Overview
Do you ever wonder if politicians say what they truly believe in? We generally see politicians today as persuasive orators with selfish motives to manipulate their audience to believe something that is either untruthful, or real in order to progress their own initiatives and personal wealth.
This project aims to look at common belief through a historic and analytical lens. We took a selection of Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton and examined his writing and rhetoric. We analyzed Hamilton's writing due to his prominence being the father of the Federalist Party and the known motives for writing the Federalist Papers.
Our Research Question:
How do elites such as Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers use their political opinions to appeal to those of opposing ideologies of the lower and working classes?
As the father of the Federalist Party, which opposed important opinions of the working-class, did Hamilton forgo these opinions or did he appease the masses?
This is a digital humanities project aimed to analyze the rhetoric of Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers to see if it reflected his own political ideals or appealed to the masses who opposed the British Crown.
Why Are We Analyzing Documents Almost 235 Years Old?
This time period is a immensely critical stage for American democracy. As history tells us, the Articles of Confederation, an attempt to correct the faults associated with the British Crown, were incredibly unsuccessful. They failed to maintain order and establish a federal government that had any real power, for example the inability to tax and create a military left the U.S. vulnerable to foes like Great Britain (which was a major contributor to the development of the War of 1812.
Democracy at this period of time is very fragile during the time of the publication of the Federalist Papers, much like the times we live in today. Democracy is still fragile after events such as those occurring on 01/06/2021. So, recent fragility and increasing toxicity and fragmentation among government and those identifying with political parties were huge motivators for us. In addition, scholars of this period like Thomas Paine and his legendary work, "Common Sense" is known to have been a tremendous influence on the support of the patriot cause and rebellion against the Crown. His paper, through the help of publishers in large cities such as Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, helped publish his paper and distribute it all throughout the colonies at a rapid pace.
Recent publication of "Colonial America in an Atlantic World", by T.H. Breen, says that the political ideologies of the working people consisted of the idea of an economy free from tyrannical Britain, political rights granting personal freedoms, and a government structure less intense and intruding as the one of Great Britain. So, during this time, the working class and majority of the Colonies were supportive of people's rights and individuality, and opposed the ideals of the elites like Hamilton who supported strong, centralized government with the ability to tax and wage war. It is clear that history does repeat itself. Because of this, we believed it be beneficial to analyze documents from the past so that they can help solve potential problems occurring in the future. Also, analyzing the rhetoric of elites with an intention to support opposing political ideologies is relevant, regardless of what time period it took place in.
Why We Chose The Federalist Papers:
Of all the politicians with a vast collective of speeches and writing, we chose to analyze the Federalist Papers. Why? We chose them because of their purpose: to convince the states (mainly the State of New York) to ratify the newly written Constitution. It is a corpus that was intended to persuade, inform, and say to the world that the newly established democracy was thoughtfully created and supported by the people who developed it.
More importantly, it was addressed "To the People of the State of New York:". Meaning, it was intended for the people, or was it? The majority of the general public during this time grew tired of Britain's tyrannical madness and desired a life that granted more independence, liberties, and unconstrained social/economic mobility. So, under this prevalent ideology, the Federalist Papers and their author, are a prime resource to see if Hamilton's rhetoric actually aligned with the Federalist Party's values, or if it appealed to the masses.
We also chose the Federalist Papers because "Publius", the pen name used for all 85 letters, is a latin term meaning, "the people". So, analyzing documents that are clearly posed to be written by the public when in reality written by elites is important to see whether the documents and writing is truthful and accurate of individual political ideologies. It also raises the question: Did Hamilton write the Federalist Papers abiding by his personal political motives aligning with the Federalist Party? Or was his writing altered to appease the masses? We wanted to explore this by analyzing his writing.
Why We Chose Alexander Hamilton:
Out of the three authors of the Federalist Papers, we chose Alexander Hamilton. Why? We have three important reasons. First, he was the main contributor to the Papers and their publication. Out of all 85 Federalist Papers, he wrote 51, with James Madison writing 29, and John Jay writing 5. Second, he was known to be the father and creator of the Federalist Party, the first established political party in US history. So, his political ideology would be the closest to that party's beliefs, which would be useful when considering our research question. Third, much of the letters written by him were very dense and were centered around important features of the newly created government. Some of these features were: The Judiciary, Executive, and Legislative branches, the Bill of Rights, the Military, and the powers of Taxation.
In addition to this, we wanted to choose a historical figure that has had posthumous fame, especially in recent years. With the sensational broadway play "Hamilton", along with the biography it was based on by Ron Chernow, also named "Hamilton", what better figure to choose than a modern icon that millions of people have heard of and learned about his story and political career. We thought it best to dive deeper into what he said using a specific corpus of documents. With that, the Federalist Papers were clearly the most popular, accessible, and focused corpus of documents that he wrote in his career.