[finnigan2]

"A woman approached him and asked;"What kind of government will we have,sir?".Franklin answered;"A constitutional republic,madam,if you can keep it!".

- An interesting anecdote, but probably misreported. Women didn't get the vote until the 1900's.

[smoothsailing]

You could be right.

The phrase "a republic,if you can keep it";will get you about 12 million hits on a google search.

In some,Franklin is not asked by a "woman",but a "citizen" or "group of citizens".