Hello and welcome to a history of the United States, episode 162, ratification. Last time out, we've got to the history of the United States, Episode 162, Ratification.

Last time out, we concluded the Constitutional Convention.

The delegates spent nearly four months in Philadelphia over the summer of 1787 and had produced a new blueprint for the government of the United States. However, this convention

only had 55 delegates and only 39 of them had signed the document. They couldn't decide for themselves

to replace the Articles of Confederation and create a whole new government. They needed to convince everybody else. The new constitution

would need to be ratified by two-thirds of the 13th states, meaning that nine would need to agree to it

for it to take effect. Washington wrote to Congress, which received his letter on September 20th.

Congress was generally favourable of the Constitution. Many of its members had attended the Constitutional Convention, but they were cautious about how to approach ratification.

They decided to simply pass on the Constitution to the states

for their consideration without recommendation. Almost immediately, various defenders and opponents

of the Constitution started waging a pamphlet war. The two sides were known as the Federalists,

who supported sovereignty being divided between the states and central government and the anti-federalists.

The Federalists managed to take that name for themselves almost as soon as the convention finished,

leaving opponents of the Constitution to take the much less useful anti-federalist title. Some of these authors use

their own names. Some used pseudonyms, including Sentinel, Landholder, Roderic Razor, Cato,

Fabius, and the most famous of them all, Publius.

Between October 1787 and August 1788, Publius published 85 entries, collectively known as the Federalist Papers.

They were written by John Jay, who wrote 5, James Madison, who wrote 29, and then Alexander Hamilton wrote the other 51.

The Federalist Papers are considered a classic of political thought, and are a great insight into the way that Hamilton and Madison intended to the Constitution to work.

They would also serve as weapons of persuasion for the Federalists to use across the nation.

Both Washington and Jefferson, who knew the identity of Publius at the time, praised the work.

The work of these papers was influential, but it would be speeches and actions that would arguably have the greater role in driving events over the next year.

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