“A republic, if you can keep it.”

James McHenry diary entry on September 18,1787 https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/files/2016/09/McHenry-Note.jpg, the day after the signing of the United States Constitution: "A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what we got a republic or a monarchy — A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it."
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Benjamin Franklin 183
American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p… 1706–1790

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From a note of uncertain date by Dr. James McHenry. In a footnote he added that "The lady here aluded to was Mrs. Powel of Philada." Published in The American Historical Review, v. 11, p. 618. At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 http://www.bartleby.com/73/1593.html
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There is no evidence that Franklin ever actually said or wrote this, but it's remarkably similar a quote often attributed, without proper sourcing, to Alexis de Tocqueville and Alexander Fraser Tytler:
:A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.
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