Table Of ContentThe
Federalist
Papers
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The
Federalist
Papers
A Reader’s Guide
KylE sC oTT
NEW YORK • LONDON • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY
Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2013
© Kyle Scott, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on
or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scott, Kyle, 1977-
The federalist papers : a reader’s guide / Kyle Scott.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-9986-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-8586-0
(hardback : alk. paper) 1. Constitutional history--United States--Sources. 2.
United States--Politics and government--1783-1789. I. Title.
KF4515.S36 2012
342.7302’9--dc23
2012029490
ISBN: 978-1-4411-0814-2
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
CoNTENTs
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword ix
Introduction 1
1 Overview and background 9
2 Context and themes 35
3 Reading The Federalist Papers 45
4 Contemporary relevance 173
Bibliography 177
Index 181
ACKNo WlEDGmENTs
My understanding of The Federalist Papers has been deeply influ-
enced by the late Ross Lence. Although the views I express and the
errors I make should not be attributed to him.
I would like to thank the acquisitions editor, Marie-Claire
Antoine, at Bloomsbury, formerly Continuum, who invited me
to take on this project and saw it through to the end. This is
the second project—the first being Federalism—on which I have
worked with her, and I hope to have many more. I can only hope
she feels the same way.
Thanks should also go to Janine Turner, Cathy Gillespie, and
Amanda Hughes at Constituting America where I have had the
opportunity to write several entries on the Constitution, Bill of
Rights, and The Federalist Papers.
In each of my three previous books some mention has been
made to The Federalist Papers with the most extensive treatment
coming in Dismantling American Common Law and The Price
of Politics. My wife has supported me with great patience and
understanding during each of these endeavors. I write books to
help address certain questions that I think are important, but my
wife keeps me grounded and focused on the things that really
are important—family, love, and laughter. She fills my life with
purpose and meaning, and she has given me two beautiful and
intelligent children who I love more than I thought anything could
be loved.
ForEW orD
Debates abound regarding the original meaning of the U.S.
Constitution. So far in 2012 Americans have debated whether
President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable
Care Act, is constitutional and whether a state, or only the national
government, can make laws regarding immigration policy, to list
two current questions. So how then does one determine the consti-
tutionality of current congressional legislation or presidential and
administrative action? How does one know the original meaning
of the Constitution? A frequent suggestion to the concerned and
inquisitive is to consult The Federalist.
Those 85 essays have been widely discussed in recent years and
months. Hoover Institution’s Peter Berkowitz considers the essays
to be essential for a proper understanding of the Constitution, and
with lament, he asserts that they are not properly taught—if it at
all—in colleges and universities. Five days after Berkowitz’s column,
UC-Berkeley history professor Mark Peterson offered a rebuttal.
He explained how he and his colleagues assign and incorporate
readings from The Federalist into the halls of higher learning.
Another professor, Steven L. Taylor, believes The Federalist should
be assigned more in syllabi but writes that it is “wrong to state
that ‘colleges don’t teach the Federalist Papers’.” Why all the fuss?
Maybe it is because, as former University of Indiana professor
John J. Patrick has written, “The Federalist are core values and
principles of the American heritage and foundations of national
unity in a pluralistic society. These ideas are also keys to under-
standing how American government works.”1
Indeed, the Federalist Papers are important, since they have been
a significant source of understanding original meaning since the
early days of the United States. The longest serving Chief Justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court, John Marshall, presided over numerous
watershed judicial decisions from 1801 to 1835. Law students
