Page:Essays in Historical Criticism.djvu/140

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(No. 48). The only place where any one could learn of this constitutional device of Jefferson's was in the appendix to some of the editions of his Notes. Madison had known of it for years and owned two of these editions of the Notes, A copy of Jefferson's Notes was among Hamilton's possessions, but it was the Philadelphia edition of 1788,^ which was not published until Jan. 23, 1788,2 in Philadelphia, while No. 49 of The Federalist was printed in New York, Feb. 5.

If Hamilton wrote Nos. 49-58, the decision that Madison's contributions for the present should cease with No. 48 must have been reached at least some days earlier than Feb. 5, because 49 and 50 are papers based on some research. It is, then, while not impossible, extremely unlikely that a book published in Philadelphia not earlier than Jan. 23 should have reached New York and come into Hamilton's possession soon enough for him to select from it the text for the first of a new series of papers which appeared Feb. 5. On the other hand, Madison having quoted extensively in No. 48 from the Notes, nothing would be more natural than for him to discuss Jefferson's project, thus freshly reminded of it.

In the text of this essay, p. 314,^ Jefferson's device is referred to "as a palladium to the weaker department of power against the invasion of the stronger." In No. 43, p. 275, Madison writes : " Equality of suffrage in the Senate was probably meant as a palladium to the residuary sover- eignty of the States." In 1792, he said of "the partitions and internal checks of power" that "they are neither the sole or the chief palladium of constitutional liberty; "* and in his last message he referred to the Constitution as the "palla- dium" of the American people.^ I have not noted "palla-

1 J. C. Hamilton, The Federalist, cxi. The copy was in Mr. J. C. Hamilton's possession.

2 It is first announced in the Pennsylvania Packet of Jan. 25, as " published this day." That it was not actually on the market for a few days is not unlikely, if we may judge from the practice of publishers to-day.

8 The references are to Lodge's edition.

4 Writings, IV, 473.

s In the paragraph before the last.