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Fame and The Federalist
Since its appearance in 1788 down to the present day, no praise has been too high, no tribute too exalted for The Federalist Papers. While written in the heat of the debate over ratifying the Constitution, the collection of eighty-five essays penned by "Publius" was almost instantly recognized as a work of great, even unprecedented merit. Thomas Jefferson, who was not uncritical of the handiwork of the Framers, nevertheless considered The Federalist "the best commentary on the principles of government which was ever written."1 George Washington, who had presided at the Federal Convention, correctly predicted that The Federalist would 11 merit the notice of Posterity."2 Even before the series of papers was completed and published as a single work, its pseudonymous author was praised as a "judicious and ingenious writer," whose "greatness is acknowledged universally," and who "in genius and political research, is not inferior to Gibbon, Hume, [or] Montesquieu."3
Following ratification and the formation of the new government under the Constitution, the reputation of The Federalist steadily spread. The work also grew in stature and authority when it was publicly revealed in the 1790s that the essays were the joint product of three men who had played key roles in the drafting and/or ratification of the Constitution: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Within a decade of its publication, The Federalist was being cited by Supreme Court justices to add weight and authority to their opinions. In Calder v. Bull (1798), Justice Samuel Chase appealed to Publius on the issue of ex post facto laws, an author he "esteem[ed] superior" even to Blackstone "for his extensive and accurate knowledge of the true principles of Government." Chief Justice John Marshall, in the celebrated case of Madison v. Marbury (1803), defended the Court's authority to overturn "unconstitutional" acts of Congress using arguments and language drawn from Federalist No. 78. Thus did the vital principle of "judicial review" (only implicit in the Constitution) enter into constitutional orthodoxy. In subsequent cases, Marshall affirmed that "[t]he opinion of the Federalist has always been considered of great authority," and that "[n]o tribute can be paid to [the papers] which exceeds their merit."4
James Kent, Chancellor of New York and second only to Joseph Story...