The New Student's Reference Work/Izard, Ralph

Iz′ard, Ralph, an American statesman, was born near Charleston, S. C., in 1742, and educated at Cambridge, England.  He was a man of large wealth, and pledged his estate to aid in carrying on the war for independence against England.  In 1776 congress appointed him a commissioner at the court of the grand duke of Tuscany, and in 1780 he returned to the United States.  It is said that no one had the confidence of Washington to a higher degree than Izard and that he was largely instrumental in securing the appointment of General Greene to the southern army.  In 1782–83 he was a delegate to the Continental congress, and from 1789 to 1795 was a United States senator from South Carolina.  His Correspondence from 1774 to 1784 was published in 1844.  He died at South Bay, near Charleston, May 30, 1804.