Elizabeth Willing Powel

Elizabeth Willing Powel (February 21, 1743 [O.S. February 10, 1742/43] – January 17, 1830) was an American socialite and patriot during the American Revolution. The daughter and later wife of mayors of Philadelphia, she was a politically connected woman who hosted well-attended and high-profile parties, after the fashion of a French salon, which became a staple of political life in the city. She corresponded widely, including with the political elite of the time, and was instrumental in convincing George Washington to continue on for a second term as president.

Powel is said to be the person who asked Benjamin Franklin, "What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?", to which he responded, "A republic ... if you can keep it", an often quoted statement about the Constitution of the United States.

Following her husband's death, Powel went on to manage the family's estate and business dealings until her own death in 1830. Her home was later renovated and reopened to the public as a museum.

Elizabeth Willing was born on February 21, 1743 [O.S. February 10, 1742/43], to Charles and Ann (née Shippen) Willing, both prominent Philadelphians of their day. She was the sixth of eleven children in the family and lived in a house on the corner of Third Street and Willings Alley in Philadelphia.

While the details of her education are unknown, according to historian David W. Maxey, "The Willing family could have easily afforded private tutors for [her and her sisters], and judging from the many letters of theirs that remain, they benefited from superior instruction."

In a wedding officiated by Jacob Duché at Christ Church, Elizabeth married Samuel Powel on August 7, 1769, at the time one of the richest merchants of Philadelphia. He became the last colonial and first post-Revolution mayor of Philadelphia. Their marriage brought together two of the most prominent mercantile families in the city. She and Samuel had four children; only two sons, both named Samuel, survived birth, but died as infants.

On August 2, 1769, five days before the Powels' marriage, Samuel purchased their home on South Third Street in Philadelphia, known as Powel House, just south of Elizabeth's childhood home. Here she hosted well-attended and high-profile parties, after the fashion of a French salon, which became a staple of political life in the city. She encouraged political discourse and often opined on matters of state herself. Her sister, Anne Francis, wrote to her sibling Mary Byrd that "when in society [Powel] will animate and give brilliancy to the whole conversation, you know the uncommon command she has of language and ideas flow with rapidity ... I sometimes think her patriotism causes too much anxiety." French nobleman François-Jean de Chastellux recalled in the first edition of his travel narrative, Travels in North America, that "contrary to American custom, [Mrs. Powel] plays the leading role in the family."

During the 1774 meeting of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Powel opened her home to the delegates and their families, hosting dinner parties and events to discuss the politics of the day. According to historian Zara Anishanslin, "For women like Powel, shut out as they were from institutional politics, domestic spaces were among the few places they could engage in political discussion — and lead the conversation while hosting politicians." Similarly, historian Richard Beeman records she "made it clear to those in her circle that she was both proud and unafraid of engaging" with the delegates of the convention, though no written records of their discussions survived.

During the occupation of the city as part of the Philadelphia campaign, the family home was seized by the British. Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, occupied the ballroom as his military headquarters from winter to early spring of 1778. For two weeks in June 1778, Carlisle personally commandeering their bed chambers, forcing them to move to a wing of their home that housed their servants. Carlisle and the Powels often dined together and "talk[ed] politics". He found them to be "very agreeable, sensible people". When British troops withdrew from the city, Elizabeth emerged among the "leading hostesses of early Republican Philadelphia", helping to establish the "Republican Court" of the leading intellectual and political figures of colonial America.

Powel played host to contemporary elites including Benjamin Rush, the Marquis de Lafayette, and John Adams. She maintained frequent correspondence with her interlocutors. She discussed politics, and the education and social standing of women, exchanged poetry, recommended books, and reviewed scientific findings in medicine and physics. She frequently studied and wrote on the subject of health, so that Elizabeth Hamilton later recalled, "[r]emember Mrs. Powel on the advantages of health, and disadvantages of the want of it." When Rush published his Thoughts upon Female Education (1787), he dedicated the work to Powel.

Friendship with Washington

On January 6, 1779, she hosted a Twelfth Night ball attended by George and Martha Washington, who were celebrating the 20th anniversary of their marriage. "Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia", or Eliza Powel, was a close friend and confidant to General Washington, later the first president of the United States. She was also a friend of his wife Martha. George and Elizabeth corresponded regularly.

