Benjamin Franklin to James Bowdoin Regarding Proclamation

BOSTON, March 19.
Saturday last his Excellency Governor Bowdoin received the following letter from his Excellency Benjamin Franklin, Esq President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia, March 6, 1787.

SIR,

I RECEIVED the letter your Excellency did me the honour to write me, respecting your proclamation for apprehending several promoters of the rebellion in your state. The proclamation was immediately printed in our newspapers; and the matter being laid before the Council and Assembly, it was thonght fit to make an addition to the rewards your government had offered, which will be done, though the usual forms of proceeding have occasioned some delay.

I congratulate your Excellency most cordially on the happy success attending the wise and vigourous measures taken for the suppression of that dangerous insurrection; and I pray most heartily for the future tranquility of the state which you so worthily and happily govern. Its constitution is, I think, one of the best in the union, perhaps I might say, in the world. And I persuade myself, that the good sense and sound understanding predominant among the great majority of your people, will always secure it from the mad attempts to overthrow it; which can alone proceed from the wickedness or from the ignorance of a few, who, while they enjoy it, are insensible of its excellence.

With sincere and great esteem and respect, I have the honour to be, Sir, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
His Excellency Governor Bowdoin.