If You Can Keep It
by Kathy Brown on August 26th, 2010 | 0 comments
Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."
What did he mean by that? Much has happened to America since those words were uttered. How profound and prophetic was this Founder. Having scrounged history diligently, those Fathers noticed that the failure of government to maintain freedom across time could be attributed to four things.
The first enemy of a nation was obvious. (1) It is an attack externally. Having an ocean on either side of the colonies seemed to buffer the fledgling union. (2)The second threat was the corruption of "customs" or morals. The world's hope for a lasting liberty depended on a people who understood that freedom is impossible without a common framework cooperating with men and women of character. Self restraint had to house liberty, not dependence on enforcement of more and more law. Without the united experience of working for a common good, as defined by Someone outside man, a tyrant would eventually rule. (3)It followed that the internal genius of separation of powers, as written in the Constitution, would have to provide the checks and balances necessary to stem the sinful nature of the powerful. If the document became polluted, the beacon for a free people would become obscure. (4)The fourth obstacle for liberty might be subversion. From within, groups or individuals could step away from capitalism and veer to socialism or communism. More likely than outward revolution was the possibility of a quiet nudging away from personal responsibility toward the notion of government being the caretaker of men. God, in essence, would be expelled and replaced by the state.
Reviewing these concerns that Franklin and his compatriots had, the alarm bells go off. There is much more at stake than political expediency. The challenge to "keep" the republic is really a fight to protect the values and virtue that ultimately ensure spiritual, physical and intellectual prosperity. We have the foundation that many were ready to die to defend, but do we have the nerve to reclaim it for this generation and the next?
"If we are not governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrrants."
William Penn (1644 - 1718)
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