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The Federalist Papers are a collection of essays written in the 1780s in support of the proposed U.S. Constitution and the strong federal government it advocated. In October 1787, the first in a series of 85 essays arguing for ratification of the Constitution appeared in the Independent Journal, under the pseudonym Publius. Addressed to the People of the State of New York, the essays were actually written by the statesmen Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. They would be published serially from 1787-88 in several New York newspapers. The first 77 essays, including Madisons famous Federalist 10 and Federalist 51, appeared in book form in 1788. TitledThe Federalist, it has been hailed as one of the most important political documents in U.S. history.

WATCH: Secrets of the Founding Fathers on HISTORY Vault

James Madison

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As the first written constitution of the newly independent United States, the Articles of Confederation nominally granted Congress the power to conduct foreign policy, maintain armed forces and coin money.

But in practice, this centralized government body had little authority over the individual states, including no power to levy taxes or regulate commerce, which hampered the new nations ability to pay its outstanding debts from the Revolutionary War.

In May 1787, 55 delegates gathered in Philadelphia to address the deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation and the problems that had arisen from this weakened central government.

The document that emerged from the Constitutional Convention went far beyond amending the Articles, however. Instead, it established an entirely new system, including a robust central government divided into legislative, executive and judicial branches.

As soon as 39 delegates signed the proposed Constitution in September 1787, the document went to the states for ratification, igniting a furious debate between Federalists, who favored ratification of the Constitution as written, and Antifederalists, who opposed the Constitution and resisted giving stronger powers to the national government.

In New York, opposition to the Constitution was particularly strong, and ratification was seen as particularly important. Immediately after the document was adopted, Antifederalists began publishing articles in the press criticizing it.

They argued that the document gave Congress excessive powers, and that it could lead to the American people losing the hard-won liberties they had fought for and won in the Revolution.

In response to such critiques, the New York lawyer and statesman Alexander Hamilton, who had served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, decided to write a comprehensive series of essays defending the Constitution, and promoting its ratification.

John Jay

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As a collaborator, Hamilton recruited his fellow New Yorker John Jay, who had helped negotiate the treaty ending the war with Britain and served as secretary of foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation. The two later enlisted the help of James Madison, another delegate to the Constitutional Convention who was in New York at the time serving in the Confederation Congress.

To avoid opening himself and Madison to charges of betraying the Conventions confidentiality, Hamilton chose the pen name Publius, after a general who had helped found the Roman Republic. He wrote the first essay, which appeared in the Independent Journal, on October 27, 1787.

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In it, Hamilton argued that the debate facing the nation was not only over ratification of the proposed Constitution, but over the question of 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.

After writing the next four essays on the failures of the Articles of Confederation in the realm of foreign affairs, Jay had to drop out of the project due to an attack of rheumatism; he would write only one more essay in the series. Madison wrote a total of 29 essays, while Hamilton wrote a staggering 51.

Alexander Hamilton

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the Federalist Papers, Hamilton, Jay and Madison argued that the decentralization of power that existed under the Articles of Confederation prevented the new nation from becoming strong enough to compete on the world stage, or to quell internal insurrections such as Shayss Rebellion.

In addition to laying out the many ways in which they believed the Articles of Confederation didnt work, Hamilton, Jay and Madison used the Federalist essays to explain key provisions of the proposed Constitution, as well as the nature of the republican form of government.

In Federalist 10, which became the most influential of all the essays, Madison argued against the French political philosopher Montesquieus assertion that true democracyincluding Montesquieus concept of the separation of powerswas feasible only for small states.

A larger republic, Madison suggested, could more easily balance the competing interests of the different factions or groups (or political parties) within it. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests, he wrote. [Y]ou make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens[.]

After emphasizing the central governments weakness in law enforcement under the Articles of Confederation in Federalist 21-22, Hamilton dove into a comprehensive defense of the proposed Constitution in the next 14 essays, devoting seven of them to the importance of the governments power of taxation.

Madison followed with 20 essays devoted to the structure of the new government, including the need for checks and balances between the different powers.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary, Madison wrote memorably in Federalist 51. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

After Jay contributed one more essay on the powers of the Senate, Hamilton concluded the Federalist essays with 21 installments exploring the powers held by the three branches of governmentlegislative, executive and judiciary.

