whole subject," was a task of no little labor, but to write it in the few months before the assembling of the New York state convention (if not before the elections for members of that body), and so that it might at once begin the work of counteracting the influence of "Cato" and "Brutus," involved a rapidity of composition to which Hamilton himself was unequal. He therefore sought the assistance of two others in the undertaking' and secured the aid, first of John Jay, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and second of James Madison, a member of the Continental Congress from Virginia, who had recently distinguished himself in the federal convention by his able elucidations of the general theory of government; a form of study in which Virginians had already made themselves famous. To Jay was assigned the discussion of government in its relation to foreign. affairs, and to Madison was apportioned the historical and theoretical part, with an analysis of the general powers of the new government; Hamilton taking himself the examination of the defects of the confederation, and the exposition of the proposed constitution in detail, for both of which he was peculiarly fitted.

Even thus divided, it was a difficult task to produce the weekly tale of essays alternately published in the Independent Journal and the Daily Advertiser; and the mere magnitude of the labor can best be understood when it is noted that "Brutus," the ablest writer in the opposition, wrote only sixteen letters, while eighty-five appeared over the name of Publius, the periods of publication being almost identical.

The last letter of "Cæsar" was published on October 17, and on October 27 "The Federalist, No. 1," addressed to the "The People of the State of New York," over the pen-name of "Publius," was printed in

"The undertaking was proposed by Alexander Hamilton to James Madison, with a request to join him and Mr. Jay in carrying it into effect." (Madison in a paper entitled "The Federalist.") It was undertaken last fall by Jay, Hamilton, and myself. The proposal came from the two former."-Madison to Jefferson, August 10, 1788.

the Independent Journal.' This announced itself as the initial number of a series of essays on the proposed constitution, and briefly outlined the intended scope of the work. In eighty-five letters, published in the succeeding seven months, this task was completed.

The marked excellence of the letters of "Publius " attracted instant attention, and led to the republication of the earlier numbers in the larger part of the American press, even the New York Journal, the organ of the Antifederalists, being finally forced to print them for a time.' The demand indeed was sufficient to produce the prompt advertisement of a collection of the series in book form, and it was published while the constitution was still a matter of debate.

That The Federalist produced any marked influence at the time in leading to the acceptance of the new government is questionable, for it was a moment of passion, rather than of reason, and the followers of Clinton were too bound by selfish interests to let abstract reasoning really influence them. A good Federalist could only say of the work of "Publius" that "he is certainly a judicious and ingenious writer, though not well calculated for the common people." As for the Anti-federalists, they made no pretense of regarding the arguments. "The Federalist,' as he terms himself," wrote one, "or 'Publius,' puts me in mind of some of the gentlemen of the long robe when hard pressed, in a bad cause, with a rich client. They frequently say a good deal which does not apply; but yet if it will not convince the judge and jury, may perhaps, help to make them forget some part of the evidence-embarrass their opponents, and make the audience stare.

The New York elections for delegates to the state

It has been stated by Rives and Bourne that the early letters were signed "A Citizen of New York." This is an error, the only use of that pseudonym being in an advertisement of the first collected edition.

2 It printed later a petition from thirty subscribers that the paper would cease from republishing The Federalist.

3 Maclaine to Iredell, March 4, 1788.

New York Journal, February 14, 1788.

convention well proved that "Publius" had written in vain, for only one-third of the men chosen were Federalists-making the contest one of the most crushing defeats ever experienced by the Anti-Clinton party. Nor were the members of the convention when met, any more open to persuasion than the people had been. "I steal this moment," wrote one, "while the Convention is in Committee and the little Great Man employed in repeating over Parts of Publius" to write; and another, when an Anti-federalist was charged with having "compiled" his speech from the New York papers, replied that "if so, he had as much credit with me as Mr. Hamilton had, for retailing in Convention, Publius.”

