They are, perhaps, the most famous series of newspaper articles ever published, though their authors went unidentified for years.

Today they are called "The Federalist Papers," and they were published between October 1787 and August 1788, more than a decade after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The authors – Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison – wrote the 85 essays under the pen name Publius in an attempt to persuade the public to ratify the proposed new Constitution.

That would be Alexander Hamilton, our country’s first Treasury Secretary; John Jay, our nation’s first Supreme Court Chief Justice; and James Madison, the author of the Constitution and our country’s fourth president.

Their work is worth revisiting from time to time to gain a better appreciation for the thinking of our nation’s Founding Fathers – especially in an election year, and especially in this election year.

In observance of this Independence Day – and with credit to the National Constitution Center’s excellent website (the center is based in Philadelphia) – we offer a few highlights from The Federalist Papers that seem as relevant today as when they were penned:

"Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers." (Federalist No. 2)

"The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government." (No. 9)

"But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society." (No. 10)

"The smaller the number of individuals composing a majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens[.]" (No. 10)

"WE HAVE seen the necessity of the Union, as our bulwark against foreign danger, as the conservator of peace among ourselves, as the guardian of our commerce and other common interests, as the only substitute for those military establishments which have subverted the liberties of the Old World, and as the proper antidote for the diseases of faction, which have proved fatal to other popular governments, and of which alarming symptoms have been betrayed by our own." (No. 14)

"Whether there ought to be a federal government intrusted with the care of the common defense, is a question in the first instance, open for discussion; but the moment it is decided in the affirmative, it will follow, that that government ought to be clothed with all the powers requisite to complete execution of its trust." (No. 23)

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