ed against me, and that insinuations were industriously
circulated to effect others; I therefore took the earliest opportunity
given me, and after having laid before Congress a general state of
foreign affairs and of my proceedings, to request that if any thing
had been laid to my charge, or suggested to my disadvantage, I might
be made acquainted therewith, for that it was probable that in the
difficult, complicated, and embarrassed scenes I had gone through,
many things might require explanation. I received no reply, and
continuing to solicit to have the business I returned upon concluded,
I was informed that an honorable member produced in Congress an
extract from a letter from a private gentleman, respecting a
conversation which passed between him and Mr Carmichael, which implied
a censure on my conduct. On the 26th of September, Mr Secretary
Thompson acquainted me with the resolution of Congress of that day, to
postpone further consideration of my requests, _until the examination
of William Carmichael_.

What the result of that examination was I never knew, but having
waited some days, the urgent necessity for my speedy return pressing
on me, I applied again, and repeatedly, that I might finish the
business upon which I had been sent for. Days were repeatedly
appointed for that purpose, and I must suppose business of more
importance prevented. In those letters I laid before Congress the
unsettled state in which I had, by my sudden departure, been obliged
to leave the accounts and other mercantile transactions of the
commissioners, and pointed out the injuries, which the public must
suffer by a delay of their settlement, as well as the personal
inconveniences I must be subjected to whilst they remained unsettled.
To these letters I beg leave to refer. In October, extracts from
letters from Mr Arthur Lee and Mr Izard, were, by order of Congress,
delivered me, to which I replied at large, on the 12th and 22d of the
same month; my letters are still before Congress, and to them I refer,
particularly to that of the 12th, which closes in these words;

"As in commercial transactions there are but two sides to an account,
and every thing goes to the debit or credit, the folio for profit or
loss, so I must solicit that Dr Franklin and Mr Adams may be directed
to see the settlement of all those accounts immediately on my return
to Paris, and as there has been a charge made by Mr Lee, of profusion,
of extravagant contracts,