I have the honor to be, &c.
RALPH IZARD.
ARTHUR LEE TO RALPH IZARD.
Chaillot, May 23d, 1778.
Dear Sir,
I have received your favor of the 18th, and remember well the conversation you mention. The 5th article stood originally thus. “Si les Etats Unis jugent à propos de tenter la conquête de la Canada, de la Nouvelle Ecosse, de Terrenueve, de St Jean, et des Bermudes, ces conquêtes en cas de succès appartiendront aux dits Etats Unis.” Even this did not appear to me adequate to the intentions of Congress; I therefore proposed that it should be as extensive and explicit, as was marked out to us in the 9th article of the plan proposed by Congress. My colleagues did not agree with me, and I remember perfectly Dr Franklin’s answer was, that Congress had receded from those claims since, by the concessions directed to be made to Spain. I submitted mine to the opinion of my colleagues.
I have already asked the commands of Congress, relative to conceding anything to Spain agreeably to the instruction of the 30th of December, 1776, which you mention, and you may be assured that I will never subscribe the cession of one inch of what Congress has claimed in the 9th article of their plan, without their express orders. I shall make no observations respecting the degree of gratitude to which Spain may be entitled, but the leaving of articles so loose as to occasion disputes, or making cessions which may plant a thorn in the side of any of the United States, is not the manner I should choose of showing it. How the 5th article came changed so much from what it was at first I never could learn. In my own justification I must observe, that from the conduct of one of my colleagues, and the intrigues of the other, I was furnished with a kind of half information, and secretly counteracted, so as to render it very difficult for me to be of any utility whatever in this negotiation.
I have the honor to be, &c.