Taxes could not be collected, and commerce could not be regulated.
Prop the Kings and Queens
The main purpose of The Federalist Papers was to explain the newly proposed constitution (we had a first constitution called The Articles of Confederation) to the people of New York in the hopes of encouraging them to ratify the new constitution in the upcoming ratifying convention. They cogently detailed the deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation and the need for a stronger federal government, and then explained the specific elements of the proposed constitution. The Federalist Papers consist of 85 letters written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay with all three of them writing under the pseudonym Publius. The three of them split up the subject matter, but John Jay became ill and as a result he contributed only six of the essays while Hamilton and Madison wrote the rest. How effective they were is open to debate, but in terms of the fact that they are in print to this day, and provide perhaps the most accurate presentation of the original intent of the Framers of the Constitution, shows that they did indeed resonate with the public.
