The Federalist Papers

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Articles of Confederation

Even during the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers established a new form of government for the country.

For centuries, all European countries were controlled by powerful monarchs or Parliaments comprising only aristocracy. For this reason, it was impossible to have any degree of representation as a European citizen unless you were incredibly wealthy.

The Founding Fathers wanted to depart from this type of government as much as possible while creating a united set of states.

Their solution was to create a weak central government.

Pay particular attention to how much authority this new central government had when collecting taxes as you watch the following video.

The Articles of Confederation were tough to amend because they required that all 13 states agree, which was almost impossible.

By the late 1780s, it was clear that government changes needed to be made. However, many of the Founding Fathers and the general public were wary of giving the federal government too much authority.

To curb public sentiment and convince their colleagues, three Founding Fathers wrote the Federalist Papers to outline what they thought the role of government should be.

Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers were a collection of 85 essays written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton between 1787 and 1788.

These founders publicly expressed their rationale and ideas on what would make the most effective government.

However, to avoid being attacked or targeted for their views, the three men wrote under the joint pseudonym Publius, who was a co-founder of the Roman Republic.

Watch a portion of the video below to learn which of these essays was the most influential and why it is still significant today.

Once the new Constitution was written, three-fourths of the states had to ratify it before it could become the new governing document for the country.

Utilizing newspapers, which were the most accessible piece of media at the time, Federalist #10 was hugely impactful in convincing much of the new country that a stronger central government was needed.

Alexander Hamilton

James Madison wrote a third of the 85 essays, and John Jay only wrote five. Alexander Hamilton, however, wrote a total of 51.

To understand the argument Hamilton made in his essays, read these excerpts from his contributions to the Federalist Papers.

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they are properly armed.

Vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty.

Hamilton called for checks and balances and a strong central government while expressing his belief that a federal government was the only way to ensure liberty in any country.

Continue to the Got It? section to review why the Federalist Papers were written and why they remain relevant despite not being legal documents.