 | BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Francis Bayard
Secretary of State,
Term of Appointment:
03/06/1885 to
03/06/1889
|
- Born in Wilmington, Delaware, October 29, 1828;
- Attended private schools and an academy at Flushing, New York;
- Studied law, admitted to the bar in 1851, and commenced practice in Wilmington;
- United States District Attorney for Delaware 1853-1854;
- Moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and practiced law there, returning to Wilmington in 1858;
- Married Louise Lee in 1856 (died 1886);
- Senator from Delaware 1869-1885; was a member of the Electoral Commission of 1877 to decide the contested presidential election of 1876;
- Unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1876, in 1880, and again in 1884;
- Commissioned Secretary of State in President Cleveland's Cabinet March 6, 1885 and served until March 6, 1889;
- As Secretary of State, paved the way for settlement of the Samoan question with Great Britain and Germany, arranged a modus vivendi regarding fisheries that allayed difficulties with Canada, and upheld the special interest of the United States in the Hawaiian Islands;
- Resumed the practice of law in Wilmington;
- Married Mary W. Clymer in 1889;
- Served as Ambassador to Great Britain, 1893-1897;
- Died in Dedham, Massachusetts, September 28, 1898.
Released on July 15, 2003
| 
