From below:  "Order of hereditary Knights"........................" hereditary Knights".......interesting wording..............Prescott Bush , a us senator, a bonesman........his son George H W. Bush, a bonesman, and a us pres..................his son,,,,,,,,,,,George W. Bush...........a bonesman, and a us pres...................................bonehead country................

\

In a letter to his daughter Sarah Bache written on January 26, 1784, Franklin commented on the ramifications of the Cincinnati:

I only wonder that, when the united Wisdom of our Nation had, in the Articles of Confederation, manifested their Dislike of establishing Ranks of Nobility, by Authority either of the Congress or of any particular State, a Number of private persons should think proper to distinguish themselves and their Posterity, from their fellow Citizens, and form an Order of hereditary Knights, in direct Opposition to the solemnly declared Sense of their Country.^[14]

However, Franklin's opinion changed after the country stabilized and he joined the Pennsylvania Society as an honorary member.^{[citation needed]}

The influence of the Cincinnati members, former officers, was another concern. When delegates to the Constitutional Convention were debating the method of choosing a president, James Madison (the secretary of the Convention) reported the following speech of Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: