We the People Book Club

Why is it important for me to read the Federalists Papers?

This is your next best step to growing your knowledge and appreciation for the founding of our great nation. To further build on your understanding of our Supreme Law of the Land. To solidify its intent and meaning.

The Federalist Papers (also referred to as the Federalist)  is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States.

The introduction to this book reminds us...

"The U.S. Constitution, unlike the laws of many ancient cities, was not of course the work of one wise lawgiver, a point that the Federalist emphasizes. Moreover, the Constitution contained compromises, obscurities, imperfections: " I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man"...  But the obscurities and imperfections were turned to account as additional reasons why this explanation, and defense of a single commentator whose commentary soon became accepted as authoritative and so helped to fix the meaning of the Constitution itself.  This commentator was "Publius" the pen name chosen by the then-anonymous authors of the Federalist."

The greatest accomplishment of the Federalist was to show that the Constitution was both coherent and republican. Suppressing their private doubts and disappointments, Hamilton, Madison and John Jay, undertook the series of essays in order to expound the merits of the new Constitution and to answer the objections to it that had already begun to appear in newspaper columns in New York and across the 13 colonies.