Thomas F. Bayard

Thomas F. Bayard served as Secretary of State during Grover Cleveland’s first presidency, from 1885 to 1889. A Delaware lawyer and senator, he brought a preference for negotiation and a concern about patronage in diplomatic appointments. His attempt to appoint Anthony Keiley to foreign missions nevertheless encountered objections from both Italy and Austria. ¹

Relations with Britain occupied much of his attention. Atlantic fishing disputes involving Canada led to a proposed treaty in 1888, but the Senate rejected it. The department also faced conflict over seal hunting in the Bering Sea. These controversies linked coastal livelihoods and commercial competition to the larger task of maintaining workable relations between the two governments. ¹

Bayard renewed arrangements for trade with Hawaii and participated in negotiations over Samoa, where American, British, and German interests collided. The 1887 conference did not resolve the rivalry. His department also prepared the conference of American states that met under his successor, James G. Blaine. After leaving the State Department, Bayard returned to diplomacy as ambassador to Britain during Cleveland’s second administration. His sympathy for Anglo-American accommodation sometimes put him at odds with officials in Washington, particularly when the Venezuela boundary dispute brought a more confrontational American interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. ¹