''Federalist No. 84'' is a political

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

by American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, the eighty-fourth and penultimate essay in a series known as ''

The Federalist Papers ''The Federalist Papers'' is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The c ...

''. It was published July 16, July 26, and August 9, 1788, under the pseudonym Publius, the name under which all ''The Federalist Papers'' were published. The official title of the work is "Certain General and Miscellaneous Objections to the Constitution Considered and Answered". ''Federalist 84'' is best known for its opposition to a

Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pr ...

, a viewpoint with which the work's other author,

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

, disagreed. Madison's position eventually won out in Congress, and a Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791.

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''Federalist No. 84'' is notable for presenting the idea that a

was not a necessary component of the proposed United States Constitution. The constitution, as originally written, is to specifically enumerate and protect the rights of the people. It is alleged that many Americans at the time opposed the inclusion of a bill of rights: if such a bill were created, they feared, this might later be interpreted as a list of the ''only'' rights that people had. Hamilton wrote: Hamilton continued in this essay on defending the notion that a bill of rights is unnecessary for the constitution when he stated, "There remains but one other view of this matter to conclude the point. The truth is, after all the declamation we have heard, that the constitution is itself in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS. The several bills of rights, in Great-Britain, form its constitution, and conversely, the constitution of each state is its bill of rights. And the proposed constitution, if adopted, will be the bill of rights of the union." Ultimately, Hamilton's argument is that a bill of rights should not be added to the constitution because the entire constitution is in itself a bill of rights. Hamilton believed that the entire document, U.S. Constitution, should set limits and checks and balances on the government so that no individual's rights will be infringed upon.

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External links

Text of The Federalist No. 84
congress.gov {{Portal bar, History, United States, Politics, Law 1788 in law 1788 in the United States 1788 essays 84

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