John Jay Manuscript Surfaces

John Jay may have written only five of the 85 articles in the Federalist Papers, as students of early American history — and the legions who have memorized the “Hamilton” cast album — know. But Jay was also the only one of the authors known to have kept his manuscripts, all but one of which have been studied by scholars.

Now, the long-missing manuscript for Federalist No. 2 has been located at the Brooklyn Historical Society, in time to be included in Volume 4 of the Selected Papers of John Jay, whose publication was celebrated last month at an event at Columbia University.

“This is the first time that all the manuscripts of Jay’s Federalist essays have been brought together in an edited edition,” Elizabeth M. Nuxoll, the editor of the papers, said in a phone interview.