Federalist No. 14

Federalist No. 14 is an essay by James Madison titled "Objections to the Proposed Constitution From Extent of Territory Answered." This essay is the fourteenth of The Federalist Papers. It was published on November 30, 1787 under the pseudonym Publius, the name under which all The Federalist Papers were published. It addresses a major objection of the Anti-Federalists to the proposed United States Constitution: that the sheer size of the United States would make it impossible to govern justly as a single country. Madison touched on this issue in Federalist No. 10 and returns to it in this essay.

When the thirteen colonies separated from their motherland, Great Britain, they instated a national government under the framework outlined by the Articles of Confederation. Under this administration, the national government had very limited powers, allowing the States to function independently, as the Article reads: "each state retain[ed] its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right."

However, the Articles of Confederation did not prove to be effective, so in 1786, leaders called a meeting dubbed the Annapolis Convention to discuss the issues of the government. This meeting led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to discuss the formation of a new government and led to the writing of the United States Constitution. The Constitution proposed a stronger central government in which there would be three branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Many concerns with the proposed document were presented by the Anti-Federalists. For the Constitution to be ratified, their concerns needed to be addressed and put to rest.

Three delegates, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, recognized this hesitancy and took it upon themselves to defend and explicate the meaning and benefits of the Constitution. Together they penned 85 essays, dubbed The Federalist (later in the 20th century they became known as The Federalist Papers), all which were printed in New York newspapers under the pseudonym "Publius" addressed "To the People of the State of New York." After 85 Federalist essays and 10 months of deliberation, the Constitution was ratified on July 21, 1788.

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