Devin's E-mail, 4/02/2008

All, I've copied an e-mail from Devin that he sent out April 2. I hope this will be the first, in a long line of many posts to come. This e-mail provides a great start to our blog and to our understanding of the Federalist Papers.

PERSPECTIVE: I thought it was interesting that these essays were written to urge New Yorkers to ratify the proposed US Constitution and in doing so, they became a timeless and very valuable reference to "help interpret the intentions of those drafting the Constitution." Also interesting, were the equally popular anti-federalist papers being written and published at the same time by an unknown author "who went by the pseudonym Brutus, in honor of the Roman republican who was one of those who assassinated Julius Caesar, to prevent him from overthrowing the Roman Republic."

THOUGHT: To better appreciate The Papers and gain a deeper understanding of the political climate of that day, I think it's worth reading the essays of Brutus as well. How incredible was this period of history in our quickly-forming United States? Such profound yet opposite opinions being made easily accessible to the public; the impact that must have had on the "citizen" through his participation or, at the very least, his interest in the current formation of the country. I wonder what impact "The Papers" had on the papers...that is, the Press? Did the Federalist Papers set new standards of what was considered regular content in the newspapers of that time?

REFERENCES:

About the Federalist Papers

The Federalist, commonly referred to as the Federalist Papers, is a series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison between October 1787 and May 1788. The essays were published anonymously, under the pen name "Publius," in various New York state newspapers of the time.

The Federalist Papers were written and published to urge New Yorkers to ratify the proposed United States Constitution, which was drafted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. In lobbying for adoption of the Constitution over the existing Articles of Confederation, the essays explain particular provisions of the Constitution in detail. For this reason, and because Hamilton and Madison were each members of the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers are often used today to help interpret the intentions of those drafting the Constitution.

The Federalist Papers were published primarily in two New York state newspapers: The New York Packet and The Independent Journal. They were reprinted in other newspapers in New York state and in several cities in other states. A bound edition, with revisions and corrections by Hamilton, was published in 1788 by printers J. and A. McLean. An edition published by printer Jacob Gideon in 1818, with revisions and corrections by Madison, was the first to identify each essay by its author's name. Because of its publishing history, the assignment of authorship, numbering, and exact wording may vary with different editions of The Federalist.

The electronic text of The Federalist used here was compiled for Project Gutenberg by scholars who drew on many available versions of the papers.

One printed edition of the text is The Federalist, edited by Jacob E. Cooke (Middletown, Conn., Wesleyan University Press, 1961). Cooke's introduction provides background information on the printing history of The Federalist; the information provided above comes in part from his work.

"Brutus"

The series of anti-federalist writing which most nearly paralleled and confronted The Federalist was a series of sixteen essays published in the New York Journal from October, 1787, through April, 1788, during the same period The Federalist was appearing in New York newspapers, under the pseudonym "Brutus", in honor of the Roman republican who was one of those who assassinated Julius Caesar, to prevent him from overthrowing the Roman Republic. The essays were widely reprinted and commented on throughout the American states. The author is thought by most scholars to have been Robert Yates, a New York judge, delegate to the Federal Convention, and political ally of anti-federalist New York Governor George Clinton. All of the essays were addressed to "the Citizens of the State of New York".