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Federalist Papers

These documents are now all in Google docs and Google sheets. You may download them onto your own computer if you so wish.

There are also a series of questions referring to specific paragraphs in the Federalist Papers. The age range is from middle school and up.

Most questions are written in the 8th to 9th grade reading level. Some are higher than that. Don’t let that discourage you. Try doing what you are comfortable with or have an interest in. America’s founders were well-read and well-educated men who understood government. Sometimes every word had some political meaning or message.

America’s founders tried to set up a government that benefited the people and was not controlled by aristocrats, the wealthy few, oligarchs, a small governing faction of religious leaders or political and military despots.

Hopefully these papers and questions will help people learn how to set up a representative government that benefits the people and protects fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, press, religion, choice and conscience. Also to establish a government that protects a person’s right to spiritual freedom and democracy. It would also protect citizens right to associate with whomever they wish, to form and join unions, and to petition a government whenever any of these rights are infringed upon by any group, faction or individual.

The purpose of these questions are to help citizens learn how to get control of their governments, and to set up a representative government that works for the happiness and security of its citizens and provides for their common good and public happiness.

The questions do not cover everything, but hopefully they will get readers thinking about their governments and how citizens can set up a democratic government.

Using Google Docs and Sheets

Google sheets will not work on this website. To use it, you will need to download it to your computer. Then follow the instructions below.

Click on the Google Sheets icon. The name of the Sheet is Federalist Papers.xlsx, but it’s a sheets’ document.

Under the More menu item, click on it. To use the Filter, click on the Filter icon, which looks like a funnel. That selects the whole sheet. In row 1, in each column you will see a down arrow in a box on the right side of each cell. The Quotes column would probably be the best one to use.

Click the down arrow. Click the word, Clear.

Type is a word or words. Click Select all. Click OK.

That should bring up all the rows that have the term you typed and told it to select.

To turn off the filter, just click the filter icon.

The far left column is named, Location:¶:Lines

The line numbers were arrived at using Microsoft Word in both the Mac and PC. They were also used to keep the quotes in the order they are in the Federalist Papers. It also makes it easier to add any more quotes that may seem to have political relevance to today’s issues. Google docs doesn’t allow line numbers.

The Federalist Papers were divided up into 5 documents each having 17 Federalist Papers.

The questions about the Federalist Papers only refers to the Google docs paragraph. The questions have been asked so as to be easy to find and to locate the answer. Learning should not be so hard that it becomes painful.

Attached to the Federalist Papers in Google docs are a number of comments. Some are comments about political issues, which you may or may not agree with. Some give definitions to words that best fits the writer’s meaning. Because these documents were written in the late 1700s, the English language has changed, and some modern dictionaries don’t include the meanings intended by the writer.

You are your own classroom. If you are in school, perhaps you can discuss some of these issues in your class, or with your friends. Since this is a world-wide web site, I wouldn’t have time to reply to everybody. Sorry.

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For users who have PCs or Macs, You may download either Excel or Word or both. Excel and Word were completed with Office 365 for both the PC and Mac.

Word is a complete copy of the Federalist Papers in one document. That way, you can use Word’s Find command to search for words and phrases in all of the Federalist Papers. For more information on how to use Microsoft products and features, use the help option or contact Microsoft.

Excel is a spreadsheet with selected quotes from the Federalist Papers that seem to have political relevance to today’s issues and likely future issues.

For PC users, the Filter is under the Data tab. However, the Filter can be accessed from any tab by using the keyboard shortcut command Ctrl+Shift+L. In the right hand corner of the top row, there appears a Down Arrow button. Click the down arrow. That will open up a drop-down menu. There’s a rectangular Search box. Click in this box and type the word or phrase you’re looking for, such as, “public good.” Then either click OK or press Enter.

To clear the Filter, open the Filter icon and click on “Clear filter from ‘quotes’” That open the whole sheet back up.

The Excel sheet may have blank rows. If so, you’ve landed below the rows containing those words. You can scroll up or press Ctrl+Home, which will take you to the first row containing those words. All other rows containing the word or phrase will appear below that row. For best results in either the PC or Mac, do the Home command first, then the Filter. That way the rows should all appear at the top.

Column B, entitled Keywords, are words from the selected text in Column C. Those words are primarily there for you to latch onto a word or phrase that sticks in your mind to enable you to better remember the particular phrase or concept and which Federalist Paper it is in. Thus the words “public good” will appear as “public; good” in Column B.

You can turn the Filter off with the same keyboard shortcut command Ctrl+Shift+L. Or, click on the Data tab and click the Filter icon. Then all rows of the Excel spreadsheet will be visible.

Column A is a unique identifier for where to find the particular quote from the Word Federalist Paper document. Or, once you know what Federalist Paper you’re looking for, you can go online to any website that has the Federalist Papers and search for the word or phrase there or use the downloadable Word document version. Suit yourself.

For Mac user, the Filter is on the Icon and Text row of Excel. The Filter can be accessed by clicking on the Filter icon, or by using the keyboard shortcut command ⌘+Shift+F.

In the right hand corner of the top row, there appears a Down Arrow button. Click the down arrow. That will open up a drop-down menu. There’s a rectangular Search box. The cursor will already be in the Search box. Type the word or phrase you’re looking for, such as, “public good.” That will bring up the rows containing your search word.

For Mac users, use the Filter on your Mac version of Excel. the Excel sheet should display the cell or cells containing the word or phrase you’re looking for. If you do come up with blank rows, you’ve landed below the rows containing those words. Likely the cursor was further down on a row. You can scroll up or press ⌘+Home, or if you’re using a laptop keyboard, use ⌘+Up Arrow which will take you to the first row containing those words. All other rows containing the word or phrase will appear below that row.

For best results in either the PC or Mac, do the Home command first, then the Filter. That way the rows should all be at the top.

Play around with this Filter. That way, you will get a better feel for its features and how it can best serve you.

Also, you can use the Find command to look for any word or phrase in Excel. It doesn’t filter anything. It just takes you from cell to cell where your search criteria specifies.

Other documents will follow. For PC users, Access may be included. This presumes I will be around long enough to complete it. Currently, I’m on my 80th trip around the sun. However, if Google’s docs and Sheets do the job, then Access won’t be forthcoming.

Sorry Mac users. Access isn’t available on the Mac. Address your concerns or complaints to Microsoft. That’s why this is in Google. This way, both PC and Mac users can have access to the same files without having to use Access.