You have that almost right, and please forgive me if I've got this wrong, but my recollection is that the wife of the mayor of Philadelphia rushed up to Dr. Franklin immediately after the Constitutional Convention was over and asked, "What have you given us, Dr. Franklin?" to which he replied, "A republic, Madam, if you can keep it."
Oh, I should add that he said “you” instead of “we” is because Franklin at that point was over 80 years old and did not expect to live long enough to help defend the founding of the new nation.
Yeah, I was only paraphrasing.