The Federalist Papers, a collection of 85 essays written to convince the states of the benefits of uniting under a central government, helped gain popular support for, and encouraged the States to ratify, the US Constitution.
The first government of the United States, The Articles of Confederation, basically did not work. The founding fathers got together in Annapolis, Maryland, and wrote a Constitution for a new kind of government. The proposed constitution faced a lot of opposition. Three men answered the critics with a group of documents called The Federalist Papers. Those documents explained the reasoning behind the various points in given in the constitution. One criticism was the lack of a Bill of Rights. The Federalist Papers explained that amendments would provide for that. Another complained about the presidential pardon. The federalist papers explained that if a rebellion occurred, it would be better for the president to pardon the rebels and simply end the war rather than insist on punishing every rebel. That way the rebels would put down their arms and go home. That was what happened after the Civil War!
The above misstates a few facts. There was an original gathering called in Annapolis to work on improvements to the Articles of Confederation. However, only 5 of the 13 states sent delegates, and the brief conference was a failure. However, both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison were attendees, and got together afterward to push for a new conference. They managed to convince 12 of the 13 states to send delegates to a new conference, which was held in Philadelphia that summer. Most of the delegates arrived, but about 15% either didn't bother to come, or were otherwise too busy. It was this conference that hammered out the Constitution as it was pro-offered to the states.
Specifically, the Federalist Papers were written by Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay to promote the ratification of the Constitution by New York state. Several other states had already approved it, and it was almost certainly going to get the 9 (of 13) states required at the point that the New York ratification convention would run - however, as New York was the key state in the Union, it really was required to allow the Constitution to have any force. The Federalist Papers were an extremely detailed explanation of why the Constitution was needed, and why it was so much better than the existing Articles of Confederation. It was published over a 10 month period, and heavily influenced not just the New York ratification, but several other state's votes, too.
Also, the Federalist Papers were NOT in favor of a Bill of Rights in any form, as Hamilton feared such a list of Rights would be taken as an exhaustive list, restricting freedoms to only those listed.
The Federalist Papers were written to promote the benefits of the newly written US Constitution. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, writing under the name of Publius, wanted people (the state governments) to ratify the Constitution.
The Federalist Papers were written and published in New York newspapers to try and convince citizens of New York to ratify the Constitution.
The Constitution.
The Federalist papers
Alexander Hamilton
The Federalist papers
"The Federalist Papers." And they were letters to the editor.
the federalist papers
The Federalists supported the constitution. John Jay and James Madison wrote "The Federalist Papers" which were eighty essays defending the constitution.
nothing at alll!! Edit (April 8 2012) Ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
Alexander Hamilton defended the Constitution in the Federalist Papers. Meaning he was a Federalist.
The Federalist Papers
A collection of essays defending the Constitution can be found in a book entitled "New Federalist Papers: Essays in Defense of the Constitution." It was written by Alan Brinkley, Nelson W. Polsby, and Kathleen M. Sullivan.
the federalist papers were written as essays that argued a federalist viewpoint on the constitution.
There was no individual "book" that explained and supported the adoption of the US Constitution. There were a series of 85 individual pamphlets that were written by John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton under the name of "Publius." E pamphlet was titled "The Federalist", not the Federalist Papers. Later on, all 85 essays were compiled into a single book entitled "The Federalist Papers."