Do we know whether Hamilton's Federalist papers were ever edited or vetted?

Question

After reading through The Federalist Papers, I've come to the general conclusion that Hamilton's essays are, by and large, a stream of consciousness. I don't know if I'd be able to say exactly why, but after running the Papers through a word counter, it turns out that the average sentence length is around 30 to 40 words. The longest sentence in the Papers is actually 200 words:

The recommendatory act of Congress is in the words following: “WHEREAS, There is provision in the articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, for making alterations therein, by the assent of a Congress of the United States, and of the legislatures of the several States; and whereas experience hath evinced, that there are defects in the present Confederation; as a mean to remedy which, several of the States, and PARTICULARLY THE STATE OF NEW YORK, by express instructions to their delegates in Congress, have suggested a convention for the purposes expressed in the following resolution; and such convention appearing to be the most probable mean of establishing in these States A FIRM NATIONAL GOVERNMENT: “Resolved, That in the opinion of Congress it is expedient, that on the second Monday of May next a convention of delegates, who shall have been appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose OF REVISING THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such ALTERATIONS AND PROVISIONS THEREIN, as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the federal Constitution ADEQUATE TO THE EXIGENCIES OF GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION.

You don't have to read that. You probably shouldn't, honestly.

But this is by far not the only example of this sort of stream-of-consciousness meandering excess in the Papers. I know Hamilton was operating on a short time-scale when writing, drafting, revising, submitting, and printing these essays. But this smacks of a disregard for any sort of editing process.

This sort of leads me to wonder: were the Federalist Papers ever edited in a thorough and rigorous way? If so, by whom? And if so, what on earth were they checking for, and what changes did they make (if we know)?

I'm more interested in whether there is evidence that they were vetted by a third party, but if there's information on Hamilton's approach to self-editing that could be relevant, I'd count that, too.

Answer 1

One important thing to consider about the Federalist Papers is that they were republished. While they originally appeared in newspapers over the course of about one year (October 1787 - August 1788), they were later repackaged as a book, The Federalist, which was released later in 1788. An overview from the Boston University Law Review explains that Hamilton and Madison edited the essays prior to this second publication by John and Archibald M’Lean (the name is sometimes given as McLean; variants differ). There were a few major changes:

• Hamilton reordered the essays, including moving No. 35 to the 29th spot and splitting No. 31 into two separate essays.
• Hamilton and Madison (though mostly Hamilton) edited parts of the essays themselves, presumably for readability.
• Hamilton added a short preface, which explained both the purpose of the essays and why they were originally written and published so quickly.

Therefore, there is often a lot of textual confusion, although the McLean addition is, according to the overview's author, more commonly used.

The National Archives website explains other early editions, including two editions in French and two more in English. The first of these two additional English additions used the exact same text as the McLean version, while the second, by George F. Hopkins, contained more revisions. The extent and nature of those edits is not well-known, although it appears that a lawyer named John Wells made them and Hamilton approved them. There is still much uncertainty surrounding this, however, as Hopkins was never fully open about the edits' origin. Another edition by a different publisher was released in 1818 through consent and edits by Madison.

The McLean edition is generally considered to be definitive, partly because the McLeans published The Independent Journal, one of the two newspapers that original published the Papers. While there was some revision of the essays here, including the correction of printing errors and typographical errors, no substantial changes were made from the serials. There is no information about whether the McLeans made any edits before publishing the papers in The Independent Journal (or whether the other newspaper, The New York Packet, did likewise), but it seems that Hamilton would have wanted to be consulted on the matter. As all three men were quite busy, then, it seems that any changes were made prior to submission to the newspapers.