A Republic, If You Can Keep It

A republic, if you can keep it, the line attributed to Franklin at the close of the Convention. Historians treat the anecdote with caution, but the second half is true and easy to forget. The whole point is the conditional: the founders handed the country not a finished possession but a standing task, and the keeping is the work of every generation.Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.