Instructor's note: The Federalist Papers of 1787-88 are a series of opinion-pieces or political rhetoric encouraging voters in New York State to ratify the proposed U.S. Constitution to take the place of the Articles of Conferation that organized the U.S. Federal Government immediately after the American Revolution (1775-1783).

Instructor's note: The Federalist Papers of 1787-88 are a series of opinion-pieces or political rhetoric encouraging voters of New York State to ratify the proposed U.S. Constitution to take the place of the Articles of Conferation that organized the U.S. Federal Government immediately after the American Revolution (1775-1783).

The new constitution was ratified by and took effect in 1789 and continues today as the supreme law of the land. The Federalist Papers might have gone the way of all political journalism—here today, gone tomorrow—and they have no official status as American law (though all three of the authors held high office), but the Federalist Papers survive as classics of Political Science, reference points for Constitutional Law, and exemplary writing of the Enlightenment period.

Qualities of Enlightenment style exemplified by the Federalist Papers:

• Closely and carefully reasoned arguments, with mathematical or structural patterns like balance and arguing from the mean or center

• Acknowledgement of human passions but advocating restraint on dangerous passions, plus style itself is restrained: careful not to say too much too quickly, careful not to antagonize opposition.

• Thus the style, while logically rigorous and evidential, may lack the color or warmth readers want from popular journalism or literature, but these "classical" qualities raise the Federalist above popular literature and into the "timeless" classical realm—but the Federalist Papers are still a challenge to read.

Other points re style:

• Reader must be highly-trained or well-schooled? In fact the text is written for average voters in New York in the late 1700s. Potential catch: any citizen or voter would likely have been a property-owning white man, so a reasonable degree of education could be expected, plus an interest in the "interests" or "propertied interests" of the argument.

• Past students have reacted against the Federalist by describing it as "lawyer-speak," "legalese," or "an operating manual"—all true enough: Lawyers must argue closely while limiting or carefully managing appeals to emotion.

Federalist # 1 (Introduction) by Alexander Hamilton

Federalist # 6: Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States by Alexander Hamilton

Federalist # 9: The Union as a Safeguard against Domestic Faction and Insurrection by Alexander Hamilton

Federalist # 10: The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection by James Madison