Background
James Bayare was born on November 15, 1799, at Wilmington, Delaware. He was the younger son of James A. Bayard and Ann (Bassett) Bayard, and brother of Richard Henry Bayard.
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James Asheton Bayard
Edit ProfileEducation
James Bayard was educated at Princeton and Union Colleges, graduating at the latter school at the age of nineteen. Although intended for a mercantile career, he turned to the study of law and in the spring of 1822 was admitted to the Delaware bar.
Career
James Bayard won success in his profession, being counsel in many important cases, among them one in which the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company was a party, involving about $250, 000, and establishing Bayard's reputation. In 1843 he removed to New York City but returned to Wilmington three years later where he assisted in the legal training of his son Thomas Francis Bayard.
During his early life Bayard had some political experiences, although few victories fell to his share. In the formation of parties 1820-28 he had enlisted with the Democrats and his popularity in Delaware was not increased by Jackson's nomination of him in December 1833 as one of five government directors of the United States Bank for 1834. He was defeated as candidate for the House of Representatives from Delaware in 1828 and 1832, and when the four other nominees of the President had been rejected by a Whig Senate, Bayard refused to serve in the position offered him in 1833. In the Congressional elections of 1834 he was again defeated by John J. Milligan, Whig candidate for reelection, by 155 votes. In a close contest for the senatorship in 1838 Bayard's campaign failed owing to the refusal of the Whig state Senate to sit in joint session with the Democratic House, preferring that the state should have but one senator rather than lose the opportunity of electing a Whig the following year.
Twelve years later, following the agreement of both parties in the state to support the Wilmot proviso Bayard was elected United States senator (1851 - 57) upon the sixteenth ballot, being again returned in 1857 and in 1863. Meanwhile as a delegate to the Delaware constitutional convention of 1852-53 he considered his county of Newcastle unfairly treated in the constitutional changes agreed upon. He therefore opposed the work of the convention and helped to defeat it in 1853. The Native Americans carried the state in 1854 so that as a result Delaware waited until 1882 for her new constitution. Bayard's position in the Senate was not an easy one. From 1851 to 1864, if ever in American history, statesmen were needed. The deaths of Calhoun (1850), Clay and Webster (1852) had deprived the nation of her prominent leaders.
Bayard, a friend of the Union as governed by Andrew Jackson, and from a border state as was Jackson, saw his party split by the Dred Scott decision of March 1857. He could join neither Breckinridge nor Douglas, while the personalities of Frémont and Lincoln appealed to him; he, therefore, entered the new Republican party but with his faith in the ideals of Jackson unchanged. The election of 1860 precipitated the crisis, and Bayard supported the new President. His position during the war was bound to prove embarrassing at the best. With Charles Sumner shouting that "nothing against slavery can be unconstitutional" and a growing tendency everywhere to accept the maxim that inter arma silent leges as the basis of policy, Senator Bayard adhered to his conservative tradition. He opposed most of the antislavery measures enacted between 1861 and 1864. He made a notable speech on April 3, 1862, in opposition to emancipation in the District of Columbia, declaring that it was an outrageous invasion of property rights. It was furthermore, he declared, exceedingly impolitic and likely to cause disloyalty in the border states.
If his emphasis on the property aspects of slavery seems anomalous at the present time, his presentation of the race problem which would inevitably accompany emancipation shows that he had a far better appreciation of its magnitude than his Senate contemporaries, and subsequent history has justified many of his predictions. His financial training compelled him to oppose the Legal Tender Act of February 25, 1862, in the Senate and to urge more conciliation and compromise in the Reconstruction policies adopted by the Republicans. On the death of Lincoln the aggressive nature of Thaddeus Stevens repelled him, and he was not at home in the party with which he acted. He opposed the test oath for officeholders, and when the Senate passed the measure, Bayard, although subscribing to it, expressed his dissent by resigning his seat (1864). He was succeeded by George Read Riddle, but upon the death of the latter, March 29, 1867, Gov. Gove Saulsbury appointed and the legislature elected Bayard for the remainder of his original term. Like his brother Richard, Senator Bayard gradually returned to the Democratic party and upon the expiration of his term, March 4, 1869, gladly saw his place taken by his son, Thomas Francis Bayard, a Democrat. With this event Bayard's active career ceased, and he passed the remainder of his life in retirement at Wilmington. A conservative in political opinion, Bayard was unfortunate in living in an era which demanded constructive statesmen.
Achievements
Membership
James Bayard was a member of the Democratic party and the US Senate from Delaware (1851-1864, 1867-1869). During his tenure in the US Senate, Bayard chaired the Committee on Engrossed Bills (1851-1853), served on the Committee on Public Buildings (1853-1858), and served on the Committee on Judiciary (1859-1864).
Connections
On July 8, 1823, James Bayard married Ann, daughter of Thomas and Dorothy Willing Francis of Philadelphia, thereby uniting important Pennsylvania families.
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Born
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Died
June 13, 1880 (aged 81) -
Nationality
American -
Political Party
Democrat