This book is an 1852 reprint of The Federalist Papers a collection of essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. Written under the collective pseudonym ‘Publius’, the papers were intended to persuade delegates of each of the thirteen states to ratify the Constitution of the new United States of America.

The first 77 articles were published serially in three newspapers, the Independent Journal, the New York Packet and The Daily Advertiser between October 1787 and April 1788 before being printed in a complete edition in May 1788. The final eight were published in New York papers that summer. In total Hamilton wrote 51 of the pieces with 29 written by Madison and five by Jay.

The Federalist Papers were successful in their aims and by July 1788, eleven states had ratified the Constitution.