Page "James Madison" Paragraph 21

The Constitution developed by the convention in Philadelphia had to be ratified.

This would be done by special conventions called in each state to decide that sole question of ratification.

Madison was a leader in the ratification effort.

He, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers, a series of 85 newspaper articles published in New York to explain how the proposed Constitution would work, mainly by responding to criticisms from anti-federalists.

They were also published in book form and became a virtual debater ’ s handbook for the supporters of the Constitution in the ratifying conventions.

The historian Clinton Rossiter called the Federalist Papers “ the most important work in political science that ever has been written, or is likely ever to be written, in the United States .” They were not scholarly arguments or impartial justifications for the constitution, but political polemics intended to assist the federalists in New York, which was the only state to have a coordinated anti-federalist movement.

Madison was involved in the project mainly because he was a delegate to the lame duck Confederation Congress, which was meeting in New York.