Federalist Paper No. 1 (a brief entry)

Initially, the most difficult part of reading the Federalist Papers is the language. Antiquated English is not the easiest to wade through, especially not while also contending with such heady stuff as the foundational philosophy of an entirely new form of government, one that is consciously established after ‘reflection and choice’, and not merely the result of ‘accident and force’. That is one of the subtexts of this introduction: ‘My fellow Americans!’ Publius says, ‘we have the opportunity here to choose our own government, not only the members thereof, but also the manner in which we will be governed, for the second time (the first time not having worked out so well)! So let’s make it a good one!’

Others, like George Clinton, Governor of New York, stood to lose too much power and profit if a national government was allowed to function. Hamilton, as a delegate from New York, no doubt had Clinton in mind when he made his sometimes disparaging remarks about the Constitution’s detractors.

However, he does make hint that the next of the Papers will deal with the size of the proposed union, and especially the case that a large and powerful Union is the only way to prevent undue foreign influence- a sensitive subject for a people who had fought to win their independence from a country many had never visited.

So that is more or less the Federalist Paper No. 1: an appeal to the good sense of the People of New York, the admittance that not all who doubted the Constitution were acting out of their own self-interest, but rather for the public good, disgust at and warnings of those who were only self-interested, the thesis of the Federalist Papers, and the preview of the next installment.