October 27 - The Federalist Papers

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On this day, in 1787, the first essay of what collectively became known as the Federalist Papers was published. The Revolutionary War had barely begun before the thirteen American colonies were already trying to figure out how they were going to govern themselves as their own nation. Everyone pretty much agreed that a king was a bad idea, but beyond that, agreements were hard to come by. The Second Continental Congress drew up draft of a constitution for the colonies almost immediately after finishing the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The whole thing was fiercely debated over the next sixteen months as the war raged on and frequently interrupted meetings. By November 1777, a final draft of the Articles of Confederation was hammered out and ready to be ratified by the individual colonies. One month later, Virginia became the first state to sign on to the new nation and, by February 1779, so had everyone but Maryland (the Old Line State had some issues that it took two years to negotiate; they finally ratified the Articles in February 1781). From that point onward, we may have called ourselves the United States of America and we may have been able to finish the war together, but we were United in name only and it was our own fault.

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The Articles of Confederation was a fairly doomed document from the start. Because of everyone’s skittishness about the power of the King, very limited powers were given to the central government. State governments were each individually more powerful than the Feds, which caused far more problems than it solved. Rival states could basically refuse to work with each other and the federal congress didn’t have enough teeth to make them work things out. By 1786, it was pretty clear that the States couldn’t stay United unless the agreement joining them was radically different. In January of that year, James Madison and the Virginia legislature began calling for another convention to discuss amending the Articles of Confederation. Over the next several months, the other state legislatures began to agree that something needed to be done.

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In May 1787, a Constitutional Congress met in Philadelphia and was authorized to make some necessary changes to the Articles of Confederation. Fortunately (in hindsight at any rate), the delegates decided to ignore that narrow authorization, had closed door meetings and drafted an entirely new document. By the end of September 1787, the details had been worked out and the new agreement was ready to be sent to the states for ratification. The new Constitution gave a lot more power to the central government which necessarily took power away from individual states. Naturally this angered quite a few politicians at the state level.

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Almost as soon as the Constitution was announced, people began publishing essays in various papers denouncing it. Not that they did so publicly. Instead it seemed as though several long dead Romans, going by the names Brutus and Cato among others, were warning the American people about this newfangled style of government and how terrible it would be to adopt it. After months of hard work, though, the Founding Fathers weren’t going to take such abuse lying down. Alexander Hamilton decided that the case needed to be made for the Constitution. He teamed up with John Jay, the future Governor of New York and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to write a series of pro essays that would also be published in newspapers anonymously (even though Alexander’s chosen pen name, Publius, was one he’d used before). When John became too ill to continue after writing just four of them, Alexander turned to James Madison who filled in quite admirably.

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All told, the three men would write 85 essays together, with Hamilton composing the most at 51. The articles were so well thought out that many scholars think someone would be hard pressed to write better arguments for the Constitution today. The first 77 essays were published between October 27, 1787 and April 1788. By then, there was considerable interest in having all of them together in one place. In March and May 1788, two volumes were published under the title The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, as Agreed upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787 (you can see why they quickly became referred to as the Federalist Papers). The remaining eight essays were then published individually in newspapers the following June and July.

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Ironically, it’s doubtful that the Federalist Papers had much influence on whether or not the states ratified the new Constitution, the whole reason they were written to begin with. By the time they were printed, several states had already voted to ratify. By the time the Papers were ready to be used in debates in New York, ten other states had passed resolutions to accept it. Since only nine were needed to make it official, if New York hadn’t jumped on board, they would have been awkwardly out on their own.

The real influence of the Papers actually came later. Starting soon after their publication (and continuing right up to today), the judicial branch of the government uses them to help decide what the Founding Fathers meant when trying to interpret decidedly fuzzy parts of the constitution. The Federalist has been quoted nearly 300 times in decisions made by the Supreme Court alone. Which hasn’t been without controversy itself. Chief Justice John Marshall once said that if you couldn’t find meaning in the text of the Constitution itself, you shouldn’t go digging for it in the extracurricular writings of a few of its framers. Which, of course, didn’t stop him from mining the Federalist when it suited him.

Also on this day, in Disney history: Walt Disney's Disneyland