Federalist

A publication issued from 1787 to 1789, and consisting of papers, written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, intended to prepare the people for accepting the Constitution. Of its eighty-flve numbers. Jay wrote five, Madison twenty-nine, and Hamilton fifty-one. " They form a work of enduring interest, because they are the earliest commentary on the new experiment of mankind in establishing a republican form of government for a country of boundless dimensions." * In itself a complete commentary on the Constitution, The opinions expressed in it have always been considered as of great authority. Its intrinsic merit entitles it to high rank; and the part which two of its authors [Madison, the chief autl^or, and Hamilton] performed in framing the Constitution, put it very much in their power to explain the views with which it was framed. These essays, published while the 1 Coite V. Lynes, 33 Conn, 114-15 (1865), Butler, J, 2 Story, Agency, § 318; 1 Woolw, 374-75; 3 Pet, 233, 3 L, faedus, a league, treaty, compact. Constitution was before the nation for adoption or rejection, and written in answer to objections founded upon the extent of its powers, and on its diminution of State sovereignty, are entitled to more consideration where they franltly slv-ow that the power objected to is given, and defead it.'