Between 1787 and 1788, a series of 85 political
articles appeared in the press of post-Revolutionary America. Many
people of that time were fearful of creating a powerful centralized
government, with all other authorities subservient to it. The
Federalist articles were intended to overcome that resistance and
persuade New Yorkers to approve the new Federal Constitution. The
core idea was that there would be a balance of powers in the new
government. This would, in essence, sidetrack any trend towards
quasi-dictatorship, however benign.
All the articles were written by advocates of strong
centralized power:
By Alexander Hamilton ( first Secretary of the
Treasury), with 5 of them by John Jay (soon to be Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court) and with contributions by James Madison (known as
the 'Father of the Constitution')
All articles were written under the pen-name of
Publius.
As history shows, anonymity has its powers.
Although inspired by it, we won't follow this model
slavishly.
In fact, we don't ever want several individuals to
write under the same name.
One pen-name per person is the rule.
The reason is that, over time, even if a contributor is
anonymous, readers will be able to recognize any unannounced but
significant changes that occur in that person's thinking.
