On The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers were written at speed, under deadline, to win an argument. In 1787 and 1788, with the proposed Constitution facing fierce opposition in New York, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay produced eighty-five newspaper essays under the shared pen name Publius, defending the document clause by clause and urging ratification. They were political persuasion, journalism with a purpose, and they remain the single best gloss on what the Constitution is for, because they were written by people who had just built it and needed to explain themselves to a skeptical public.

If you read nothing else, read Federalist 10 and Federalist 51, both by Madison. They contain the deepest thinking in the collection.

Federalist 10 confronts the problem of faction, the tendency of people to organize into groups pursuing their own interest against the common good. Madison's insight is counterintuitive and brilliant: you cannot eliminate faction without destroying liberty, so the answer is to control its effects, and the best way to do that is to make the republic large. In a big and diverse country, no single faction can easily become a majority, and the many competing interests check one another. He turned the conventional wisdom on its head. Where others thought republics had to be small, Madison argued that size was a safeguard.

Federalist 51 gives the famous account of checks and balances, and the famous reason for them. If men were angels, no government would be necessary. Since they are not, government must be framed so that ambition is made to counteract ambition, each branch given the means and the motive to resist encroachment by the others. The whole architecture of separated, competing power is justified here in a few unforgettable pages.

The Federalist is long, and not every essay rewards equal attention, many address narrow concerns of the ratification moment. Treat it as a reference work keyed to the Constitution rather than a book to read front to back. When you want to understand what a particular provision was meant to do, find the essay that defends it, and you will usually find the clearest contemporary explanation that exists.

It is worth reading against the Anti-Federalist Papers, also in this library, which made the opposing case and were not always wrong. The full text of The Federalist is public domain and freely available. Start with 10 and 51, the heart of the American theory of government, then range through the rest as your questions about the Constitution send you.