On this day in 1787, Federalist Paper No. 5 is published. In this paper, “Publius” was John Jay. It’s the last essay that Jay will write for a while. Instead, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton will take over most of the rest of the series. Remember: Eventually, there were 85 papers. They were lengthy articles, by modern standards. (Federalist Paper No. 5, for instance, is about twice the length of an average newspaper editorial today.) Moreover, the essays were well-organi

On this day in 1787, an author writing under the pseudonym “Cato” writes his fourth contribution to the anti-Federalist Papers. These papers argued against the new Constitution, then being considered for ratification by the states. Cato worries that the new office of President has been given too much power, particularly when combined with a long four-year-term in office. He reminds his readers that the philosopher Montesquieu warned about limiting the terms of magistrates in

On this day in 1787, an author writing under the pseudonym “Centinel” writes his third contribution to the anti-Federalist Papers. These papers argued against the new Constitution, then being considered for ratification by the states. Some of you will be interested to hear that Centinel begins this essay by citing two Bible verses! John 3:20 and Luke 12:2-3: “‘For every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved,’” he

On this day in 1787, Federalist Paper No. 4 was published. It was another in the series of essays defending the Constitution to the American people, who were then considering whether to adopt it. The first 14 Federalist Papers can sound VERY pro-national government—perhaps surprisingly so! The Founders were supposed to be in favor of a restrained national government, so what, exactly, is the deal with these papers? It is important to remember the overall layout of the Federal