Thomas Daschle: “There is a great, possibly prophetic, story from the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1789. For weeks, delegates…”

“There is a great, possibly prophetic, story from the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1789. For weeks, delegates to the convention had labored in the Philadelphia heat to draft a Constitution. Every day, crowds waited outside Independence Hall for any news of their progress. Finally, a draft was agreed upon. As Benjamin Franklin emerged from the hall, a woman asked, ``Dr Franklin, what have you given us: A monarchy? Or a republic?'' Franklin famously replied, ``A republic--if you can keep it.'' Some of our founders would, no doubt, be surprised that we have indeed managed to keep this republic they dared to imagine and create more than 200 years ago. What has enabled the United States to become the world's oldest surviving democracy is more than luck. It is more, even, than divine providence. It is also the result of deliberate work and effort by generations of Americans to understand and protect the principles on which our nation was founded, and to pass those lessons on, undiminished, to future generations. That is the heart of what we mean by ``civic education.''”