The Cambridge Companion to the Federalist

[...]Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay ultimately sought to answer a single, if complex, question: [...]many of the arguments made in the Federalist were specifically designed to respond to and counter Anti-Federalist critiques of the Constitution; indeed it was in this response "that the authors of the The Federalist were led to their deepest insights," as David Golove and Daniel Hulsebosch put it (116). Unlike earlier interpretations, which focused on Madison's theory that larger electoral districts would promote the election of "fit characters" who would be insulated from public opinion, most of the authors here note that he always expected elected officials to be responsive to their constituents and so focused on how to promote reason in this process.