A Republic, If You Can Keep It.
A republic, if you can keep it.
Benjamin Franklin · 1787
Franklin's answer.
The story is well worn and worth keeping. Leaving the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Franklin was asked what kind of government the delegates had produced. His answer was a conditional: a republic, if you can keep it.
The condition is the message. A republic is not a possession. It is a practice, renewed or lost by each generation.
Why the condition is the design.
Most civic merchandise stops at the noun. Quorum keeps the clause that follows. "If you can keep it" is the part that turns a fact into a responsibility, and the responsibility is the whole brand premise.
How we set it.
The line runs long, so we set it as a measured editorial lockup. "Republic" anchors in roman; "If" takes the italic accent, because the whole sentence pivots on that single word.