The Federalist Papers (also known simply as The Federalist) is a collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in 1787 and 1788. The papers were published under the pen name "Publius". The goal of the authors was to urge the people of the state of New York to ratify the proposed United States Constitution. Historian Richard B. Morris has described The Federalist Papers as an "incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer." Due to the uneven publishing history of the documents, the authorship of each essay, the numbering, and the wording differ between different editions of The Federalist Papers. This edition attempts to provide the consensus arrangement.