O Publius, Publius, whofore art thou Publius?
Creating a new government from one that was almost enshrined
and trying to convince those powers that be to accept a different path because
it was necessary...this was the messy and almost insurmountable task of the Constitutional
Convention of 1787...
For the first few years after the American Revolution
concluded, the United States was a Confederation of States...a
Confederacy. Great minds decided they
could plan great things, and a convention was called in 1787 to strengthen and
revise this Confederation, with representatives from 12 of the 13
"States" attending...Rhode Island abstained.
The debates about what should be and what was, what might work
and what wouldn’t, how far or how little government should go...these were all
hashed out at the Convention and in the press.
Newspaper articles for and against were furiously published. The pubic was well informed on the doings of
one of the most important events in World History...the creation of a nation of
free men, a Republic that recognized all men as equal (except for Black
slaves...but that would be mended later) and a written contract ensuring the
people's inalienable rights in perpetuity.
What started as a meeting to fix up a governmental system
that need some tweaking, ended up implementing something completely new...a
Constitutional Federal Republic...
Not everyone was happy, not everyone got what they
wanted...but in the end...this Nation had a workable Constitution...and a
workable system of government that strengthened the United States and set it on
the path of becoming the greatest country the World has ever seen.
Those in favor of a strong but limited central government
produced a series of articles that were published between October 1787 and
August 1788. Under the singular
pseudonym "Publius", these three men, John Jay...James Madison...and
Alexander Hamilton...made the case for the government we know today. These essays later became known as The Federalist Papers and are a
cornerstone in discerning what our laws mean and how they should...or should
not be interpreted.
The Federalist, a
collection of the essays/articles was published in book form in late 1788, in
two volumes.
The Federalist ...Volumes I and II combined...First Edition