[Billthedrill]

Yes, but we're considering what his thinking was on 5 February, 1788. We have the advantage of two centuries of hindsight; he and Hamilton and the rest were still fumbling in the dark when they wrote these things. The Madison who watched Washington burn while he was President was a very different man from the one who was still struggling to convince his countrymen to ratify the Constitution.

It is a moment frozen in time, for us solidified around these seed crystals of text that were for the authors mere letters to New York papers and yet so desperately important both to themselves and to the nation that was very much yet to be born. Nothing was certain to them. To imbue them with powers of clairvoyance and hold them responsible for the outcome is, I think, a little unfair. Enough to respect them for recognizing those things of which their flickering lanterns gave them a glimpse.

[Loud Mime]

Great, thoughtful reply!

Is there any history on the three writers deciding to use the same pen name?

I would have loved to have been at the table when they talked about the idea of the Federalist writings. From the point of them realizing that they had to respond to critics, to the decisions on who wrote about what, it must have been quite the conversation(s).