Bio of Elizabeth Powel

BY Pamela Leslie & Mark Herr

On September 17th, 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well Doctor what have we got – a republic or a monarchy?” His reply to her, “A republic – if you can keep it.”

Although Mrs. Powel could not vote or hold office, she anxiously waited outside Independence Hall like an expectant mother. Though barren herself, she was instrumental in the birth and development of this newly modified system of government.

Eliza was raised in the unusually ethnic and religious diversity of Philadelphia by a merchant family of educated, outspoken women and politically engaged men – including her mentor, Benjamin Franklin.

In 1769, Eliza married Samuel Powel III. A wealthy merchant and graduate of the College of Pennsylvania, Samuel was the last British colonial mayor (1775) and the first post-revolution republican mayor of Philadelphia (1789). He was inducted into the Philadelphia Philosophical Society by its Founder and President Benjamin Franklin. He died in 1793 and Eliza never remarried.

She motherly corresponded with Bushrod Washington, a future U.S. Supreme Court Justice and nephew to President George Washington. She personally wove Bushrod’s Justice garments. Eliza eventually became the adoptive mother to her sister Margaret’s son, John Hare Powel, who became her heir.

Eliza was well-known for hosting frequent gatherings of political discourse, dinner parties, and other events at her Philadelphia home, ‘The Powel House.’ She was considered highly distinguished by the Marquis de Chastellux for “her taste for conversation and…manner in which she uses her wit and knowledge,”

In September 1774, the future first U.S. Vice-President and second President, John Adams, reflected on his experience at Eliza’s home – “A most sinful feast again! Everything which could delight the eye or allure the taste…”

Of her influence in birthing the United States, she recollected, “I well remember to have frequently associated with the most respectable, influential of the Convention that framed the Constitution, and that the all-important subject was frequently discussed at our house.”

Of her influence in developing the new “Republican Court” and becoming a “Republican Mother” at heart, Eliza said, “I love my Country … I have Confidence in her Virtue & her Gratitude…”

Eliza became a private and behind-the-scenes counselor to President George Washington. In 1792, he confided to her his desire to resign the Presidency.
She promptly wrote him, “Your Resignation wou’d elate the Enemies of good Government … [who] would use it as an Argument for dissolving the Union, and would urge that you, from

Experience, had found the present System a bad one, and had, artfully, withdrawn from it that you might not be crushed under its Ruins…Will you withdraw your Aid from a Structure that certainly wants your Assistance to support it? Can you, with Fortitude, see it crumble to decay? …I know you cannot you will not.”

Mrs. Powel was a Founding Mother of this new republic. She exercised her unconventional influence to ‘keep it’ throughout her life. Although Franklin’s admonishment, “A republic if you can keep it,” may sound cliché to most – it was not to Eliza Powel.

September 17, 1787
Elizabeth Powel asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well Doctor what have we got- a republic or a monarchy?” His reply to her, “A Republic – if you can keep it.”