The true republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.

The epigram compresses an egalitarian political ideal into a balanced antithesis. By defining a “true republic” as one that grants men “their rights and nothing more,” it rejects privilege and extra-legal power; by insisting women receive “their rights and nothing less,” it targets the historic withholding of equal civic standing. The parallel structure underscores symmetry: rights are not a gendered favor but a universal entitlement. Attributed to Franklin P. Adams—best known for witty newspaper verse and aphorisms—the line reads as a pointed, memorable endorsement of full legal and political equality, consistent with early-20th-century debates over women’s suffrage and broader civil rights.