The Federalist Papers were a series of 85 essays written by John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton between 27 October 1787 and 28 May 1788. America needed a new Federal Constitution to address problems in the old Constitution that weakened the Federal Government. A Constitutional Convention was held between May 25 to September 17, 1787. The members of the Convention wrote a new Constitution which guaranteed State rights that did not violate Federal powers. To become legal, the Constitution would have to be ratified by 9 of the 13 States.
The new proposed Constitution had its detractors, and The Federalist Papers were written in response to criticisms against it, as well as to explain the reasoning behind the new Constitution and build support for it.
This website project represents a personal reading of The Federalist Papers. I made summaries and notes on each of the papers as I read them, and sometimes offered my own commentary. For anyone with expertise in this area who might happen upon my notes, you are encouraged to correct any misreading I have made. Comment boxes are at the bottom of each page. I profess no expertise in this area at all. Rather, I was just trying to engage with an interesting topic.
For readers with a general interest in this topic, these notes may be a good introduction to the content of The Federalist Papers. They may also assist you in your own reading of the original papers.
Use the Federalist Papers Index to look for specific topics. Otherwise, the Table of Contents pane lists all papers and gives you access to any of them.
Note: The index for specific names and topics appears BELOW the Table of Contents
This Index can be used to locate subjects covered by my outline of the Federalist Papers, which in turn will aid in the study of the original documents. References in this index are made either by whole numbers, or numbers followed by a decimal point. Whole numbers – for example, 2 – indicate that most or all of a paper is dedicated to the indexed subject. Numbers with decimal points – for example, 2.3 – refer to the Federalist Paper outline and my paragraph number. Therefore a reference 2.3 would refer to Federalist Paper 2, paragraph 3 of my outline. Click on the blue numbers to be taken to my outline of the relevant paper. References to modern context or historical references post-dating the Federalist Papers’ publication appear in purple.
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