What would Ben Franklin say?

I sent the following to the Cape Cod Times as a letter to the editor:

I thought it was interesting that two Cape Cod Times columnists choose independently to use a famous quote from Benjamin Franklin on the same day, Saturday, July 1.
On Page A15 columnist Lawrence Brown quoted Franklin as saying, “You have a republic – if you can keep it.” And on a column that begins on page C1 columnist Debbie Forman quotes Franklin as saying, “A democracy, if you can keep it.”

According to “Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations,” and several other sources, Franklin’s remark was first recorded by Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention. He wrote, “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.” The rules of punctuation and capitalization have changed since McHenry wrote the passage in 1787.

What has not changed is that Franklin was right, and Brown and Forman are right. Our government – which can be described as a republic and as a democracy – requires vigilance and the active participation of its citizens. The free and independent mass media are an important part of this process. We must all keep informed in order to prevent the government from usurping the power that great leaders like Benjamin Franklin entrusted to the public.