In November 1792, Washington confided in Powel that he intended to step down at the end of his first term. In her own words, her "Mind was thrown into a Train of Reflections" and she considered it "inconsistent with [their] Friendship" to withhold her thoughts. She wrote Washington urging him to reconsider, and taking her advice seriously, he agreed to a second term. A few months later in February 1793, President Washington commissioned a poem by Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson as a gift to Powel for her 50th birthday.

"A republic ... if you can keep it"

During September 1787, in the final days of the Convention, Powel is said to have shared an exchange with Benjamin Franklin, for which she is most often remembered. According to Maxey and Anishanslin, she asked Franklin, "What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" referring to the governmental structure of the newly formed United States. Franklin is said to have responded, "A republic ... if you can keep it." The first account of the story was recorded by a delegate of the Constitutional Convention, James McHenry, on the last page of his journal about the Convention. The entry is dated September 18, 1787, and he also notes that "The lady here alluded to was Mrs. Powel of Philad[elphi]a." McHenry later published an extended version of the conversation in The Republican, or Anti-Democrat, a short-lived newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 15, 1803:

Powel: Well, Doctor, what have we got?
Franklin: A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.
Powel: And why not keep it?
Franklin: Because the people, on tasting the dish, are always disposed to eat more of it than does them good.

The story was republished by a number of contemporary newspapers. Later, writing in 1814, Powel could not recall, but would not deny that the interaction had taken place, writing:

I have no recollection of any such conversations ... Yet I cannot venture to deny after so many Years have elapsed that such conversations had passed. I well remember to have frequently associated with the most respectable, influential Members of the Convention that framed the Constitution, and that the all-important Subject was frequently discussed at our House.

Philadelphia suffered an epidemic of Yellow Fever in 1793, during which time the Washingtons invited the Powels to seek refuge at Mount Vernon. The family decided instead to remain in the city, where Samuel would contract and later die of the disease. She never remarried, and lived on as a widow for more than three decades after her husband's death. After the death of George Washington in December 1799, she was among the first to write to the widowed Martha, and continued correspondence with the Washington family, including Bushrod Washington, for whom she had purchased a gift of black satin robes upon his confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court in April 1799.

Powel managed or oversaw the management of her husband's estate, and wrote increasingly on the subject of business. She adopted her sister Margaret Willing Hare's son, John Hare Powel, who assumed her married name and, upon her death, would inherit her wealth. Elizabeth assumed ownership of her country estate Powelton, which she inherited with the death of her husband, and began building a new house on May 13, 1800.

Elizabeth sold Powel House in 1798 and spent her final years in a mansion on Chestnut Street, a short distance from Independence Hall, where she would live until her death. She died on January 17, 1830, and her funeral, five days later, was a well attended "social event and a religious experience" presided over by William White, the bishop of Pennsylvania. She was buried beside her husband in the cemetery at Christ Church in Philadelphia.

John Hare inherited most of Powel's wealth including Powelton. This estate in Blockley Township included a Greek Revival country home Elizabeth had built in the early 1800s and John Hare expanded, in 1824–25, with designs from architect William Strickland. He also inherited her mansion on Chestnut Street which he converted into a hotel named Marshall House and leased it to Samuel Badger who operated the hotel from 1837 to 1841.

In 1925, the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired the interior decoration of Powel House, including the woodwork, and the second-floor parlor was reconstructed inside the museum. Led by Frances Wister, the house located at 244 South Third Street was later purchased by the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks (PhilaLandmarks) in 1931. On May 28, 1934, the Philadelphia Museum of Art returned the interior elements to the house. Powel House was restored and opened to the public as a museum. As of 2017, a previously undiscovered cache of documents from Powel was found in a false-bottom trunk, and was also in the possession of PhilaLandmarks.

According to Anishanslin, the story of Powel's exchange with Franklin was adapted over time, with the role played by Powel all but removed in 20th-century versions. The setting of the exchange was revised from Powel House to the steps of Independence Hall. Powel herself was often replaced with an anonymous "lady" and, when included, was portrayed not as a figure "remarkable for her understanding and wit" but as an "anxious lady". According to Mickey Herr of PhilaLandmarks, Powel's relationship with Washington was later "looked at with jaded eyes". Herr specifically criticized the 1986 documentary George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation—in which Powel is played by Penny Fuller—for portraying her as "a flibbertigibbet of the first order".

In 2015, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia hosted a play entitled Com[promising] Future, examining the exchange between Franklin and Powel during the time of the Constitutional Convention.