Permit me, gentlemen, having thus removed all just cause of anxiety from your minds, respectfully to suggest that the idea of rebellion, or “insurrectionary movement” in the county of Lancaster, or anywhere else in this Commonwealth, has no real foundation, and is an offensive imputation on a large body of our fellow citizens. There is no insurrectionary movement in Lancaster county, and there would be no occasion to march a military force there, as you seem to desire, and inflame the public mind by any such strange exaggeration. I do not wish our brethren of the Union to think that, in any part of this State, resistance to the law goes undetected or unpunished, or that there exists such a sentiment as treason to the Union and the constitution. The alleged murderers of Mr. Gorsuch, whose crime is deep enough without exaggerating it, have been arrested, and will be tried, and they and their abettors be made to answer for what they have done in contravention of the law. But in the meantime, let me invite your co-operation, as citizens of Pennsylvania, not only to see that the law is enforced, but to add to the confidence which we all feel in the judicial tribunals of the land, by abstaining from undue violence of language, and letting the law take its course. Depend upon it, gentlemen, there is in Lancaster county a sense of duty to the laws of the land, manifested in the easy and prompt arrest of these offenders, which will on all occasions show itself in practical obedience. The people of that county are men of peace and good order, and not easily led aside from the path of duty which the Constitution prescribes. They, and every Pennsylvanian, love the Constitution and the Union. They will detect, as they have done in this case, and arrest and punish all who violate the laws of the land. There is no warrant, depend upon it, for representing the men of Lancaster county as traitors, and participants in an “insurrectionary movement.” You do them, unintentionally I have no doubt, great injustice. I am deeply indebted to you for affording me this opportunity of expressing my views. But for your communication I might not have been able to do so. You, and my fellow-citizens at large, may be assured of my firm determination, at all hazards, and under all circumstances, to maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and enforce obedience to the laws alike of the United States and of this Commonwealth. In order that I may be sure that my answer may reach its destination, (your letter having but accidentally come to my hands,) I have requested Mr. White to put it in the hands of Mr. John Cadwalader, whose signature, I observe, is first. I am, with great respect, Your obedient servant, WM. F. JOHNSTON.