Impact of the Federalist Papers

Despite their outsized influence in the years to come, and their importance today as touchstones for understanding the Constitution and the founding principles of the U.S. government, the essays published as The Federalist in 1788 saw limited circulation outside of New York at the time they were written. They also fell short of convincing many New York voters, who sent far more Antifederalists than Federalists to the state ratification convention.

Still, in July 1788, a slim majority of New York delegates voted in favor of the Constitution, on the condition that amendments would be added securing certain additional rights. Though Hamilton had opposed this (writing in Federalist 84 that such a bill was unnecessary and could even be harmful) Madison himself would draft the Bill of Rights in 1789, while serving as a representative in the nations first Congress.

Ron Chernow, Hamilton (Penguin, 2004).Pauline Maier, Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 (Simon & Schuster, 2010).If Men Were Angels: Teaching the Constitution with the Federalist Papers. Constitutional Rights Foundation.Dan T. Coenen, Fifteen Curious Facts About the Federalist Papers. University of Georgia School of Law, April 1, 2007.

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Federalist Papers: Summary, Authors & Impact - HISTORY

Amid a national crisis of confidence in the Federal Bureau of Investigation following years of revelations the agency has repeatedly abused its powers to rig elections for Democrats, newly public documents display yet another FBI abuse of power.

Documents obtained by Daily Caller reporter Gabe Kaminsky indicate the FBI has secretly pressured an unknown number of Americans to sign away their constitutional right to bear arms without being convicted of any crime in a regular court of law, another constitutional right.

The existence of a form that FBI employees have reportedly pressured Americans to sign after appearing at their doors was uncovered after a legal battle to get the FBI to answer an open records request from Gun Owners of America (GOA).

The people targeted with these forms are not otherwise prohibited persons and have not committed any actual crime with which they can be charged, Robert Olson, GOAs counsel, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The FBI claims it discontinued the use of the form in 2019, but the obtained records show the FBI used the form to deprive American citizens of their natural rights outside the constitutional mechanism of a proper trial in U.S. courts at least 15 times.

The FBI declined to identify any statutory justification for the forms, Kaminsky writes.

Several of those the FBI pressured into signing the form were investigated after being reported as making threats of violence on social media.

Many leftists consider disagreeing with their views to constitute violence. That is the rationale Big Tech companies that control what Americans can see online use to ban those who say men cant become women, including Federalist Senior Editor John Daniel Davidson. In the United Kingdom, people have been visited by police for disagreeing with leftist gender ideology, and in Finland, a member of Parliament has been prosecuted in court for quoting the Bible on homosexuality.

The Biden administration has also defined many common political views of conservatives as domestic terrorist threats. Last week, President Joe Biden associated the 74 million Americans who voted for his opponent in 2020 with domestic extremists, or in other words a terrorist threat. A 2021 Department of Homeland Security memo gave as examples of domestic violent extremism views shared by tens of millions of Americans, including supporting only legal immigration, raising concerns about mass mail-in balloting, and objecting to Covid lockdowns.

Half of independent voters and 68 percent of Republican voters think the FBI and Department of Justice are corrupt, according to a poll out two weeks ago.

FBI whistleblowers recently told Congress the Biden administration is demanding they reclassify cases as domestic extremism to pad their numbers and inflate this threat. This is only one of a cascade of recent public disclosures demonstrating the federal law enforcement agencys mass corruption.

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Docs: FBI Unlawfully Pushed Americans To Forfeit Gun Rights

In a town hall in Queens, New York, on Wednesday night, self-proclaimed socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is up for re-election, responded to her enraged constituents in a fake Latino accent: All right, all right, listen! All right, listen! Listen OK, listen! The congresswoman also danced mockingly to the beat of angry voters chanting, AOC has got to go!

Its unclear whether the dancing was meant to be funny, cute, or dismissive. Her furious constituents,concernedabout crime rates and gender-bending craziness, continued to heckle.

