Thomas Francis BAYARD, Sr., Congress, DE (1828-1898)

BAYARD, Thomas Francis, Sr., (son of James Asheton Bayard, Jr., and father of Thomas Francis Bayard, Jr.), a Senator from Delaware; born in Wilmington, Del., October 29, 1828; attended Doctor Hawkes’ school in Flushing, N.Y.; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1851 and commenced practice in Wilmington, Del.; appointed United States district attorney for Delaware in 1853, but resigned in 1854; moved to Philadelphia and practiced law; returned to Wilmington in 1858; at the expiration of his father’s Senate term in 1869 was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate; reelected in 1875 and 1881 and served from March 4, 1869, to March 6, 1885, when he resigned to become Secretary of State; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Forty-seventh Congress; chairman, Committee on Engrossed Bills (Forty-third through Forty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Finance (Forty-sixth Congress), Committee on Private Land Claims (Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses); appointed a member of the Electoral Commission created by the act of Congress approved on January 29, 1877, to decide the contests in various States in the presidential election of 1876; Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Grover Cleveland 1885-1889; Ambassador to Great Britain 1893-1897; died in Dedham, Mass., on September 28, 1898; interment in Old Swedes Cemetery, Wilmington, Del.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Tansill, Charles. The Congressional Career of Thomas F. Bayard. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1946.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present