Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Izard, Ralph

Statesman; born near Charleston, S. C., in 1742; was educated at Cambridge, England, and in 1767 married a daughter of Peter De Lancey, of New York. They spent some time in Europe, and Mr. Izard was appointed by Congress commissioner to the Court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and resided in Paris, where he took sides with Arthur Lee against Silas Deane and Franklin (see Deane, Silas). He returned home in 1780; procured for General Greene the command of the Southern army, and pledged his large estates for the purchase of ships-of-war in Europe. He was in Congress in 1781-83, and in the United States Senate in 1789-95. Two years afterwards he was prostrated by paralysis. His intellect was spared, and he lived in comparative comfort about eight years, without pain, when a second shock ended his life, May 30, 1804.