The Federalist Papers

In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton explained that this confirmation process was a bulwark against cronyism and a safeguard of good government.

Barton, for instance, focuses mainly on falsifying evidence that the founders didn't "really" believe all that stuff about the separation of church and state they wrote directly into the Constitution and defended in the Federalist Papers.

The word “mandate” doesn’t appear in the Constitution or the Federalist Papers.

“You can find that in the Federalist Papers. You can find that in John Locke in the Second Treatise of Government … it does give you a glimpse into a world where everything’s done by the executive branch without tapping into the wisdom of the masses.”

If you have ever followed the passage of a law through a statehouse or Congress, you have seen that many different people have many different ways of understanding and interpreting the very words they are putting into legal effect; if you have ever read the Federalist Papers or even recall much of your high school American history class, you may remember that there was robust conflict and compromise over the Constitution, including serious disagreement as to what various words and ideas might actually mean.