Its also unclear if using the accent was meant to mock herpredominantlyHispanic constituency, or if she was trying to garner Latino cred. This wouldnt be the first time AOC has used fake accents. The congresswoman has used ablaccentin the past, perhaps taking a cue from another Democrat superstar,Hillary Clinton.

AOC really likes using race to her advantage. In a 2020 interview during the Black Lives Matter race riots when left-wing attention was centered on black Americans, AOCsaid,I always say Latinos are black, causing many to speculate the comment had to do with her desire to be the biggest victim. And in a recentGQinterview, AOC tried to brandish her victim status by claiming she may not be alive by September due to the countrys hatred for women of color such as her.

In a surprising turn for New Yorks liberal 14th District, AOCs constituents have been unafraid to show their dissatisfaction with her. At yet another town hall in the Bronx, she was lectured by constituents for voting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Liz Cheney to send yet another$725 millionto Ukraine on top of the billions in taxpayer dollars the U.S. has already sent. Youre voting to start a nuclear war, her constituents told her. Rather than giving an explanation for her vote, AOC scolded her constituent for supposedly speaking out of turn.

Another constituent called her a sell-out and a war hawk: Tulsi Gabbard, shes left the Democratic Partybecause theyre a bunch of war hawks. You ran as an outsider, yet youve been voting to start this war in Ukraine. Youre voting to start a third nuclear war with Russia and China. Why are you playing with the lives of American citizens?

The lefts radical agenda isnt working for Americans. Whether you are on the right or the left, families are feeling the 40-year record-high Bidenflation. Every day its harder to afford gas, groceries, and heating bills. On top of all that, millions are terrified of our reckless and self-interested leaders risking nuclear war with Russia.

When people are this angry and scared, sassy dance moves, fake accents, and dismissive narcissism only stoke the flames. AOCs tired tricks arent working anymore, even in New York.

Evita Duffy is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.

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Fake Accents And Sassy Dance Moves Won't Save AOC

>The Federalist Papers is a treatise on free government in peace and security. It is the outstanding American contribution to the literature on constitutional democracy and federalism, and a classic of Western political thought.

The Federalist Papers were written in support of the ratification of the Constitution. While modern-day readers might see it as inevitable, the Constitution was a revolutionary step. In Philadelphia, the delegates rebelled against the existing Articles of Confederation and looked to the states, not the existing government, for ratification and approval of the new government. Because of the revolutionary nature of the new Constitution, arguments were necessary to rationalize it as a response to new emergencies. After the convention, Tench Coxe became the coordinator in Philadelphia for those who supported the Constitution, while George Mason became the coordinator for New York for those who opposed it. Hundreds and hundreds of letters were written regarding the Constitution; "Cato" and "The Federal Farmer" attacked while "Caeser" replied. Both George Washington and Ben Franklin, probably the two most influential men in the country at the time, supported the Constitution.

Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York were the states critical to the success or failure of the Constitution. Of these four states, New York by far was the state where the success of the Constitution was in the most doubt. The state's delegation did not approve the draft in Philadelphia because two of its three delegates left during the protest and abandoned Alexander Hamilton without a vote. Governor Clinton, the leading figure in New York politics, opposed the new government because New York had become an independent nation under the Articles of Confederation, making itself rich through tariffs on trade with its neighboring states.

Quickly, Alexander Hamilton decided that a massive propaganda campaign was necessary in New York, more so than in any other state. This new plan entailed a sustained barrage of arguments appearing in newspapers four times per week. Because of the massive amounts of work, he decided that he needed two co-authors to help him write under the pseudonym of "Publius." He originally had asked others to assist him in the project, but, luckily for him and future generations, James Madison, a Virginia citizen, was available because the Continental Congress was sitting in New York during that period. John Jay was also asked because of his vast foreign diplomatic service. Unfortunately, John Jay got sick shortly after the project commenced and was able to only complete six different papers. That left Hamilton and Madison to finish the rest, a task they were able to complete only because they relied heavily on notes they had used in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia earlier.

Eventually, the books were published serially in different newspapers in New York (four out of five of the major newspapers of the time) and were republished in book form near the end of the run. Unfortunately, the ratification vote in New York failed and New Yorkers only ratified the Constitution later, becoming the 11th state to do so. James Madison, however, took the published books to assist in the ratification debate in Virginia, and the papers survived to serve a far greater purpose than mere propaganda. The Federalist Papers are the single greatest interpretive source of the Constitution of the United States, widely considered one of the best explanations of what the Founding Fathers' purpose was in the passage of the document that governs the United States of America.

