As our founders completed their work drafting the Constitution in the summer of 1787, Mrs. Elizabeth Willing Powel stopped Benjamin Franklin for a chat. She asked, “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
Franklin replied, “It’s a republic, if you can keep it.”
He wasn’t being cynical; he was stating the reality of a self-governed republic. The Constitution which defines our self-governance, only has power to the extent that the self-governed remain willing to defend the principles enshrined in it.
“If you can keep it” wasn’t a prediction of our new nation’s demise. It was an acknowledgement that ratification would entail a passing of the baton. Franklin and the other founders had defined a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Then it became up to “we the people” to keep it – if we remained worthy of it. Would we be as committed to keeping our republic, as our founders were in creating it? That is the Franklin challenge.
Franklin and the other delegates to the Constitutional Convention understood that our republic would face unforeseen crises. They knew the Constitution would need to change in ways they couldn’t possibly predict. But they wanted those changes to be done via rigorous debate rather than judicial fiat or violent conflict. Hence, they provided a means to amend the Constitution, both with and without congressional consent.
Our nation has met Franklin’s challenge many times in its 250 years. Unfortunately, our next “if you can keep it” challenge is coming from within. In just the last decade our government has demonstrated a predisposition to
- Infringe on our worship,
- Censor our political expression,
- Invalidate our electoral choices,
- Apply the law unequally,
- Mandate our medical choices,
- Challenge our right of self-defense, and
- Spend us into economic collapse.
Our own government has tried to end our experiment in “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” – and it will do it again. That is precisely the type of crisis for which the founders gave us the second clause of Article V of the Constitution. An Article V convention of states is a peaceful means for the states to tell the federal government to, “Knock it off!”
In the decade leading up to the debates of 1787, our founders had risked their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” to give us freedom and self-governance. Do we trust the wisdom of our countrymen enough to risk a vote for debate? That’s all a convention is – a forum to discuss and propose.
The debate about calling a convention of states is raging across the country. Whether we meet Ben Franklin’s challenge in the 21st century is yet to be determined. So far only 19 states have accepted the “if you can keep it” challenge, and passed resolutions calling for a convention. The rest remain reluctant. We could avoid the hard work of “if you can keep it,” opting to enjoy the vanishing benefits of America for as long as possible. Or we can leave the comfort of denial, to face the harsh reality that we aren’t entitled to Constitutional guarantees that we refuse to defend. That is the essence of the debate currently underway in statehouses across the country – WORK to preserve our republic, or HOPE our federal government decides to behave itself.
Author Bio: John Green is a retired engineer and political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He spent his career designing complex defense systems, developing high performance organizations, and doing corporate strategic planning. He is a contributor to American Thinker, The American Spectator, and the American Free News Network. He can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
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