The Federalist Papers are eighty-five essays written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, using the pseudonym Publius. Seventy-seven essays were published in newspapers starting Saturday, October 27, 1787, with an introduction written by Hamilton, and ending on April 2, 1788, with an article on the executive branch's powers. Six essays written by Hamilton, and published later, addressed the nature and authority of the judiciary branch. They were followed by his two closing articles published in August of that year. In August 1787, the Confederation Congress (of the individual states) sent the Constitution to their state legislatures for ratification. The Constitution was envisioned as a union of states formed around a set of protocols that defined and authorized, with limitations, the power of the federal government.The essays were an effort on the anonymous authors' part to address critiques put forward by those opposed to the resulting limitation of the states' rights and the rights of their citizens. In doing so, the authors wrote one of the cornerstones of democracy.