took care of
others, he himself was drawn upon by Jackson for L50,000; and at the
same time he was expected to provide for all the bills accepted by
Laurens, Jay, and Adams, and now rapidly maturing. He sent in haste to
Holland to detain the 1,500,000 livres _in transitu_. "I am sorry," he
said, "that this operation is necessary; but it must be done, or the
consequences will be terrible."

Laurens and Jackson, however, in Holland, had been actually spending
this sum, and more. "I applaud the zeal you have both shown in the
affair," said the harassed doctor, "but I see that nobody cares how much
I am distressed, provided they can carry their own points." Fortunately
the money still lay in the hands of the banker, and there Franklin
stopped it; whereupon Jackson fell into extreme rage, and threatened
some sort of a "proceeding," which Franklin said would only be
exceedingly imprudent, useless, and scandalous. "The noise rashly made
about this matter" by Jackson naturally injured American credit in
Holland, and especially rendered unmarketable his own drafts upon
Franklin. In these straits he journeyed to Paris to see Franklin,
represented that his goods were on board ship; that they were articles
much needed in America; that they must be paid for, or else relanded and
returned, or sold, which would be a public disgrace. So Franklin was
prevailed upon to engage for the payment, and was "obliged to go with
this after-clap to the ministers," a proceeding especially disagreeable
because, as he said, "the money was to be paid for the manufactures of
other countries and not laid out in those of this kingdom, by whose
friendship it was furnished." He was at first "absolutely refused," but
in time prevailed, and "hoped the difficulty was over." Not at all!
After all this exertion and annoyance, the officers of the ship said she
was overloaded, and turned out a large part of the goods, which were
accordingly put into two other ships; and then Franklin was offered the
option of buying these two vessels, of hiring them at a freight scarcely
less than their value, or of having the goods again set on shore. He was
now "ashamed to show his face to the minister," and was casting about
for resources, when suddenly he was surprised by new demands to pay for
the goods which he had every reason to believe had already been paid
for. This produced such a dispute and complication that the goods
remained long in Holland before affairs could be