Category: American History

The Constitution was a brave new document in the brave old world, and it certainly got people jazzed about the future of the nation. Still, there was a bit of public relations work to do, so a group of fine upstanding chaps wrote a slew of articles, both separately and together, to support the passage of the Constitution. They were:

• Publius (somewhat of a pen name for the gang)
• (James) Madison
• (Alexander) Hamilton
• (John) Jay

Of the group, it was Hamilton who was the heavy hitter, or at least the fastest writer.

In the Gregorian calendar, the founding document written by the Founding Fathers was written in 1787. A full eleven years after Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. It makes you wonder what kind of Confederate anarchy abounded in the missing decade. Certainly the Articles of Confederacy – the loose collection of guidelines which bound the former colonies from 1777 – gave some legitimacy to the nation – allowing them to declare war, barter with Europeans and so on. But the infant country needed to stand up and toddle, and this was when the Founding Fathers grabbed onto the couch, and dragged themselves up to take those first steps.