who were the authors of the federalist papers?

The authors of the Federalist Papers were Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

Core facts

• The Federalist Papers are a set of 85 essays written to support ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787–1788.

• They were originally published in New York newspapers under the shared pseudonym “Publius,” so individual names were not publicly attached at first.

• Modern scholarship and historical records agree that Hamilton, Madison, and Jay are the three recognized authors.

Who wrote how many?

• Alexander Hamilton wrote the largest share, generally credited with 51 of the 85 essays.

• James Madison is credited with 29 essays, including some of the most famous like Federalist No. 10.

• John Jay contributed 5 essays, stopping early after illness.

A note on disputed authorship

• After Hamilton’s death, a list surfaced assigning him more essays, but Madison later disputed several of these attributions.

• Statistical and stylistic analyses in the 20th century have largely confirmed the now-standard division: 51 for Hamilton, 29 for Madison, 5 for Jay, with most disputed essays reassigned to Madison.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.