The Federalist Papers (Oxford World's Classics)

521 Pages·2008·1.85 MB·English

by  Alexander Hamilton

oxford world’s classics
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS
Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804) was born on Nevis in the
Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. Despite the desertion of his
father and early death of his mother, his abilities took him to King’s
College, New York (now Columbia University) in 1773 where he
became involved in the patriot cause in opposition to Britain. By
1777he was George Washington’s aide-de-camp and secretary, and
he served in the Continental Army with distinction. After the
Revolutionary War he emerged as an ardent nationalist and was a
delegate to both the Annapolis and Federal Conventions in 1786and
1787. He devised and organized the writing and publication of The
Federalist Papersand in this and other ways took the lead in the cam-
paign to ensure that the state of New York ratified the new
Constitution. His long-standing interest in finance and political
economy led Washington to appoint him the first Secretary of the
Treasury in 1789. His efforts to stabilize national finances, establish
the nation’s credit, and enhance the authority of the federal govern-
ment were controversial and led to a breach with former Federalist
allies in the struggle for ratification, including James Madison. He
left the administration in 1795 and thereafter searched unsuccess-
fully for a position in American public life commensurate with his
talents. He quarrelled with many public figures, both ideological
allies as well as opponents. One such quarrel, with Aaron Burr,
whose political ambitions Hamilton had tried to impede, led to a
duel at Weehauken, New Jersey on 11July1804in which Hamilton
was mortally wounded.
James Madison (1751–1836) was born in Port Conway, Virginia
into a family of planters. Educated at the College of New Jersey
(now Princeton), in 1776 he was elected to the Virginia constitu-
tional convention where he was notable for his defence of religious
freedom. He served a term in Congress (1780–3) where he was a
strong nationalist, favouring revision of the Articles of
Confederation to strengthen central government in the new repub-
lic. He was active in promoting the series ofinter-state meetings in
the mid-1780s that led to the Federal Convention in Philadelphia
where the Constitution was drafted. Madison directed business at the
Convention and also compiled the most complete record of its delib-
erations. During the subsequent debates over ratification of the draft
Constitution he led the Federalists in his own state while also con-
tributing to The Federalist Papers which were designed to secure
ratification in New York. Once the Constitution was operative,
Madison was elected to the House of Representatives where he took
the lead in securing the adoption of the Bill of Rights. In the early
1790s he broke with his erstwhile ally, Hamilton, over the degree of
political and fiscal centralization required in the United States and
allied with Thomas Jefferson in the new Democratic Republican
party. For the two terms of Jefferson’s presidency (1801–9) he was
Secretary of State. In 1808he was elected President himself, win-
ning re-election in 1812, during a period dominated by problems of
foreign relations with Britain and France during the Napoleonic
Wars. In 1817Madison retired to his estates at Montpelier, Virginia
where he died in 1836.
John Jay(1745–1829) was born into a wealthy family in New York
City. Like Hamilton, he studied at King’s College there, and after-
wards practised law. Elected to the first Continental Congress, he
was not at first a supporter of American independence. In 1777he
drafted New York’s first state constitution. In 1779, after a brief
period as president of the Congress, he was sent to Madrid to try,
unsuccessfully, to secure Spanish recognition of the infant republic.
He was a member of the peace commission in Paris responsible for
the Treaty of 1783 which formally ended the Revolutionary War.
On his return, Congress appointed him Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
His negotiations with Spain over navigation rights to the Mississippi
(the proposed Jay-Gardoqui Treaty of 1786) incited opposition in
the Southern states and in Congress. Jay came to appreciate the limi-
tations of American national power in the 1780s and his contribu-
tions to The Federalist Papers (which were curtailed by illness)
focused, therefore, on the diplomatic and strategic weaknesses of the
United States. When the new national government was established
Jay became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, organizing the
court’s procedures and establishing its authority. In 1794his nego-
tiations with Britain over outstanding matters resulted in Jay’s
Treaty, so-called. Its provisions were held by many Americans to
be too lenient to the British, and it only just secured ratification in
the Senate. On being elected governor of New York in 1795 Jay
