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The Federalist Papers, By Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, And John Jay

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The Federalist Papers were a series of eighty-five articles in 1787-88 written mostly in part to persuade the colonies to ratify the United States Constitution. The papers were written anonymously by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym “Publius” and addressed major concerns that the colonists expressed about the Constitution. One of their major concerns was the proposed bicameral legislature’s ability to cooperate. The Constitution established a two-part Congress, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Colonists worried that the two parts of Congress would threaten their equal representation. James Madison answered these fears in the first of two essays explaining the intricacies of the Senate in Federalist Paper 62. Within this paper he listed four out of five key points of the Senate and explained in detail how useful this part of Congress would be, hoping to turn the doubting minds of the colonists around in agreement to this part of the Constitution. The first point he explains are the qualifications of the senators. Senators require “a more advanced age and a longer period of citizenship” than the representatives in the House. Senators must be of at least thirty years of age and have been a United States citizen for nine years, whereas House representatives must be only twenty-five and have been a citizen for seven years. This is so that the senators are well-versed in the manner of the government and its policies,

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