Benjamin Franklin's famous quote almost went unnoticed

Benjamin Franklin's famous remark on the preservation of the republic was recorded for the first time on September 18, 1787, in the journal of James McHenry. The latter was reporting the exchange between the scientist and Elizabeth Willing Powel at the end of the Philadelphia Convention. The anecdote was then published in several Federalist newspapers such as the Middlebury Mercury and the Newburyport Herald before becoming historical.