User:Robbie/Franklin here

If Franklin Were Here . . .

On September 17, 1787, as the delegates to the Constitutional Convention left Independence Hall, having signed the draft Constitution, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Dr. Franklin,

"Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy?"

— "A republic," replied the Doctor, "if you can keep it."

When the Constitutional Convention completed its work, a well-wisher ask Benjamin Franklin what form of government, monarchy or republic, the new Constitution would establish for the United States. He replied, “A republic, Madame, if you can keep it.”

On this substack, we study what Benjamin Franklin then foresaw in adding “if you can keep it” to his response. With Franklin, we ask, How might we, the American people, eventually lose our republic? What must we the people do to keep it? To start, let’s attend closely to a short speech Franklin had given a couple hours before voicing this doubt that we could keep our republic they were then engaged in creating for us.

* * *

In late February, 1787, the Continental Congress had voted to set up a convention to amend the Articles of Confederation, strengthening their central governing powers. 12 of the 13 states elected slates of delegates by various procedures. By late May, the delegates, slowly assembling in Philadelphia, reached a quorum and began to deliberate officially. Through the summer, 55 delegates took some part in deliberations, of whom a number left for various reasons, personal and substantive, with 39 signing their completed draft Constitution on September 17th.

Among the delegates, George Washington, then 55, and Franklin, then 81, both immensely experienced and world famous, imparted a sense of gravitas to the Convention in public opinion. The delegates unanimously elected Washington to serve as president of the Convention, which he did with exemplary impartiality. Franklin, a delegate from Pennsylvania, served quietly, speaking up as needed to preserve the inclusive sense of unity among the delegates by promoting compromises when serious deadlocks were potentially arising. Younger delegates, then less prominent such as James Madison, shaped the substantive course of deliberations.

Through the summer of 1787, the delegates had deliberated about governing powers and their checks and balances. They worked through specifics, and arrived at a consensus on each; in August, they consolidated the particulars into a working draft; and in early September, they polished the text for style. Mid September, the time to conclude had arrived. A few delegates opposed the draft and a few more wavered, but most believed they had achieved their common purpose—to replace the Articles of Confederation with a new Constitution, based on the sovereignty of the people, and to establish a strong central government, one that could act wisely and vigorously within the nation and for the nation within the world.

On the 17th, Franklin had a short speech read out on his behalf initiating the signing of the Constitution by the assembled delegates. It ended, “I hope therefore that for our own sakes, as a Part of the People, and for the sake of our Posterity we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution, wherever our Influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and Endeavours to the Means of having it well administered.”

This ending makes a good place to start our reflection on Franklin’s speech because it makes clear what Franklin’s purpose was in giving it on this occasion. Here Franklin stated that their forthcoming act originating the Constitution would serve the benefit and interest of two distinct groups—an immediate one, the delegates and the People of whom the delegates were a Part, and a more distant one, “our Posterity,” we the people in futurity.

Franklin was not memorializing for the ages the virtues with which the delegates had drafted a great document for the ages. What Franklin said in the speech had some relevance for the immediate audience, the delegates “as a Part of the People,” asying they needed to doubt their own infallibility and mind public opinion in the coming debates during ratification. But in the immediate, little was at issue and what Franklin said about it would be closed off in the Convention proceedings, confidential until after ratification had succeeded or failed. His immediate audience provided Franklin the occasion to discuss the problems of keeping the Republic, which they were then originating, so that posterity, with the loss of the Republic imminent, might better understand their situation in order to forestall it.

With that purpose in mind, let’s attend to what Franklin said. His speech had 2 paragraphs, the first rather introductory, stating and illustrating the open-minded disposition that he highly valued, a pre-partisan mindset essential in preserving a political order over time. The 2nd paragraph, twice the length of the first, developed the concerns and ideas with which Franklin wanted to confront the People in Posterity as they risk losing their Republic. Here’s how he spoke to the delegates, addressing George Washington, the President of the Convention.

I confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present, but Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it: For having lived long, I have experienced many Instances of being oblig’d, by better Information or fuller Consideration, to change Opinions even on important Subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own Judgment and to pay more Respect to the Judgment of others. Most Men indeed as well as most Sects in Religion, think themselves in Possession of all Truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far Error. [Sir Richard] Steele, a Protestant, in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only Difference between our two Churches in their Opinions of the Certainty of their Doctrine, is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never in the Wrong. But tho’ many private Persons think almost as highly of their own Infallibility, as that of their Sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who in a little Dispute with her Sister, said, I don’t know how it happens, Sister, but I meet with no body but myself that’s always in the right.

Franklin had favored a unicameral congress and a 5-person executive that lacked veto power. Since approving this Constitution would create something enduring, his current disapproval was not basis for registering his disapproval, for his experience made him aware that he sometimes changed his mind on important matters and hence he could not say he would always disapprove it. Here Franklin suggests that because he is not sure he will always disapprove the present Constitution, he will doubt his negative judgments and give more creedence to the judgment of others.