The Electoral College, Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers

Alexander Hamilton in the Uniform of
the New York Artillery by Alonzo Chappel
(Wikimedia) 

As many of you are preparing for Christmas and the holidays, political events, just like life, continue. Last Monday, the Electoral College voted to confirm President-Elect Donald Trump to become the 45th U.S. President. This should not have been a surprise as the Electoral College is ruled by mostly formal rules. Still, in recent weeks a forceful debate about the Electoral College was raging in the media, especially due to the fact that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in no uncertain numbers.

CNN columnist, Scott Piro, a few days before the Electoral College vote took place, made a case for abolishing the Electoral College in his article, "It's time for the Electoral College to fall on its sword".

After stating that "The Electoral College has contradicted the popular vote in two of the last five presidential elections, electing a Republican president in both those splits", Piro says: "This archaic safeguard (i.e. the Electoral College) from our Founding Fathers, created to stop an unfit leader from becoming president but having the modern effect of blocking the will of the people, will have proved its harmfulness to everyone. The flipping of the presidency from Trump to Clinton would be collateral damage or a big fat bonus, depending on which side of the aisle you sit."

Let's now go to the background of this socalled "archaic safeguard", to The Federalist Papers, a collection of 85 essays written in 1787 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, together using the pseudonym Publius, to promote the ratification of the United States Constitution.

Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers, who reportedly wrote the 68th essays of The Federalist Papers, titled "The Mode of Electing the President", said the following:

July Classic of the Month: The Constitution of the United States and Other Historical American Documents

As we are celebrating Fourth of July this month, Cosimo likes to present in honor of our country's independence, as our July Classic of the Month: The Constitution of the United States and Other Historical American Documents. 

Included in our Classic of the Month is The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, and The Constitution of the Confederate States, created after the attempt to secede from the Union (especially relevant with the controversial flag discussions that have been in the news recently). Together, these four documents offer a firsthand perspective on the political history of the United States.

Celebrate our founding month with the paperback, hardcover or ebook version in your hands!

August Classic of the Month: The Federalist Papers

This month, Cosimo presents The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison as our August Classic of the Month. The last serially published essay appeared in August 1788, 226 years ago this month.

The Federalist papers contains 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in support of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and began appearing in New York newspapers in the autumn of 1787. Though controversy still swirls around authorship of certain individual essays, and the impact the papers had on the public opinion of the time remains open to debate, it's clear that the dramatic impact on global civilization of these spirited defenses of the nation's founding document cannot be exaggerated. 

As masterful examinations of the fundamental principals of the U.S. system of government, they are unrivaled -- as works of political philosophy, they have moved and influenced peoples and nations around the world in their battles toward freedom and democracy. This edition also includes The Articles of Confederation of the United States, and The Declaration of Independence. 

About the Authors
Alexander Hamilton, (1757-1804), John Jay, (1745-1829), and James Madison (1751-1836) are among the most revered of America's Founding Fathers, men whose animated advocacy of the new nation continues to reverberate in political thought today.

For a complete list of American history titles published by Cosimo, please visit our website.

Cosimo is proud to offer paperback, hardcover, and eBook editions of The Federalist papers at leading online bookstores including Barnes & Noble (paperback, hardcover), and Amazon (paperback, hardcover, eBook).

Cosimo’s Classic of the Month: The Constitution of the United States of America

Cosimo's Classic of the Month comes just in time for the Fourth of July, and we're celebrating our country's founding with none other than our founding documents: The Constitution of the United States and Other Historical American Documents. 

Just in case you haven't read these all-important documents since your high school history class, you can read up before we celebrate our Independence from the British. Included is The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, and--in case you're feeling particularly historical--The Constitution of the Confederate States, created after they attempted to secede from the Union. Together, these four documents offer a firsthand perspective on the political history of the United States.

Our descriptions of the documents are as follows (just in case you want the crash course before diving in, and we really recommend that you do):

The Declaration of Independence: Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, this may be the most famous angry letter in history. Written by Thomas Jefferson and addressed to King George III of England, it lays out the grievances of the king's 13 colonies in North America, and announces that those colonies were now free of English rule. By 1783, after a long, bloody, and expensive war, that freedom became a reality.

The Articles of Confederation: Soon after independence from England was declared, the Second Continental Congress instituted this first organizing document of the new United States, which was ratified in March 1781. A compromise between those delegates who wanted a strong central government and those who demanded that the states be sovereign, its shortcomings became obvious during the war--such as the fact that the central government had no power to collect taxes or even to enforce requests for funds from the states, which led to a perpetually underfunded revolution against England.

The United States Constitution: This document replaced the Articles of Confederation on June 21, 1788. One of the most influential works of political philosophy and practicality ever written, it is the oldest national constitution still in use today, and continues to inspire freedom-loving peoples around the world. Its three-pronged system of government--balancing power among legislative, judicial, and executive branches--was groundbreaking. But it failed to address one issue, slavery, that would come to a head a century later.

The Constitution of the Confederate States: This 1861 document organized the new nation created by the seceding slave states. While quite similar in many ways to the U.S. Constitution, it includes more references to God and religion and more emphasis on state sovereignty, offers specific clauses that seek to limit the influence of big business on politics, and codifies the right to own "negro slaves."

Celebrate your Fourth in style, by knowing what your Constitution says. It's all the rage, these days.