Federalist Papers – a Recap – What We Have Covered    

Thus far, we have summarized the first twenty-eight of the Federalist Papers.

To review a bit, what have we learned?

The Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay as an effort to convince the people of New York to ratify the recently drafted Constitution of the United States.

The first twenty-eight essays cover the following:

• The need for a government to protect its citizens;
• The difference between a “democracy” and a “republican” form of government and why the republican form is preferred;
• The advantages of a republic to address regional factions (a “biggie” as articulated in Essay #11);
• The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation;
• The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense;
• The need for a strong central government to address foreign threats;
• The need for a central government militia to protect the citizens as well as to minimize regional or independent state disputes that would occur in a loose confederation of states.

In a nutshell, that’s what we’ve learned thus far.

~ CCJ