The Federalist essays were written to sway ratification votes and fix later constitutional interpretation

Evidence

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788. A compilation of these and eight others, called The Federalist, was published in 1788 by J. and A. McLean. … The authors of the Federalist Papers wanted to both influence the vote in favor of ratification and shape future interpretations of the Constitution. — Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 47

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to the course’s judicial-interpretation material: these essays are treated as a primary source for construing the Constitution.