Benjamin Franklin was asked one question as he left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia after the meeting had adjourned on September 17, 1787. He was asked by a widow as Ben walked slowly down the steps: “Well, Doctor Franklin, what have we got, a Monarchy or a Republic?”

His response was quick, full of meaning, and authoritative: “You have a Republic—if you can keep it!”

A part of keeping such a Republic depends on the character of those who govern themselves. That’s because the people are the source of all lawful authority. Americans are free and inherently independent of all but THE MORAL LAW. America does not have a unified religion or a common theology, but we do have something we have to depend on for our freedom. That is a common morality shared by all citizens and that morality is rooted in faith and reason.

As George Washington declared “religion and morality are indispensible supports” of our form of government. It works for a moral and religious people, and none else.

Thomas Jefferson confirmed this in his first inaugural address. “America’s benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter.”

We would do well to remember this.