By Marilyn Odendahl for The Indiana Citizen.
Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the Indiana Citizen-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration.

The basement of the Indiana Supreme Court Law Library is home to papers of former justices, renovation records and other things that tell the story of the state's judicial system, but while inventorying all the different materials and mementoes in the subterranean space, Cathrin Verano, special collections development librarian, found an unexpected treasure.

Packaged in a cardboard box with a handwritten yellow Post-it attached to the lid that said "library may want to display" was a framed copy of a single page from a 1788 printed copy of the Federalist Papers. The page was taken from the second of a two-volume set containing all 85 essays written by founding fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay to promote ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

The box was nestled among the materials from retired Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard's office.

"It was well-packed, well-stored and well-taken care of," Verano said of the printed artifact of American history. "It just hadn't quite made its way up to the library yet."

About the size of a human hand, the page is suspended between two pieces of glass so the black printed text on both sides of the paper can be read. The glass has been mounted into a wood frame so the single sheet can be displayed on a tabletop or bookshelf.

How the framed Federalist Papers page ended up at the law library remains a mystery. Nevertheless, Shepard thinks the excerpt from the essays that push the citizens of the New World to achieve higher aspirations fits the values the Hoosier state espoused in its early days. In particular, Shepard noted "the ink was hardly dry on the Indiana statehood documents" when the state Supreme Court issued two opinions in the 1820s prohibiting slavery.

"I think there are topics where Indiana law was very progressive for the period, including the abolition of slavery, where Indiana's record was sterling, much better and different than either Ohio or Illinois," Shepard said. "It was a state where interests in law and progression were something that people engaged in."

Written in haste under a pseudonym

When she first opened the box, Verano recognized the framed document as a Federalist Paper but knew none of the details. Only after exercising her librarian research skills, honed by her studies in Europe and her work at the Lilly Library, was she able to trace the origin of the page to Federalist Paper No. 65, printed 236 years ago.

"Much like the rest of our rare books collection, it's going to be used in display and in education as much as we can," Verano said, noting she most recently included it as a highlight in her presentation during the Indiana Judicial Conference in September. "We hope to use it for display, outreach and education, the things that we're really trying to prioritize in the library."

Hamilton, Madison and Jay wrote the essays that became known as the Federalist Papers between the fall of 1787 and the spring of 1788. Initially, the columns were primarily printed in New York City newspapers since the authors were trying to convince New Yorkers to ratify the new Constitution that had been drafted earlier in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

None of the authors collaborated or discussed with each other the essays they wrote, legal scholar Gregory Maggs wrote in his article, "A Concise Guide to the Federalist Papers as a Source of the Original Meaning of the United States Constitution," which was published in the October 2007 issue of the Boston University Law Review. Indeed, Madison explained later that most of the essays were dashed off "in great haste and without any special allotment of the different parts of the subject to the several writers." Also the individual authors did not put their own bylines on any of the written works, opting instead to use the pseudonym of "PUBLIUS."

Hamilton got the idea to reprint the essays in a two-volume set. Brothers John and Archibald McLean, immigrants from Scotland who owned and operated the printing company J. & A. McLean in New York, published the first volume in March 1788 and the second volume in May 1788.

The McLeans printed 500 copies of their two-volume collection. Although today scholars and historians refer to the twin volumes as "the McLean edition" and consider it an invaluable original source, Americans in 1788 were seemingly indifferent. The publishers were complaining in October 1788 about the "several hundred unsold copies" they still had in stock, according to Maggs.

Time has significantly increased not only the appreciation of the books but also their worth. A first edition of the McLean second volume, just like the one from which Indiana's page was taken, was sold at auction in 2023. The selling price for the complete book was $27,500.

The excerpt in the law library came from volume two of the McLean edition. It is a portion of Federalist Paper No. 65, which historians have determined was written by Hamilton, explaining why the U.S. Senate is a better forum than the U.S. Supreme Court for impeachment proceedings.

"But juries are frequently influenced by the opinions of Judges," the excerpt in the law library opines. "They are sometimes induced to find special verdicts which refer the main question to the decision of the court. Who would be willing to stake his life and his estate upon the verdict of a jury, acting under the auspices of Judges, who had predetermined his guilt?"

Because the authors were racing against New York State's impending ratification convention to get their pro-Constitution message out to the public, the essays are not examples of perfected prose. Rather, Maggs noted, they are littered with "errors and repetitive discussions."

Leaning close to the framed page, Verano pointed to a sentence near the bottom. There the word "would" has been used in place of the original "could" that appeared in the newspaper version of the 65^th Federalist Paper. Verano was hesitant to speculate on the reason behind the word substitution.

"I don't want to characterize McLean's intentions," Verano said, noting the different words could have been the result of some editorializing, a revision Hamilton made, or a misreading of the handwritten text.

Maybe it was "just some oversight as the typesetter was putting letter there," Verano continued. "I've done some typesetting, it'd be easy enough to grab the wrong letter and put it in."

Grant leads to major discovery

Indiana's lone page from a multi-volume work is a common sales technique of published materials, Verano said. Taking a book apart and selling the single pages will enable a modern-day bookseller to sell 300 separate things as opposed to just selling one book.

