I have been thinking about The Federalist Papers, the historic collection of eighty-five essays penned and published by three of our nation’s founders—Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay—between October 1787 and April 1788.

I must confess that although I have read a few of them, I have not read all of them. And the reason I have not, honestly, is because they are not easy to read. Getting through just one of them requires a great deal of concentration and focus. Here’s a short sample from The Federalist No. 10 by Madison:

“… As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests …”

Did you follow that? Me neither.

You may be asking yourself what any of this has to do with “eye gates” and “ear gates.” In Part I, I decried the decline of the written word and the rise of communication by visual imagery in our day and time. I lamented upon the dangerous path down which our nation is traveling, the treacherous trail of substituting pictures for words.

Do you know what The Federalist Papers are? In case you forgot, allow me to refresh your memory.

After our nation won its independence from Great Britain in 1783, some of our nation’s founders expressed concern about the strength of our Articles of Confederation, the document which bound the thirteen original states together during the American Revolution—the document which preceded the U.S. Constitution. The Continental Congress met in May of 1787 for the purpose of strengthening the Articles of Confederation. Instead, they came up with a whole new form of government—the U.S. Constitution.

Many throughout the states voiced alarm. “This is not the reason we sent you to Congress,” they cried. So, in order to persuade the general populace of the superiority of this new and improved system of government, Alexander Hamilton wrote Federalist No. 1. Three New York papers published it. Soon, James Madison and John Jay joined Hamilton, and together they wrote eighty-five expositions on the new constitution.

The trio’s articles found readers in newspapers up and down the Atlantic seaboard. Everyday people, just like you and me, carved time out of their busy day to read them. As they pondered and considered upon the writers' words, they grew to embrace their arguments for a new system of government. State legislators also became persuaded that this new constitution was indeed worth supporting. In brief, that is the story of how our nation got its constitution.

Our forebears' “ear gates” were active and healthy. They read the written word, heard its message, understood its meaning, weighed the new ideas against the old, and chose wisely.

Could we everyday Americans do the same today?