Jim Bratten
Tomorrow, October 27, is the date in 1787 when the first in a series of wonderful essays by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay was published. The essays were written under the name, “Publius,” and urged the state delegates to accept the newly written United States Constitution.
Eighty-five essays in all, most appeared in New York newspapers. These were later assembled into a book titled, The Federalist. We know it today as The Federalist Papers, an inspired explanation of the important principles that formed our new government.
Alexander Hamilton, the author of “Federalist No. 1,” explained to his readers that, for the first time in human history, a people formed their government by consent, freely deciding exactly what kind of government they desired. An excerpt:
“…[Y]ou are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less then the existence of the Union, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind. This idea will add the inducements of philanthropy to those of patriotism, to heighten the solicitude which all considerate and good men must feel for the event.”
Hamilton tried to impress on the delegates the gravity of what they were to do: choose a government, instead of imposing one by force; unique in all human history.
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