This is going to be a series of posts – exercising the COMMUNICATIONS SKILL.
Of vital importance these days is understanding, preserving and protecting our constitutional republic. I spent time in the military after taking an oath to do such a thing.
Given the nature of the national discourse (or lack of it) and the intense partisanship as voiced loudly by various cable news channels, it seems to me that a simple presentation of some of the original thoughts by the Founding Fathers might be appropriate. Perhaps some of these thoughts might be taken seriously these days.
So I’m going to post – perhaps every other day and in sequence – each of the Federalist Papers. The goal is to illuminate the original foundations of our American civic culture by focusing on the great debate that occurred from 1787 to 1788 over ratification of the proposed constitution. To do this, we’ll look at each of the essays written by James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton – and try to summarize them to their intent and substance is preserved.
The Federalist Papers were a series of eighty-five essays urging the citizens of New York to ratify the new United States Constitution. Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, the essays originally appeared anonymously in New York newspapers in 1787 and 1788 under the pen name “Publius.” The Federalist Papers are considered one of the most important sources for interpreting and understanding the original intent of the Constitution.
I’ll post a one-paragraph synopsis of what each specific essay is about – print out and link to a site where you can read a thoughtful summary and analysis of each specific essay, and then link to the same site where you can read the full text of each of the documents.