Category: The Colonial Period

When Benjamin Franklin wasn’t being labeled “The First American” by short-sighted people in the 1700s who were forgetting about the thousands of Americans who were happily living here before they brought their sneezes and wheezes from cramped salty ships, he was busy being a polymath – getting things done and inventing things like the the carriage odometer. He was known for many things, and for the purposes of the immigration test, it’s fair to say that he was a diplomat.

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.