Federalist vs Anti-Federalist
Extra Credit for the first person to answer this question. Who is "Publius"?
Extra Credit for unique, interesting facts about the Federalist Papers, Anti-Federalist Papers, or the Constitutional Convention.
Later,
DT
posted by erdecker @ 2:00 PM
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Author appeared under the pseudonym "Publius," in honor of Roman consul Publius Valerius Publicola.
Thank you and good night.
Publius Valerius Publicola was a Roman consul in the first year of the Roman Republic. On the death of Brutus, which left him sole consul, the people began to fear that he was aiming at kingly power. To calm their apprehensions he discontinued the building of his house on the top of the Velian Hill, and also gave orders that the fasces should be lowered whenever he appeared before the people.
Seventy-seven of the eighty five Federalist essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788.
Other than the notable essays 10 and 51, Federalist No. 84 is also notable for its opposition to a Bill of Rights.
John Dickinson also developed a plan for government but never formally presented it before his peers like the other planners did.
The first 36 papers were made into a volume called "The Federalist." The rest were later made into a second volume.
There were 55 delegates at the Philadelphia constitutional convention. The vast majority of them were wealthy landowners, and all were white men. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams didn't attend because they were in Europe, but they wrote home to encourage the delegates. Patrick Henry refused to go because he "smelt a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward the monarchy."
At the Constitutional Convention, both Federalists and Anti-Federalists quoted the works of the philosopher Montesquieu to support their respective cases. Montesquieu was the most-often quoted philosopher at the Constitutional Convention. (Montesquieu wrote Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline, which was followed by The Spirit of the Laws in 1748.)
Separating the executive, legislative, and judicial functions was a central tenet of Montesquieu's philosophy, and the idea obviously made its way through the Convention and into our Constitution.
At the Constitutional Convention guards stood at the entrances to keep curious people away. Dirt was spread across the cobblestone roads in front of the Pennsylvania State House to prevent the sound of passing carriages from distracting the men inside.
A copy of the Federalist Papers was a part of Theodore Roosevelt's "Pigskin Library" which he read/took with during his African Safari between 1909 and 1910. It was called a pigskin library because all of its contents were rebound into leather.
The Daily Advertiser, The New York Packet, and The Independent Journal were the three publications that printed the Federalist papers. The papers were written so quickly by the three authors, that sometimes there were three or four essays out in a week.
George Washington was hesitant about attending the Constitutional Convention, but Madison convinced him to come by bringing up the high esteem he held in the eyes of the public. George Washington had suffered recently with the death of his brother, the illness of his sister and mother, and his own rheumatism.
Anti-federalist papers were arguments against the ratification of the Constitution that came in many forms and written by men under pseudonyms. Many men opposing ratification were not so much against ratification of a federal constitution as they were of the construction of delegating powers to the national government. There were two different periods in history in which an anti-federalist movement was involved. The first one was in the 1780's, and the second was formed reacting to Alexander Hamilton's aggressive policies against George Washington's first administration. This was called the Anti-Administration Party and it was the building block of the nation's first two political parties, the Democratic-Republican Party.
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