Description:
Everybody in America should exercise their duty of citizenship. One of the best ways to do so is to read The Federalist Papers. If you take the time to do so you will benefit from it. You will come away with a different perspective of our constitution. In turn, that new understanding will benefit the country. The Federalist Papers describe the greatest government, in terms of protecting the nature and rights of man, in the history of the world.
This collection of essays is the best single source of information about American government, written by those who formed it. As citizens we need an understanding of our constitution, if we are going to run our government. We owe it to ourselves, our families and our fellow citizens to understand the content and meaning of the constitution. It is important that we grasp the ways the instrument authorizes all government in America. One of the best ways to do that is to become familiar with The Federalist Papers.
American Political Thought
The Federalist Papers were written in 1787 and 1788. They are the foremost American contribution to political thought. The essays deserve consideration in the ranking of books as among the greatest ever written. They were written as newspaper articles. There are 85 of them. Collected they run to a couple or three hundred pages.
They are a great collection of reasoned political positions. Their importance comes from the fact they concern the most long lived and successful constitution in the history of the world. Because of who wrote them they are important. They were written by the pseudonym Publius who is actually three people.
The writers
They were written by John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. John Jay negotiated the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and established the United States. Jay was later a Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He wrote four or five of the Federalist Papers concerning foreign policy, subject matter he had much to do with in his life.
The bulk of the Federalist Papers were written by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. James Madison was from Virginia. Both are among the greatest people in American political history. Both helped to found the country. Madison was always close to Thomas Jefferson. Both were Virginians and Madison succeeded Jefferson as president of the United States.
Alexander Hamilton was from New York, originally born in Jamaica. Hamilton was among the makers of the Revolution. He was Secretary of the Treasury in the first Washington administration. New York and Virginia were the largest and strongest of the original 13 states. It was implied that both would be necessary for successful formation and implementation of the new Constitution and government thereafter.