Commissioners to foreign courts.
Soon after the
Declaration of Independence a plan of treaties with foreign
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governments was reported by a committee on that subject, and
Franklin,
Deane, and
Jefferson were appointed (Sept. 26, 1776) commissioners to the French Court.
Unwilling to leave his wife, whose health was declining,
Jefferson refused the appointment, and
Arthur Lee, then in
London, was substituted for him; and after the loss of New York these commissioners were urged to press the subject of a treaty of alliance and commerce.
Commissioners were also appointed to other
European courts in 1777—
Arthur Lee to that of
Madrid; his brother William (lately one of the sheriffs of
London) to
Vienna and
Berlin, and
Ralph Izard, of
South Carolina, to
Florence.
All but the
French mission were failures.
Arthur Lee was not allowed to enter
Madrid, and went on a fruitless errand to
Germany;
Izard made no attempt to visit
Florence, and
William Lee visited
Berlin without accomplishing anything.
There his papers were stolen from him, through the contrivance, it was believed, of the
British resident minister.
See
ambassador.