But if the masses were held to the democratic party in the state by the arguments of "Cato" and "Brutus" and were deaf to the reasoning of "Publius," there was a limit to what they could be made to accept. That the federal compact robbed them of power, and was a "gilded trap," leading to consolidation and to eventual tyranny, they had strong reasons for believing, but when the state machine, triumphant in shaping public opinion to this extent, went one point further, and advanced the idea of separation from the Union, which indeed was the logical outcome of a rejection of the constitution, it was not followed by the rank and file. In the history of the United States disunion has been often talked and sometimes attempted by political leaders, but not once have the masses accepted it. The only serious endeavor to break up the country which has ever occurred was in a section where those who should have been the controlling citizens were chiefly slaves, unable to make their influence a power; and even there, in the mountain regions, where the plain American resembled his more northern countryman, disunion never prospered. From 1774, if not earlier, the leaders have upheld or denounced a united country, according to their selfish or sectional views, but the unspeaking masses have felt, what it took statesmen years to learn, that there was but one people and one nation, be the states thirteen or thirty. In 1788 the

majority might vote against a frame of government; they could not be brought to vote against the Union.

But another and more concrete difficulty existed to obstruct the plans of the Clintonian leaders. The Antifederalists were a landholding and therefore an up-state party, while New York City and its immediate vicinity. were controlled by the commercial and mechanic classes, so strongly federal in their feeling that at this very election for the convention, though the opposers of the constitution had won overwhelmingly elsewhere, yet in New York City the Federalists drove the Anti-federalists from some of the polls by force, and even where this was not done the vote stood as ten to one for their ticket. "Reject the constitution," threatened the federal leaders, and “a separation of the Southern District from the other parts of the State . . . would become the object of the Federalists and of the neighboring States."" This would not merely exclude the inland part of the state from the Union, it would shut it out from the sea. Worse still, it would lose to the country sections their share of the large revenues arising from the imposts on the rich commerce of New York City, and as this revenue was a principal reason for the refusal to join the Union (because of its necessary transference to the general government), the certain loss of it by a secession of the City removed a powerful motive of the Anti-federalists for opposing the constitution.

This danger of division, therefore, made the triumph. of the Clinton party more apparent than real, and not daring to reject, nor willing to accept, the opponents of the constitution could only adopt the policy of delay, hoping that enough states would reject the new government to prevent its organization. Having postponed the state convention as long as possible, to gain time, it was next proposed when that body had met that they should take a "long adjournment as the safest and most artful course to effect their final purpose. But as state after state accepted the constitution such action became

1 Hamilton to Madison, June 8, 1788.

112

ទ Ibid.

too extreme, and in place of it a plan of conditional amendments was brought forward, by which the state could later withdraw from the Union. Rather than risk further contest, this compromise was at first favorably received by the Federalists; the one side hoping that the new government would prove so great a failure or so hard a master that a favorable opportunity would come for rescinding the ratification, while the other foresaw that, a ratification once obtained, there would be little to "fear in the future." But while this compromise was still in embryo news reached the convention that both New Hampshire and Virginia had ratified the constitution, making ten states in all, and insuring the organization and trial of the new government. The Federalists therefore became less yielding and finally wrong from their opponents an unconditional ratification. What the arguments of "Publius" could not bring to pass had been extorted from the majority of the state by the majority of the states and a minority of its own citizens.

But if The Federalist was an uninfluential factor in the actual struggle for ratification, it was because of the nature of the contest, and not from want of ability. It is true that serious defects, due to the circumstances of its production, are obvious. Although intended to be a systematic work on republican government, it was even more a plea for the adoption of this particular constitution, and therefore had quite as much of the legal brief as of the philosophical commentary on government. Not one of the authors of The Federalist entirely approved of the constitution, but none the less they were called upon to defend it in toto. "In some parts," wrote Jefferson, immediately after its publication, "it is discoverable that the author means only to say what may be best said in defense of the opinions in which he did not concur," ' proving that some of the arguments were so half

1. Though carried on in concert, the writers were not mutually responsible for all the ideas of each other; there being seldom time for even a perusal of the pieces by any but the writer, before they were wanted at the press, and sometimes hardly by the writer himself."-Madison to Jefferson, August 10, 1788.