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By Root 1619 0

itself aspiring to if never quite reaching the standards of "a critical reader." Nor, it should be added, did these "critical" or more enlightened readers disdain the cause of the respectable public. Part of the enduring glory of the debate over the Constitution in 1787–1788 was that it showed at what a high level the cause of popular government could be, indeed had to be defended, if it was to be something honorable (see Federalist No. 39). The Federalist represented the high point of this high-level debate, but it served also as a model of candor, civility, and deliberation for future American political disputes. Unlike Solon, the American Publius would never desert his country, but would always be present, in literary form, to counsel it.

Hamilton restated the point in the Preface’s concluding sentence: "The great wish is that it may promote the cause of truth and lead to a right judgment of the true interests of the community." The Federalist was at once a practical work designed to persuade the community of its interests, and a more theoretical work serving "the cause of truth." The cause of popular or republican government depended on the capacity of "societies of men," and particularly "the people of this country," in the words of Federalist No. 1, to establish "good government from reflection and choice." Otherwise the cause of the people would collapse, and they would be "forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force." But the ability of the people to govern themselves depended on their willingness to allow "reflection" to guide their "choice"—depended, in other words, on their willingness to take seriously the debate over the Constitution, to abide by the deliberative style of democratic or republican politics that The Federalist did so much to establish, and to heed the counsels of The Federalist in choosing to ratify, and later to uphold, the Constitution of the United States.

Throughout their labors, the authors of The Federalist adhered fairly closely to the outline of the series announced in Federalist No. 1. "I propose, in a series of papers, to discuss the following interesting particulars," Publius wrote:

The utility of the UNION to your political prosperity—The insufficiency of the present Confederation to preserve that Union—The necessity of a government at least equally energetic with the one proposed, to the attainment of this object—The conformity of the proposed Constitution to the true principles of republican government—Its analogy to your own State constitution—and lastly, The additional security which its adoption will afford to the preservation of that species of government, to liberty, and to property. (No. 1, p. 30)

This outline was followed, though not without modification. The fourth topic, on the Constitution’s conformity to "the true principles of republican government," grew to be a survey of the "particular structure" of the whole government, encompassing Federalist Nos. 47–84. The fifth and sixth topics, "anticipated and exhausted" (p.520) in the previous section, shrank accordingly to the dimensions of a single paragraph apiece in the concluding paper, Federalist No. 85.

As indicated in the beginning agenda, Publius’s discussion was organized around two broad subjects, "UNION" and "the proposed Constitution." These subjects in turn corresponded to the two volumes of the collected Federalist papers: "UNION" was the subject of the first thirty-six numbers of The Federalist, assembled in the first bound volume, and "the merits of this Constitution" absorbed the next forty-nine papers, Nos. 37–85, published in the second. In general outline, then, the argument of the book takes this form:

I. The Union

Nos. 1–14: Introduction and "the utility of the UNION to your political prosperity"

Nos. 15–22: "The insufficiency of the present Confederation to preserve that Union"

Nos. 23–36: "The necessity of a government at least equally energetic with the one proposed, to the attainment of this object"

II. The Merits of this Constitution or "The conformity