In compliance with your request I waited on Dr Franklin and delivered to him your letter; he had scarcely read it when he said, “Mr Izard has written me a very angry letter; please to tell him, that he has only made use of general assertions of my having done wrong, which I cannot otherwise answer than by denying. If I have given him any causes of offence, he should let me know what they are.” To this I replied, “that you had been kind enough to form so good an opinion of me, as to admit me into a share of your confidence, therefore I could take upon me to say, that you were persuaded you had clearly stated, in the several letters he had received from you, circumstances affording sufficient grounds of offence.” He said, “he should be glad to know what those circumstances were.” I answered in the first place, “that conceiving it your duty as a member of the States, having a considerable fortune there, and intrusted with a commission from Congress, to communicate as occasion offered all the intelligence you could, you found this communication greatly obstructed by a concealment on the part of Dr Franklin of proper opportunities, when it was quite unnecessary, or when the end of secrecy might be answered, though you had been intrusted with the knowledge of them.” Upon which Dr Franklin told me, “that you had only complained of this in the present letter, and as to the particular opportunity you mentioned by Monsieur Gerard, or Mr Deane, he had not himself looked upon it as a good or proper one, and had not himself made use of it to write.”
As another ground of complaint I observed, “that while the commercial treaty was on the carpet, you considered one article as highly unreasonable and inexpedient, and therefore expressly objected to it; you had in a letter fully specified the reasons upon which your disapprobation was founded, and had sent this letter to Dr Franklin, in hopes of his removing your scruples, and setting you right if you were wrong, or letting your reasons and objections, if they were just, produce some good effect before the conclusion of the treaty, but you had never been favored with any answer on the subject, though you had repeatedly requested it.” Dr Franklin alleged, “that he would have given a full and satisfactory answer, but he had been prevented by business and various avocations, that he was still willing to give one, but could not conceive why you should be so impatient. Suppose he could not give it for a month hence, what great inconvenience would it occasion?” I observed, “that the sooner you had it, you might be the better prepared to guard against any misrepresentation.” Dr Franklin assured me, that he had not been, nor would he ever be, guilty of any misrepresentation; so far from it, that he had not even written anything concerning the matter. I told him, perhaps you might choose to lay it before Congress, and his answer might enable you to do it more fully and satisfactorily. Dr Franklin said you should have an answer, but you must be patient, for he really was very much engaged by other business, and interrupted by people continually coming in upon him, though some upon frivolous errands, as was the case with the two Frenchmen, just gone away, who came only to ask him to buy cloth.
I suggested as a third ground of complaint, that you had been directed by the Congress to propose to the Court of Tuscany a commercial treaty similar to the one concluded with this Court, which you therefore required as necessary for your regulation, in pursuance of the instructions of Congress, who directed you should have, not only the original treaty, but also the alterations which might be proposed; both were nevertheless withheld from you by Dr Franklin without the least regard to your applications. Dr Franklin replied, “did he go into Tuscany? Has not the treaty been sent to him?” I said, you had good reasons for staying; that the treaty was kept from you till the other day, when perhaps it was necessary for you to have had it as early as possible, even previous to your departure, to give it the maturer consideration, and because there might be explanations you would like to have made here, or observations might occur to you, which you might think it advisable to communicate to Congress, to have their further instructions as soon as you could.
I do not recollect, that Dr Franklin made any direct reply to this. He observed, that he was clear he had not given you any just cause of offence, or reasonable grounds of complaint, that he was studious to avoid contention; he acknowledged that he owed you an answer, but though he was in your debt he hoped you would be a merciful creditor; he would say, as the debtor in the Scripture, “have patience and I will pay thee all;” that you certainly ought to give him time, as you had urged so much matter as would require a pamphlet in answer. I told him, that I was sure it was far from your disposition to court quarrels, that if the reasons he gave in his answer to you were just and satisfactory, you would undoubtedly allow them their full weight; that satisfaction you were desirous of having, and were anxious to have the affair ended. He said he should endeavor to do it as soon as possible; in the mean time, he hoped to have no more such angry letters from you; his answer he promised should be a cool one, and that people who wrote such angry letters should keep them, till they sufficiently reflected on the contents, before they sent them.
The above is nearly, to the best of my recollection, the substance, if not for the most part the words, of the conversation, which passed between Dr Franklin and myself, upon delivering him your letter today.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN JULIUS PRINGLE.
COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO RALPH IZARD.
York, May 14th, 1778.