Federalist Papers #1 - An Introduction

Listen to this episode from The Federalist Papers on Spotify. October 27, 1787. The Federalist Papers were originally newspaper essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym Publius, whose immediate goal was to persuade the people of New York to ratify the Constitution. Hamilton opened The Federalist No. 1 by raising the momentousness of the choice that lay before New Yorkers and the American people as a whole. Opportunities for a people to choose their form of government had been rare throughout history, and it was remarkable that this important question should be left to the people to decide rather than to a select group of political leaders. If Americans failed to deliberate and choose well — if they squandered the opportunity that had fallen to them — they might prove once and for all that human beings must simply inherit bad forms of government by accident, or receive them at the hands of despots. Their decision, therefore, would affect not only themselves but all of mankind in the future. Through this unique ratification process, the American people proved to posterity and the rest of the world what a free people can accomplish through reasonable deliberation.