However, Verano said the single page pairs nicely with the law library's copy of Swift-Folwell Statutes, which bear the print date as 1796. The volumes include the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Treaty of Paris and all the laws passed by the first through fourth Congresses. Of the 4,500 copies printed, 500 were distributed to Congress and the remainder were sent to the states and territories.

The Swift-Folwell Statutes is just one of the centuries-old tomes in the law library's collection of more than 200 rare books. With the help of a $4,500 Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded in 2023, the law library was able to bring in a rare-book conservator who evaluated the collection and made recommendations for repairing and protecting the books.

Verano credits the grant with sending her into the basement. She was downstairs looking through the remnants, heirlooms and gems of Indiana Supreme Court history that could be protected and preserved in the archival boxes and folders provided by the grant when she saw the box with the Post-it attached.

"I was very excited," Verano said. "That was, I would say, probably one of the major discoveries that came out of the grant work. I'm sure eventually I would have gone down there and found it, but it was definitely the archival part of the grant work that motivated me to go down in that instance."


Marilyn Odendahl wrote this article for The Indiana Citizen.


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The Ohio Democratic Party is ramping up to get more people thinking about running for statewide offices.

The goal is to boost representation in upcoming elections because Democrats have noted too often, Republican candidates in Ohio run unopposed. The recruitment program is part of a national campaign led by the group Contest Every Race.

Katie Seewer, press secretary for the Ohio Democratic Party, pointed out Ohio has thousands of local offices on the ballot. She said they have identified suburbs of major cities and rural areas as ideal spots for future contenders.

"Once they're interested, we connect them with our county parties. We can get resources there," Seewer explained. "Then, we also provide training and teach folks how to get on the ballot, how to raise money, all that stuff that you need to know to run a campaign."

The recruitment program includes text messaging infrastructure, coaching calls and meetings to organize and mobilize. Seewer argued finding candidates in every Ohio county who reflect their local communities is key to widespread voter representation. She added more than 200 people have reached out so far to express an interest since recruitment efforts began.

Just under 72% of Ohio's registered voters cast their ballot in last year's presidential election. The outcome was not what Democrats had hoped for, although Vice President Kamala Harris' short but impactful presidential campaign has inspired more women to consider running for office nationwide.

Seewer emphasized the recruitment efforts are open to anyone passionate about making change in their communities but acknowledged some women may need a nudge.

"When we do these kinds of efforts to directly recruit folks, there are studies out there that show women need to be directly asked, where guys just think, 'Hey, I could do that,'" Seewer stressed. "When we're directly asking folks, it's definitely going to lead to more women in politics and running in these races."

The recruitment program is casting a wide net for candidates to fill more than 6,000 offices, including village and city council members, school board members and other local positions. The deadline to file for the next election is Feb. 5.


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With just a few days before President Joe Biden leaves office, more than 140 nonprofits are urging him to act on the Equal Rights Amendment. Passed by Congress in 1972 and ratified by 38 states by 2020, the ERA ensures constitutional gender equality.

Amy Widestrom, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, said it prohibits discrimination based on sex, empowers Congress to enforce it, and takes effect two years after ratification.

"What we're really advocating for is that because we've reached the three-quarters threshold of the states, that the archivist published the amendment. It's met the constitutional requirements to become an amendment of the United States Constitution," she explained.

Widestrom pointed out some people argue the ERA missed its congressional deadline, but legal scholars say the Constitution doesn't allow or require such deadlines for amendments. They point to the 27th Amendment, introduced with the Bill of Rights and ratified centuries later, as proof deadlines are not binding.

Widestrom said the Constitution currently lacks a provision guaranteeing equal protection based on sex.

"Right now we rely on the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law, but it does not specify by sex. And there is a sitting Supreme Court justice that has said that he believes that the Constitution allows for sex discrimination. So it would be an important addition to the Constitution," she continued.

Widestrom noted that during Donald Trump's first presidency, he directed the archivist not to publish the ERA, creating a less supportive environment. With Biden rescinding that directive, she believes this is the best chance for ratification. She emphasized the importance of Pennsylvanians working with Congress and the White House to explore the best options for the ERA.

A proposal to make Wisconsin's strict Voter ID law a constitutional amendment passed Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Assembly on Tuesday.

Voters will see the proposal on the April 1 ballot. If approved, the state constitution would be amended, which would make the change much harder to repeal in the future. Proponents insist stricter ID requirements help to prevent voter fraud.

Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, and other opponents said they also provide a partisan advantage for Republicans.

"All it does is, it reduces the opportunity for certain segments of the population to be able to vote," Heck explained. "It doesn't do anything about preventing fraud, and it's just a voter suppression method."

Heck believes the measure will attract more conservatives to the polls in April. And even if voters reject the idea of changing the constitution, the state's voter ID requirement, which is already among the strictest in the country, would remain.

The state's voter ID law has been long debated for its prohibitive requirements. Wisconsin allows seven forms of identification to be presented at the polls but Heck pointed out they have to meet particular requirements.

"These are forms of ID that, although they seem on the surface to make some sense, they're very difficult for some segments of the population to obtain," Heck emphasized.

Heck added rushing to put the requirements in the state constitution is strategic, given the state Supreme Court justice ballot the measure will share. Over more than 40 years, the conservative Heritage Foundation lists only 68 cases of voter fraud in Wisconsin.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.


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