resigned from the Supreme Court and served his state for two
terms. After a career that had interwoven the three strands of pol-
itics, diplomacy, and law, Jay retired to his farm near Bedford, New
York, in 1801, and died there in 1829.
Lawrence Goldman is Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at
St Peter’s College, Oxford where he teaches British and American
History. He is editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
He has published widely on nineteenth- and twentieth-century
British History, including Britain’s social and political relations with
the United States.
OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
JAMES MADISON, and JOHN JAY
The Federalist Papers
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by
LAWRENCE GOLDMAN
1
3
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Federalist.
The Federalist Papers / Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay;
edited with an introduction and notes by Lawrence Goldman.
p. cm. — (Oxford World's Classics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-280592-8
1. Constitutional history—United States—Sources. 2. Constitutional law—United States.
I. Hamilton, Alexander. II. Madison, James. III. Jay, John. IV. Goldman, Lawrence. V. Title.
KF4515.F4295 2008
342.7302′9—dc22
2008015106
Typeset by Cepha Imaging Private Ltd., Bangalore, India
Printed in Great Britain
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ISBN978-0-19-280592-8
13579108642
for
JACK POLE AND DAVID SHRIBMAN
who have taught me
almost as much about america as
alexander hamilton, james madison,
and john jay
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Much of the research and writing for this edition of The Federalist
Papers was conducted at the Humanities Research Centre of the
Australian National University in Canberra in August and September
2006. I would like to thank the HRC and its then director, Professor
Ian Donaldson, for providing such a perfect environment for scholar-
ship. For comments and thoughts on the Introduction to this edition
I am grateful to Gareth Davies, Nicholas Cole, and Jack Pole. As ever,
my close colleagues in History at St Peter’s College, Oxford, have
provided me with practical and intellectual support in full measure.
CONTENTS
Introduction ix
Note on the Text xxxix
Synopsis of The Federalist Papers xlii
Select Bibliography xliii
A Chronology of Events1763‒1791 xlvii
Map of the United States c.1789 l
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS 1
Appendix:The Constitution of the United
States(1787 and1791) 433
Explanatory Notes 447
Thematic Index 467
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INTRODUCTION
The constitution proposed has in this state warm friends and warm en-
emies. The first impressions every where are in its favour; but the artillery
of its opponents makes some impression. The event cannot yet be fore-
seen. The inclosed is the first number of a series of papers to be written in
its defence.1
Thus wrote Alexander Hamilton to George Washington on 30
October1787. Hamilton had been Washington’s aide-de-camp during
the American Revolutionary War but was now engaged in a different
sort of battle to secure the state of New York’s support for the United
States Constitution which had been drafted at the Federal Convention
in Philadelphia earlier that year. Hamilton, as one of the most notable
and ardent advocates of a federal union to bring together the thirteen
states which had achieved their independence from Great Britain
under the 1783Treaty of Paris, was in the vanguard of the campaign.
He was joined by two other notable Federalists, so-called, John Jay,
also of New York, and James Madison from Virginia, in writing The
Federalist, also known as The Federalist Papers. These comprise some
eighty-five essays published over the pseudonym of ‘Publius’ in the
New York press between October 1787 and May 1788 to lay out the
case for the adoption of the Constitution and Union and to refute the
arguments of their opponents, known as Anti-Federalists.2 The pen
name of Publius was derived from Publius Valerius, the Roman states-
man and lawgiver who helped establish the Roman republic after the
overthrow of Rome’s last king, Tarquin. The support of a large, pop-
ulous, and wealthy state like New York was vital to the Federalists’
cause. It was the first of these essays, written by Hamilton, which he
enclosed with his letter to Washington.
Although ‘Publius’ was probably not intelligible to the general
citizenry of New York and may have had relatively little influence on
the outcome of the struggle to ratify the Constitution in that state, or
1 Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 30 Oct. 1787, in The Papers of
Alexander Hamilton,ed. Harold C. Syrett and Jacob E. Cooke (New York, 1962), iv.,
306. Hamilton enclosed the firstFederalistwhich had been printed in the [New York]
Independent Journal: or, the General Advertiseron27Oct.1787.
2 ‘Publius’ was chosen by Hamilton. See note to p. 88(Plutarch), below.