The Federalist Papers
The high demand for the essays led to their publication in a more permanent form. On January 1, 1788, the New York publishing firm J. & A. McLean announced that they would publish the first thirty-six essays as a bound volume; that volume was released on March 22, 1788, and was titled "The Federalist" Volume 1. New essays continued to appear in the newspapers; Federalist No. 77 was the last number to appear first in that form, on April 2. A second bound volume containing "Federalist" 37–77 and the yet to be published "Federalist" 78–85 was released on May 28. The last eight papers ("Federalist" 78–85) were republished in the New York newspapers between June 14 and August 16, 1788.
James Madison
The Philadelphia Convention ended in September 1787, and the United States Constitution was presented to each state for ratification. Each state was requested to hold a special convention to deliberate and determine whether or not to ratify the Constitution. Madison returned to New York, where the Confederation Congress was in session. He convinced his fellow Congressman to allow each state vote upon the Constitution as formulated by the Philadelphia Convention, and remain neutral in the ratification debate. While in New York, Madison was approached by Alexander Hamilton, who asked him to help write "The Federalist Papers", a series of 85 newspaper articles published in New York that explained and defended the proposed Constitution. Under the pseudonym "Publius", Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay wrote 85 essays in the span of six months, with Madison writing 29 of the essays. The articles were also published in book form and became a virtual debater's handbook for the supporters of the Constitution in the ratifying conventions. Historian Clinton Rossiter called "The Federalist Papers" "the most important work in political science that ever has been written, or is likely ever to be written, in the United States." Federalist No. 10, Madison's first contribution to "The Federalist Papers", became highly regarded in the 20th century for its advocacy of representative democracy.