The Forgotten Federalist Paper Every American Should Read

As America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it’s worth remembering just how improbable our nation’s birth really was.

In 1776, Great Britain was the most powerful military force on Earth. The British Crown looked across the Atlantic and saw thirteen colonies populated by subjects of the king. The American patriots looked back and essentially replied, “Not anymore.”

What followed was one of the greatest underdog victories in history. Against overwhelming odds, a collection of farmers, merchants, craftsmen, and citizen-soldiers defeated the most powerful empire of the age and secured their independence.

The Constitution would come later. Most people reading this article are probably more familiar with the Constitution than the average American. If you follow my writing or watch my YouTube channel, you’ve likely heard me discuss it many times. But if you truly want to understand how America was designed to function, there is another set of documents you should read alongside the Constitution itself: The Federalist Papers.

The Constitution tells us what the structure of government is supposed to be. The Federalist Papers explain why the Founders designed it that way.

Written between 1787 and 1788, the Federalist Papers were a series of essays defending the proposed Constitution and encouraging the states to ratify it. In many respects, they provide a window directly into the minds of the men who helped create our system of government.

The collection contains eighty-five essays. Alexander Hamilton wrote fifty-one of them. James Madison is generally credited with twenty-nine. John Jay contributed five. All three men published their essays anonymously under the pen name “Publius” in New York newspapers, including the Independent Journal, the New York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser.

More than two centuries later, the Federalist Papers remain one of the most important sources for understanding the Constitution. They explain not only how the system was intended to operate, but also why the Founders believed each part of it was necessary. Together, they provide a roadmap to understanding one of the most successful governing documents in human history.

The Federalist Papers begin by addressing a problem many Americans today know little about: the failure of the nation’s first governing framework, the Articles of Confederation. Before the Constitution, the United States operated under a system that left most authority in the hands of the states and gave the national government very little power. The Founders concluded that the arrangement was inadequate and set out to replace it with the Constitution, a document that continues to govern the nation nearly 240 years later.

There was an argument made that the whole reason for writing the Federalist Papers was to convince the state of New York to join the union. And if you think it’s ironic that New York would be the big holdout for signing on to the Constitution, you’ll get a bigger kick out of the fact that the governor at that time’s last name was Clinton. Leave it to a Clinton to be against the Constitution.

I am talking about Federalist 45, which was written by James Madison, who scholars refer to as the “Father of the Constitution”. I’m not going to talk about the entire B of the 45th, but the particular part where Madison defines the powers of the federal government versus the power of the states. And make no mistake about it, what he describes in Federalist 45 is the sentiment that was written in the Constitution.

Under the Articles of Confederation, the states functioned much like independent nation-states. In many ways, they still retain significant sovereign powers today. Because each state could establish its own laws governing commerce, citizenship, and other matters, conflicts between states were common and often led to legal disputes. In some cases, disagreements could even have escalated into armed conflict.

For example, New Jersey could have passed laws allowing only New Jersey-based businesses to operate within its borders. Such restrictions would have placed Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and other neighboring states at a severe disadvantage, creating economic tensions and interstate disputes.

The Founders recognized that allowing each state to act as a fully independent nation created constant friction and instability. To solve that problem, they established a federal government as a neutral third party to handle matters that affected the nation as a whole. Instead of leaving issues of nationhood to fifty separate states with competing interests, the Constitution assigned those responsibilities to the federal government.

The purpose of the federal government was to manage national concerns such as foreign policy, interstate commerce, national defense, treaties, immigration, and relations between the states. By centralizing these functions, the Founders sought to reduce conflicts among the states and create a more unified and stable nation. In short, the federal government was created to handle issues of nationhood, while the states retained authority over matters that were primarily local in nature.

Here is what Madison wrote, among other things, in Federalist 45, about the powers of government under the proposed Constitution:

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security. As the former periods will probably bear a small proportion to the latter, the State governments will here enjoy another advantage over the federal government. The more adequate, indeed, the federal powers may be rendered to the national defense, the less frequent will be those scenes of danger which might favor their ascendancy over the governments of the particular States.”

Notice how Madison states that the powers delegated to the federal government are “few and defined,” while those reserved to the states are “numerous and indefinite.” He even provides examples of what he means.

Madison writes that “The former will be exercised principally on external objects,” meaning that the federal government’s primary role would be to address matters affecting the nation as a whole rather than the internal affairs of the states. He then identifies examples of these external objects, including “war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce.”

These are all issues of nationhood. The Founders did not want individual states to make separate decisions about war, conduct their own foreign policy, negotiate with foreign powers, or create conflicting rules for international trade. Such a system would have invited endless disputes among the states and weakened the nation as a whole. By assigning these responsibilities to the federal government, the Constitution created a neutral authority to handle matters that affected the entire country, while leaving the vast majority of domestic and local concerns in the hands of the states.

Madison goes on to describe the powers reserved to the states as encompassing “all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.” That means everything not specifically enumerated (that means numbered for those of you who claim to be liberals) in the Constitution, which are today known as the Enumerated Powers, found in Article I, Section 8.

Think about what that means. Madison is drawing a clear line between matters of nationhood and matters of everyday life. The federal government was given a limited list of specific powers. Everything else was left to the states.

In other words, if a power was not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, it remained with the states and the people. And that includes even powers that were not yet thought of. That’s the entire premise of a government with limited and defined powers.

Madison’s examples of state authority are remarkably broad. The states would oversee the lives, liberties, and properties of their citizens. They would maintain internal order. They would pursue the improvement and prosperity of their own communities. Those are not narrow categories. They encompass virtually every aspect of domestic governance.

The federal government would handle issues of nationhood. The states would handle everything else.

And before someone objects to the word “enumerated,” all it means is specifically listed or numbered. If a power is not listed among the powers granted to the federal government, the presumption under Madison’s framework is that it belongs to the states or the people.

The 10th Amendment appears at the bottom of the Bill of Rights. It states the following:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The 10th Amendment serves as a powerful reminder that the federal government was never intended to possess unlimited authority. Under the Constitution, Washington’s powers are limited to those specifically delegated to it, primarily through the Enumerated Powers found in Article I, Section 8, along with any additional powers granted through the constitutional amendment process and ratified by the states.

The fact that many politicians and bureaucrats have strayed from these constitutional limits does not erase the Constitution itself. The document remains the supreme law of the land, whether government officials choose to respect its boundaries or not. And most of them today do not. Today, we have many Democrats who no longer believe in the Constitution if they ever did.

So the next time someone demands that the federal government solve a problem, create a new program, or regulate some aspect of American life, ask a simple question: Where in the Constitution is that power granted? More specifically, can it be found among the Enumerated Powers, or was it added through a constitutional amendment?

You may get a puzzled look in return. In today’s political climate, many Americans have never been taught to think about government power in constitutional terms. But you’ll know you’re asking the same question Madison, Hamilton, and the other Founders expected every citizen to ask: Does the Constitution actually authorize it?