Philosophically, The Federalist Papers should also be considered in the context in which they were written. The revolutionary era was characterized by a quest for security from foreign nations, for peace in America, and for individual freedom. These values, it was hoped, could be achieved by united action. Whereas earlier plans for union were largely motivated by a desire for security and peace, those of the period under consideration were the first appearance of the "freedom motif." That motif came to the fore during the colonists' struggle with England and was recognized by the Articles of Confederation. In the arguments in Philadelphia and the subsequent Federalist Papers, this same motif held force. Arguments of unity and security, which could seem absurd to readers only familiar with the power of the modern United States, were sincere concerns and problems at that time.

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The Federalist Papers Study Guide | GradeSaver

Corporate media outlets were abuzz with excitement on Thursday morning over the scientific confirmation that babies in the womb visibly recoil at the taste of leafy greens such as kale.

The English study in question, published on Wednesday, found that babies in the womb have strong, physical reactions to the flavor profiles of the foods their mothers ingest.

Thanks to previous scholarship, scientists already knew that unborn infantstaste buds develop anatomically at 8 weeks gestation and can detect tastants from 14 weeks gestation. There is also significant evidence that by 16 weeks in utero, babies regularly swallow and taste amniotic fluid.

Researchers for this particular study, which was conducted on 100 babies between32 to 36 weeks gestation, took the in utero taste consensus one step further when they determined that unborn infants are capable of detecting, analyzing, expressing preference for, and classifying the chemosensory information conveyed by flavor compounds originating in [the] maternal diet.

Thats why when mothers in the study were fed carrots, which were classified as tasting sweet, fruity, and woody compared to other vegetables, babies, as measured on 4D ultrasound scans, expressed a higher laughter-face than the control group, which was fed nothing. On the contrary, unborn infants that were exposed to kale through their mothers expressed a higher rate of cry-face reactions. That facial feedback was attributed to the vegetables unique bitterness flavor profile.

Since babies learn some of the most important, long-lasting physical and cognitive skills required for neonatal life in early gestation, this particular studys significance was not lost on the media.

You guys have to see this! one Today Show host exclaimed as her coworkers cooed over the amazing baby faces and adorable reactions pictured in the findings.

CBS News referred to the babies in the study as fetuses, but still highlighted the findings in a positive light.

Its hard to believe that the same outlets that published pro-abortion propaganda over Fathers Day weekend praising dads decisions to end their babys life in the womb and propel Democrats radical pro-abortion agenda to the front of their coverage are now celebrating the fact that babies in the womb are living, breathing humans capable of amazing things.

One might think that the acknowledgment of the incredible complexity and sanctity of an unborn babys life is a win, but that would be a severe misreading of just how committed media are to aiding Democrats in their quest to legalize ending life in the womb.

In the most recent example of this abortion allyship, the same media that is is hypervigilant about fact-checking Republicans let election-denier (to use the lefts ridiculous phrase) and baby-denier Stacey Abrams get away with claiming babys heartbeats in the womb are manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a womans body.

In fact, some media outlets such as The New York Times boost similar outlandish claims in their own pages.

The corrupt press doesnt just conduct slanted polls designed to twist Americans true feelings about abortion. They also let Democrats, whose abortion extremism would eliminate any legal protections for kale-resistant babies from violence, get away with prenatal murder without any scrutiny. The corrupt media cheer it.

All these editorial decisions are designed to disguise the fact that Democrats radical calls for unlimited abortion through all nine months of pregnancy dont sit well with Americans on either side of the political aisle. Thats why, when pressed, media activists hide the fact that they havent grilled Democrats about their deeply unpopular abortion positions.

The media can coo over unborn infants squirming when they eat vegetables all they want, but at the end of the day, remember that the corrupt press always sides with the people who are perfectly fine with ending those preborn lives.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

Originally posted here:

Media Marvel At Prenatal Response To Flavor While Pushing Abortion