User:Coffeeandcrumbs/A republic ... if you can keep it

"A republic... if you can keep it" is a statement about the United States taken from a perhaps anecdotal conversation between Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth Willing Powel. Said to be a reply given by Franklin to a question by Powel about the form of government created by the U.S. Constitution, it has been changed and adapted over time by several writers, political figures, and historians.