United States: The Old Republic

Upon leaving the 1787 Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was reportedly asked what sort of government the delegates had created- a republic or a monarchy? His answer was simple: “A republic, if you can keep it. Our responsibility is to keep it.” The first time this quote appeared in print was in 1906 in the American Historical Review. It had been found in the notes of James McHenry, a Maryland delegate to the constitutional convention.