Publius in the Thirty-Ninth Congress

• In Event: The Federalist and American Constitutional Development

Abstract

This paper offers an empirical investigation of the role the Federalist Papers played in antebellum legal and political discussion and in the debates of the Reconstruction Congress. Lash contends that given the wide spread acceptance of the Federalist essays as authoritative guides to constitutional meaning at the time of Reconstruction, and the widespread publication and dissemination of antebellum and Reconstruction speeches and debates citing the Federalist essays, it may be that The Federalist Papers had a greater influence on the public’s understanding of constitutional change in 1868 than they did in 1787-88.

Author

• Kurt Lash, University of Richmond