COMMENTARIES, 27 OCTOBER 1787

met Hamilton for the first time at the October 1787 term of the state Supreme
Court, declared that "The Author must be Hamilton who I think in Genius &
political Research is not inferior to Gibbon, Hume or Montesquieu" (to Na-
thaniel Lawrence, 21 December, below). William Constable, a New York mer-
chant and a partner of Gouverneur and Robert Morris, reported that "The
New Constitution is the Sole Object of all our attention Hamilton has written
in defence of it under the Signature of Publius" (to Marquis de Lafayette, 4
January 1788, Mfm:N.Y). General Samuel Blachley Webb, a New York City
merchant-factor and one of Hamilton's friends since the Revolution, identified
Hamilton as "Publius" and praised him as "undoubtedly one of the most
sensible men in America" (to Joseph Barrell, 13 January, below. See also Webb
to Catherine Hogeboom, 24-25 June, VI below.). Walter Rutherfurd, another
New York merchant, noted that "Madison has the principal hand in Publius
and Hamilton assists" (to John Rutherfurd, post-22 January, Mfm:N.Y.). Al-
though Brockholst Livingston drew no connection between Hamilton and The
Federalist, he declared that in Antifederalist Ulster County, "they have burnt
the Constitution accompanied with Coll. Hamilton in Effigy" (to William Liv-
ingston, 15 February, III below).
Confederation officeholders and foreign diplomats, stationed in New York
City, also speculated about the authorship of The Federalist. Confederation Sec-
retary at War Henry Knox, one of the best informed men in America, stated
that "The publication signed Publius is attributed to the joint efforts of MrJay,
Mr Maddison and Colo Hamilton It is highly probable that the general con-
jecture in this case is well founded" (to George Washington, 10 March,
CC:610). Virginia congressman Edward Carrington also named all three men
as the "supposed" authors of The Federalist (to Thomas Jefferson, 14 May,
CC:743). On the other hand, Victor Marie DuPont, attache to the French
legation, gave full credit to Hamilton whose writings he described as "excel-
lent." DuPont also asserted that "it is to him [Hamilton] that America owes
its new constitution[;] it is he who by an adroit maneuver caused the plan to
be adopted[;] and it is he who wrote every day during that time in order to
prove the necessity of a government" (to Pierre Samuel DuPont de Nemours,
7, 18 April, below). The French charge d'affaires Louis-Guillaume Otto, when
describing the members of the Confederation Congress and the officers of the
Confederation government, declared that Hamilton's "eloquence is often out
of place in public debates, where precision and clarity are preferred to a bril-
liant imagination. It is believed that Mr. Hamilton is the author of the pam-
phlet entitled The Federalist. He has again missed his mark. This work is of no
use to educated men and it is too learned and too long for the ignorant. It has,
however, made him a great celebrity. . ." (post-July, Farrand, III, 234-35).
During the New York Convention in June 1788, some Antifederalist letter
writers implied that Hamilton and "Publius" were one and the same. Conven-
tion observer Charles Tillinghast accused Hamilton of "retailing" the writings
of "Publius" in the Convention (to John Lamb, 21 June, VI below). Apparently
referring to Hamilton, Convention President George Clinton noted that most
of the Federalist arguments were "only a second Edition of Publius, well de-
livered; One of the New York Delegates [i.e., Hamilton] has in Substance tho'

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