Editing The Federalist Papers (section)

===Influence on the ratification debates===
''The Federalist Papers'' were written to support the ratification of the Constitution, specifically in [[New York (state)|New York]]. Whether they succeeded in this mission is questionable. Separate ratification proceedings took place in each state, and the essays were not reliably reprinted outside of New York; furthermore, by the time the series was well underway, a number of important states had already ratified it, for instance Pennsylvania on December 12. New York held out until July 26; certainly ''The Federalist'' was more important there than anywhere else, but Furtwangler argues that it "could hardly rival other major forces in the ratification contests"—specifically, these forces included the personal influence of well-known Federalists, for instance Hamilton and Jay, and [[Anti-Federalism|Anti-Federalists]], including Governor [[George Clinton (vice president)|George Clinton]].<ref name="Furt21">Furtwangler, [{{Google Books URL|id=mfWGAAAAMAAJ|p=21}} p. 21].</ref> Further, by the time New York came to a vote, ten states had already ratified the Constitution and it had thus already passed—only nine states had to ratify it for the new government to be established among them; the ratification by Virginia, the tenth state, placed pressure on New York to ratify. In light of that, Furtwangler observes, "New York's refusal would make that state an odd outsider."<ref>Furtwangler, [{{Google Books URL|id=mfWGAAAAMAAJ|p=22}} p. 22].</ref>

Only 19 Federalists were elected to New York's ratification convention, compared to the Anti-Federalists' 46 delegates. While New York did indeed ratify the Constitution on July 26, the lack of public support for pro-Constitution Federalists has led historian John Kaminski to suggest that the impact of ''The Federalist'' on New York citizens was "negligible".<ref>{{cite web|last=Coenen|first=Dan|title=Fifteen Curious Facts about The Federalist Papers|url=http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=fac_pm|publisher=Media Commons|access-date=2012-12-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115083653/http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=fac_pm|archive-date=2013-01-15|url-status=live}}</ref>

As for Virginia, which ratified the Constitution only at its [[Virginia Ratifying Convention|convention]] on June 25, Hamilton writes in a letter to Madison that the collected edition of ''The Federalist'' had been sent to Virginia; Furtwangler presumes that it was to act as a "debater's handbook for the convention there", though he claims that this indirect influence would be a "dubious distinction".<ref>Furtwangler, [{{Google Books URL|id=mfWGAAAAMAAJ|p=23}} p. 23].</ref> Probably of greater importance to the Virginia debate, in any case, were George Washington's support for the proposed Constitution and the presence of Madison and [[Edmund Randolph]], the governor, at the convention arguing for ratification.