Federalist’s strategic vision is a realist understanding of human nature. In Federalist 3 and 4, for example, Publius outlines the ways that mankind’s native frailty inspires wars of conquest that independent republics must be prepared to resist. The Articles of Confederation failed because they did not give the Union sufficient strength to repel these foreign assaults on our freedom. They were simply too optimistic that the European empires would respect our independence once won. The Constitution, by contrast, created a strong and independent executive that Publius believed would be empowered to meet moments of crisis that unavoidably arise.
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