Have you heard of John Jay?

John Jay, the third contributor to The Federalist Papers alongside James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, was already an older man when the papers were drafted. His illness prevented him from contributing much at all after Federalist 7. Despite this because he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, his authorship of these essays lent credibility to the work of Madison and Hamilton.

The following video is a clip from Q&A 2 of Hillsdale’s Online Course: “The Federalist Papers” featuring Professor of History Paul A. Rahe, and Director of the Dow Journalism Program, John J. Miller.

Watch the full Q&A

Transcript:

John J. Miller: Three authors: Hamilton, Madison and John Jay. John Jay drops out fairly early. He becomes ill. He doesn't participate as much as the other two. As we move on through this course we're going to be talking almost completely about the works of Hamilton and Madison. What do we need to know about John Jay? What is his legacy? What is his role in crafting these papers?

Paul A. Rahe: He's older. Madison and Hamilton are young men of the revolution. Hamilton writes his first pamphlet in New York when he's at King's College, which is to say Columbia University, when he's 17 years old. He enters the political arena at 17 with a memorable pamphlet.

James Madison is on the committee that puts together the Virginia Bill of Rights when he is 19 years old. Eleven years or so, twelve, thirteen in Hamilton's case, have passed since that time. Madison is maybe 32. Hamilton, let's see now, he'd be 32. These are relatively young men.

Jay was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He is a man who is important in New York before the revolution begins, before the whole thing starts. He will serve as governor of New York. He will play a major role in negotiating treaties. He will be on the United States Supreme Court. He's a very, very distinguished figure.

The original plan had been that Hamilton and Jay, both New Yorkers, would be writing these for the New York Press in order to persuade [00:10:00] New Yorkers to ratify the constitution. What happens is Jay becomes ill early on. He doesn't drop out completely, but his contributions after say Federalist number 6 or 7 are very few. What happens then is Hamilton recruits James Madison to step in and take up his pen and help him get through this monumental task.

John J. Miller: At the time of their writing, although they're behind the name Publius, would John Jay have been the best known of the three?