what is the shortest federalist paper?

Answer 1

Both Federalist Paper 13 and Federalist Paper 74 are about the same size and are the shortest relative to all of the others.

Federalist Paper 13 is a continuation of Federalist Paper 12. It is an appeal to a bias of the American people for public frugality by insisting that the government of a united country would draw much less "from the pockets of the people" than would the three confederacies into which thirteen or more disunited States would likely group themselves.

Federalist Paper 74 is Hamilton taking the broad view of the place of the pardoning power in the scheme of justice and order.

Federalist may be just a touch smaller.