1. What, essentially, is the difference between a federal government and a confederation of states? Between a republic and a democracy? What is the meaning of “anarchy” by strict definition? And by loose definition, the form commonly used? 2. To get an idea of the structure and scope of the […]

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John Jay (1745–1829), of Huguenot descent, was born in New York City, attended King’s (later Columbia) College, went on to study law, and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1766 at the age of 21, soon establishing his own private practice. During the tumultuous period leading up to […]

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James Madison (1751–1836) became the fourth president of the United States, succeeding his close friend Jefferson. Madison was born in a large plantation in Virginia, the oldest of twelve children in a family that was, as Madison once observed, “not among the most wealthy in the country, but in independent […]

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Born on the tiny island of Nevis, in the British West Indies, Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) was a “natural” child, a curious but popular euphemism of the day, meaning that he was a bastard, born out of wedlock, the son of a Scottish merchant, James Hamilton., a man of good family […]

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On October 27, 1787, the first of a long series of articles on the proposed new federal constitution appeared in the New York City press. The first seven articles were published in the columns of the Independent Journal. Later, other essays in the series appeared in the New York Packet […]

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Summary There remained two more points to be discussed: the analogy of the proposed constitution “to your own state constitution” (The Federalist papers, as noted before, were all addressed “to the People of the State of New York”), and the additional security which its adoption would afford “to republican government, […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Section XIII: Conclusions: Federalist No. 85 (Hamilton)

Summary The two chapters in this section pick up, and in places extend, the arguments made before. Nothing materially new is added in these chapters. For obvious reasons, summary and commentary have been combined here. This essay first takes up the objection that the proposed constitution contained no Bill of […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Section XIII: Conclusions: Federalist No. 84 (Hamilton)

Summary Objection had been raised that the constitution contained no specific provision for trial by jury in civil cases. In this lengthy essay Hamilton argued that because the constitution did not specifically provide for trial by jury in civil cases, this did not mean that the right to such a […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Section XII: Judiciary: Federalist No. 83 (Hamilton)

Summary This is a legalistic essay, to be easily understood only by a lawyer, on the complex “doctrine of concurrent jurisdiction” between the national and the state courts. The doctrine involved the question of which courts had primary jurisdiction, and how appeals would be made from court to court. Having […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Section XII: Judiciary: Federalist No. 82 (Hamilton)

Summary Under the proposed constitution, judicial power was to be vested “in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” All agreed on the necessity of one supreme court with final jurisdiction, but some took the view that it […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Section XII: Judiciary: Federalist No. 81 (Hamilton)