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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.

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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When Benjamin Franklin received a letter from Governor James Bowdoin of Massachusetts about rewards for apprehending "the several promoters of rebellion in your state," he immediately had the Massachusetts proclamation published in the newspaper. Franklin, who was the president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, was pleased to inform Bowdoin that the Pennsylvania Legislature had decided to add to the rewards being offered by Massachusetts for the capture of Daniel Shays, Luke Day, Adam Wheeler and Eli Parsons. Franklin concluded by praising the Massachusetts Constitution as one of the best in the union and expressed happiness that the "great majority of your people, will always secure it from the mad attempts to overthrow it."

 

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Letter to Governor Bowdoin published in the Hampshire Gazette

publisher   Hampshire Gazette
author   Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
date   Mar 28, 1787
location   Northampton, Massachusetts
height   9.75"
width   3.5"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Newspaper
accession #   #L04.094


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See Also...

Proclamation regarding apprehension of Shays' Insurgents published in the Hampshire Gazette

State of Rhode Island issueing of paper money and voting requirements published in the Hampshire Gazette

"The History of the Insurrections in Massachusetts in the year seventeen hundred and eighty six and the Rebellion"


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