Today in History—May 28: Publication of the Federalist Papers

New Yorkers were a skeptical bunch.

The U.S. Constitution had been drafted over the summer of 1787 at the convention in Philadelphia. But if the Founding Fathers thought those four months of writing were hard, now they needed 9 of 13 states to ratify the thing.

George Washington wrote that much of the outcome would depend on “the recommendation of it by good pens.” A campaign to build public support began immediately—but so did a blitz by Anti-Federalists, who opposed the document, feared a strong central government, and wanted power to remain with the states.

Fortunately for the Constitution, it had three very good pens on its side. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison began anonymously publishing essays in New York newspapers, defending the proposed government and arguing for ratification. The Constitution was sent to the states in September 1787, and the first essay ran in October.

This series came to be known as the Federalist papers, and on this day in 1788, a batch of them appeared together in book form, the culmination of the monthslong propaganda campaign to convince New Yorkers—and the rest of the country—to support the U.S. Constitution.

New York, because of its size and influence, was a key battleground state. It was also Hamilton’s home, and he knew it wouldn’t be easy to win over its delegates. The project was originally supposed to consist of 20 essays. But as the ratification fight dragged on, the series ballooned. Hamilton ultimately wrote 51, Madison wrote 29, and Jay contributed 5 before falling ill. (Probably. Because they used a shared pen name, Publius, historians still argue over authorship of a few.)

The essays explored everything from judicial review to foreign policy. They covered taxation, militias, separation of powers, elections, treaties, and why the Articles of Confederation were no longer enough to hold the country together.

In setting out in detail the reasoning behind the Constitution, the authors left a guidebook that we still use today when we interpret that same document.

New York ratified the Constitution on July 26, 1788, in a razor-thin vote, 30–27.

Eight more essays were published that summer.