ABSTRACT
Publius, I’m quite certain, requires an introduction these days, for it is hardly a household name. Actually, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton selected it as an author’s pseudonym for the essays they wrote in defense of the Constitution created in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. The essays were published in New York newspapers (New York was then the U.S. capital) as the nation debated the merits of adopting a totally new government. Collectively they became known as the Federalist Papers, after being published in two volumes early in 1788. Ever since that time they have served as the nation’s intellectual mainstay in defense of the Constitution. In fact, the Federalist Papers have even been cited by Supreme Court justices as a rationale for judicial opinions.
