seemed at one time to threaten that Madison's claim was to be lost by default. Hamilton's list was published in a widely read periodical in 1807, and the edition of The Federalist printed in 1810[1] gave further currency and authority to Hamilton's view by ascribing the numbers according to one of his statements. Yet not one word of denial was publicly made by Madison, or by any of his friends for him, until 1817. It has been urged in explanation that Madison's official positions prevented his entering into a controversy, but an adequate reply is furnished by the fact that through his friends the Secretary of State and President conducted several newspaper controversies in these very years.
Another point worth considering is the fact that Hamilton held by far the readier pen, and as the originator of the series undoubtedly intended to take the laboring oar. Madison was the last one of the three to join in the undertaking, and in the first thirty-six essays he wrote but two entirely by himself, the remaining three in which he bore a part having been begun as well by Hamilton. With this in mind let us consider the circumstances that mark a peculiarity in Madison's chief share in the work. At No. 37 Hamilton for the time being ceased all work, and Madison took up the task and wrote twelve consecutive essays, immediately following which come the twelve in dispute. The question naturally arises why Hamilton should suddenly transfer to Madison the continuance of the series, throwing upon him all the work, and the reason is not far to seek. No. 36 of The Federalist, or the last of Hamilton's contributions, was published on January 8. On January 15 the New York state supreme court began its winter term, and Hamilton as a busy lawyer was called upon to attend it.[2] Furthermore, on January
- ↑ One fact of interest in this edition is that it gives Hamilton as the author of No. 54, thus showing that there was a list "in his own handwriting" in existence at that time, which corrected the obvious error he made in the Benson list.
- ↑ That the courts gave Hamilton so much occupation as to force him to suspend his work on The Federalist is proved in a letter from him to Madison in April, 1788, when he wrote, "If our suspicions of the author be right he must be too much engaged to make a rapid progress in what remains. The Court of Chancery and the Circuit Court are now sitting." Turning to The Federalist we find at this very point a gap of over two months in the publication of a number.
