A republic, if you can keep it, the line attributed to Franklin at the close of the Convention. Historians treat the anecdote with caution, but the second half is true and easy to forget. The whole point is the conditional: the founders handed the country not a finished possession but a standing task, and the keeping is the work of every generation.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.

The party out of power in Britain is called His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, and the phrase only sounds like a contradiction. It is one of the most important ideas a free country ever worked out: that you can oppose the government and still be loyal to the nation. Why the distinction makes peaceful transfers of power possible, and why it is a fragile habit rather than a law.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.

Picture an American election in the mid-nineteenth century: no booth, no curtain, often a party-printed ballot handed over in full view of a watching crowd. The private ballot is not a founding feature; it is a reform, and it arrived later than most people assume. How the secret ballot was won, and what its privacy actually protects.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.