The Federalist Papers
1788
Before the Constitution could become law, it had to be argued for. The Federalist Papers is that argument, and it remains the single most important explanation of American government ever written. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay published these eighty-five essays under the pseudonym "Publius" in New York newspapers between 1787 and 1788, urgently pleading with a skeptical public to ratify the new Constitution. What began as political persuasion became a towering work of political philosophy. Madison's famous Federalist No. 10 offers a brilliant analysis of factions and explains why a large, diverse republic can actually protect liberty better than a small democracy. Hamilton makes the case for a strong executive. Together, they work out how to balance power against power, ambition against ambition. These are the founders explaining their own creation, defending human nature as it is rather than as they wished it to be, and building a government meant to last. The Federalist Papers is still cited in Supreme Court arguments and constitutional debates more than two centuries later. If you want to understand why American government looks the way it does, there is no substitute for hearing it from the people who built it.
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“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.””
— Alexander Hamilton
“Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.””
— Alexander Hamilton
“It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country to decide, by their conduct and example, the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force.””
— Alexander Hamilton
“On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.””
— Alexander Hamilton
“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.””
— Alexander Hamilton
“A powerful, victorious ally is yet another name for master.””
— Alexander Hamilton
“You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.””
— Alexander Hamilton
“For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.””
— Alexander Hamilton
“When occasions present themselves in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests to withstand the temporary delusion in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection. Instances might be cited in which a conduct of this kind has saved the people from very fatal consequences of their own mistakes, and has procured lasting monuments of their gratitude to the men who had courage and magnanimity enough to serve them at the peril of their displeasure.””
— Alexander Hamilton
