In the tenth Federalist essay, James Madison answered critics who feared the people would have too much power by boldly asserting that under the new constitution “We are a republic not a democracy.” The Federalists Papers were a series of eighty-five newspaper essays written in defense of the Constitution by Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804). This collected volume was once owned by Hamilton’s wife, Elizabeth Schuyler, whose sister gave it to Thomas Jefferson. He attempted to determine the authorship of each essay.