How to Keep Our Republic

On the last day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powel, a prominent Philadelphia socialite, asked Benjamin Franklin what form of government was being proposed for the United States. In a reply that has become famous, Franklin said: “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

Franklin’s words, often cited to show that the Founders recognized the profound vulnerability of the republican order they crafted, are easy partisan fodder in times of controversy or crisis. Activists, pundits, and politicians have long invoked them to tag their opponents or their opponents’ ideas as precisely the sort of existential threat to a fragile American system that the Founders anticipated might arise.

About the Author

Robert P. George

Robert P. George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.

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On the last day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powel, a prominent Philadelphia socialite, asked Benjamin Franklin what form of government was being proposed for the United States. In a reply that has become famous, Franklin said: “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

Franklin’s words, often cited to show that the Founders recognized the profound vulnerability of the republican order they crafted, are easy partisan fodder in times of controversy or crisis. Activists, pundits, and politicians have long invoked them to tag their opponents or their opponents’ ideas as precisely the sort of existential threat to a fragile American system that the Founders anticipated might arise.

About the Author

Robert P. George

Robert P. George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.