[Note 64: _Diplomatic Corresp. of Amer. Rev_. iv. 249, 251.] No sooner had Adams scented the first whiff of the quarrel-laden atmosphere of the embassy than he expressed in his usual self-satisfied, impetuous, and defiant way his purpose to be rigidly impartial. But he was a natural fault-finder, and by no means a natural peacemaker; and his impartiality had no effect in assuaging the animosities which he found. However, amid all the discords of the embassy there was one note of harmony; and the bewildered Congress must have felt much satisfaction in finding that all the envoys were agreed that one representative at the French court would be vastly better as well as cheaper than the sort of caucus which now held its angry sessions there. At worst one man could not be forever at odds with himself. Adams, when he had finished the task of arranging the archives, found no other occupation; and he was scandalized at the extravagance of keeping three envoys. Lee, by the way, had constantly insinuated that Franklin was blamably lax, if not actually untrustworthy, in money matters, though all the while he and his friend Izard had been quite shameless in extorting from the doctor very large sums for their own expenses. When the figures came to be made up it appeared that Franklin had drawn less than either of his colleagues, and much less than the sum soon afterward established by Congress as the proper salary for the position.[65] The frugal-minded New Englander himself now acknowledged that he could "not find any article of expense which could be retrenched,"[66] and he honestly begged Congress to stop the triple outlay. [Note 65: _Diplomatic Corresp. of Amer. Rev._ iv. 246.] [Note 66: _Ibid._ 245.]