THOMAS

See also:

• FRANCIS
• FRANCIS (FRarrcols) OF SALES, ST (1567-1622)
• FRANCIS (Lat. Franciscus, Ital. Francesco, Span. Francisco, Fr. Francois, Ger. Franz)
• FRANCIS, SIR PHILIP (174o-1818)

FRANCIS

See also:

• BAYARD, PIERRE TERRAIL, SEIGNEUR DE (1473–1524)
• THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD (1828-1898)

BAYARD (1828-1898)  , American diplomatist, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on the 29th of October 1828 . His great-grandfather, Richard Bassett (1745–1815), governor of Delaware; his grandfather, James Asheton Bayard (1767–1815), a prominent Federalist, and one of the United States commissioners who negotiated the treaty of Ghent with Great Britain after the War of 1812; his uncle, Richard Henry Bayard (1796–1868); and his father, James Asheton Bayard (1799–1880), a well-known constitutional lawyer, all represented Delaware in the United States Senate . Intending to go into business, he did not receive a college education; but in 1848 he began the study of law in the office of his father, and was admitted to the bar in 185r . Except from 1855 to 1857, when he was a partner of William Shippen in Philadelphia, he practised chiefly in Wilmington . He was a United States senator from Delaware from 1869 to 1885, and in 1881 was (October loth to 13th) president pro tempore of the Senate . His abilities made him a leader of the Democrats in the Senate, and his views on financial and legal questions gave him a high reputation for statesmanship . He was a member of the electoral commission of 1877 . In the Democratic national conventions of 1872, 1876, 188o and 1884 he received votes for nomination as the party candidate for the presidency . He was secretary of state, 1885-1889, during the first administration of President Cleveland, and pursued a conservative policy in foreign affairs, the most important matter with which he was called upon to deal being the Bering Sea controversy . As ambassador to Great Britain, 1893–1897, his tall dignified person, unfailing courtesy, and polished, if somewhat deliberate, eloquence made him a man of mark in all the best circles . He was considered indeed by many Americans to have become too partial to English ways; and, for the expression of some criticisms regarded as unfavourable to his own countrymen, the House of Representatives went so far as to pass, on the 7th of November 1895, a vote of censure on him . The value of Mr Bayard's diplomacy was, however, fully recognized in the United Kingdom, where he worthily upheld the traditions of a famous line of American ministers .

He was the first representative of the United States in Great Britain to hold the

diplomatic rank of an ambassador . He died in Dedham, Massachusetts, on the 28th of September 1898 . See Edward Spencer, Public Life and Services of T . F . Bayard (New York, 188o) .