One of the rarest and most significant books in American political history, The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution remains the single most influential text in promoting the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America.
In 1787, Alexander Hamilton resolved to launch a measured defense and extensive explanation of the newly proposed Constitution of the United States of America to the people of the state of New York in response to recent public criticism and with the intention of both informing and persuading voters.
He soon enlisted John Jay and James Madison to collaborate and, over the course of 6 months, a total of 85 articles were written by the three men. Published at a rapid pace between October 1787 and May 1788 under the pseudonym Publius, the initial 77 articles first appeared in three prominent New York newspapers – The Independent Journal, the New-York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser – beginning on October 27th 1787.
James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton, authors of the 85 articles published as The Federalist in two bound volumes in 1788
Demand for reading copies became so high that on January 1st 1788, New York publishing firm J. & A. McLean announced that they would publish the articles as two bound volumes. Hamilton collected and edited the essays, adding 8 unpublished articles, and contracted with the McLean brothers to publish 500 copies.
In March 1788 the first volume appeared with the first 36 essays. It was followed two months later by a second volume containing the final 49 essays followed by the complete text of the new Constitution and the resolutions of the Constitutional Convention. The final product was characterized by Thomas Jefferson in a November 1788 letter to Madison as “the best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written.”
Title pages of both volumes of The Federalist, published on March 22nd and May 28th, 1788
“When Alexander Hamilton invited his fellow New Yorker John Jay and James Madison, a Virginian, to join him in writing the series of essays published as The Federalist, it was to meet the immediate need of convincing the reluctant New York State electorate of the necessity of ratifying the newly proposed Constitution of the United States. The 85 essays, under the pseudonym ‘Publius,’ were designed as political propaganda, not as a treatise of political philosophy. In spite of this, The Federalist survives as one of the new nation’s most important contributions to the theory of government” (PMM, 234).
The significance of The Federalist has been recognized for more than 200 years, George Washington wrote, “The Federalist will merit the notice of posterity; because in it are candidly and ably discussed the principles of freedom and the topics of government, which will always be interesting to mankind so long as they shall be connected in Civil Society.”
The Federalist “exerted a powerful influence in procuring the adoption of the Federal Constitution, not only in New York but in the other states. There is probably no work in so small a compass that contains so much valuable political information. The true principles of a republican form of government are here unfolded with great clearness and simplicity” (Church 1230).
First editions of both volumes of The Federalist, one of the rarest and most significant books in American political history; uniformly and elaborately bound in full polished calf.
“A generation passed before it was recognized that these essays by the principal author of the Constitution and its brilliant advocate were the most authoritative interpretation of the Constitution as drafted by the Convention of 1787. As a commentary and exposition of the Constitution, the influence of the Federalist has been profound” (Grolier American 100, 56).
“Of the only 500 copies published, Hamilton is said to have sent nearly 50 copies to Virginia for the ratifying convention. The remaining 450 copies sold poorly, and “the publishers complained in October 1788, long after New York had ratified the Constitution, that they still had several hundred unsold copies” (Maggs, 815).
Uniformly and elaborately bound in full calf, the first edition of both volumes of The Federalist featured above is currently available for purchase in our Worth Avenue Gallery for $260,000.
