—This is a guest post by Patrick Hastings, a specialist in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. It also appears in the May/June issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, which focuses on America 250.
The Library has within its collections two fascinating copies of “The Federalist” with deep personal ties to three Founding Fathers.
The Federalist Papers originally were published in New York newspapers as 85 stand-alone essays advocating for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. These foundational texts appeared under the pseudonym “Publius” but were written by an authorial tag team of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (with John Jay contributing only five essays due to illness).
In an incredible feat of writerly productivity, Hamilton and Madison published multiple essays each week, releasing an avalanche of arguments for why the proposed Constitution would ensure the new nation’s survival and prosperity.
These essays were first collected and bound together in spring 1788 in a two-volume edition titled “The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, as Agreed upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787.” Archibald McLean, the printer of the first edition, complained about the project’s expanding size, saying, “When I engaged to do the work, it was to consist of twenty numbers, or at the most twenty-five.” So, instead of printing one volume of 200 pages, McLean’s Manhattan print shop ultimately was burdened with producing two volumes totaling 600 pages. Plus, the book didn’t sell. McLean was stuck with several hundred unsold copies.
The Library holds four copies from McLean’s edition, including one originally owned by Elizabeth Hamilton, wife of Alexander Hamilton. Eliza sent her copy as a gift to her sister, Angelica Schuyler Church, then living in London with her husband. The title page is inscribed, “For Mrs. Church from her Sister Elizabeth Hamilton.”
They apparently also exchanged books. The library Jefferson sold to the United States for the Library of Congress in 1815 included the Schuyler sisters’ copy of “The Federalist,” which Angelica had gifted to Jefferson.
Jefferson commented that “The Federalist” was “the best commentary on the principles of government which was ever written” — high praise from the author of the Declaration of Independence.
Guessing who had written which essay was a popular parlor game in the early American political class. Within his copy, Jefferson used the front flyleaf to identify the authors for each of Publius’ 85 essays. He attributed five to Jay, 30 to Madison and “the rest of the work by Alexander Hamilton.”
When Hamilton died following his duel with Aaron Burr, he left behind a list of the authors for each essay. Within this list, Hamilton named himself as the author of a few essays that Madison himself claimed.
In Madison’s personal copy of “The Federalist,” also held by the Library, he sought to correct the record and noted in pencil the initials of each essay’s author. Furthermore, Madison’s copy contains his revisions for a “new edition” published in 1818.
Because McLean’s 1788 first edition was produced while Madison was away serving in Virginia’s state ratifying convention, his essays were published in “The Federalist” exactly as they had appeared in the newspapers. For the 1818 edition, Madison finally had the opportunity to correct errors and polish his prose.
Madison blushed at being labeled “The Father of the Constitution,” acknowledging instead “the work of many heads and many hands.” Just please get right whose hands wrote what.
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Comments (2)
Dear Patrick Hastings,
Very interesting article! Appreciate it. Do you know the provenance of the other copies of that early printing.? Of course my question is how many copies survive in the Rare Book collection and if you can tell if any came in the Force Library in1867. If so it would have been there sooner than the Madison and Jefferson papers which I think came in the 20th century unless they came from the State Department library. You would think LC in 1800 would have its own copy unless it was burned in one of the 19th century files. Heaven help us if the British burned in in 1815😇. Do you already know the history of the other copies? This is a really excellent story! Thank you for it and I might get myself together to come down and take a look at he copies for my own Force curiosity.
Carolyn Sung
301-332-9935
Hi there,
Patrick responds:
Dear Carolyn,
Thank you for your question! Yes, one of the Library’s copies of the first edition of The Federalist (Copy 2, to be specific) was originally part of the Force Collection. Another copy held in the American Imprints Collection was owned by Samuel Chase, a Maryland Delegate to the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence and later served as a Supreme Court Justice. Please come visit the Rare Book Reading Room to see them in person!