No. 31.
2. Sec. 8, Art. 1.
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FEDERALIST No. 83
The Judiciary Continued in Relation to Trial by Jury
From MCLEAN's Edition, New York.
Wednesday, May 28, 1788
HAMILTON
To the People of the State of New York:
THE objection to the plan of the convention, which has met with most
success in this State, and perhaps in several of the other States, is
that relative to the want of a constitutional provision for the trial by
jury in civil cases. The disingenuous form in which this objection is
usually stated has been repeatedly adverted to and exposed, but
continues to be pursued in all the conversations and writings of the
opponents of the plan. The mere silence of the Constitution in regard to
civil causes, is represented as an abolition of the trial by jury, and
the declamations to which it has afforded a pretext are artfully
calculated to induce a persuasion that this pretended abolition is
complete and universal, extending not only to every species of civil,
but even to criminal causes. To argue with respect to the latter would,
however, be as vain and fruitless as to attempt the serious proof of the
existence of matter, or to demonstrate any of those propositions which,
by their own internal evidence, force conviction, when expressed in
language adapted to convey their meaning.
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