Джеймс Эшетон Байард Старший: Жизнь и политическая карьера

American lawyer and politician

James Asheton Bayard Sr. (July 28, 1767 – August 6, 1815) was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a member of the Federalist Party, who served as U. S. Representative from Delaware and U. S. Senator from Delaware.

Bayard was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of Dr. James Asheton Bayard and Ann Hodge. The Bayards descended from a sister of Dutch Director General Petrus Stuyvesant and came to Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland in 1698. Bayard was also of French Huguenot and English ancestry as well. Upon the premature death of his parents, the younger James went to live with his uncle, Colonel John Bubenheim Bayard, in Philadelphia. He graduated from Princeton College in 1784, studied law under General Joseph Reed and Jared Ingersoll, was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1787, and began a practice in Wilmington, Delaware. Bayard married February 11, 1795, Ann or Nancy Bassett, the daughter of wealthy Delaware lawyer and U. S. Senator Richard Bassett. They had six children, Richard, Caroline, James Jr., Edward, Mary, and Henry M. and lived on the southwest corner of 3rd and French Street in Wilmington,

Bayard was first elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1796, and served there for three terms, from March 4, 1797 until March 3, 1803. While in the U. S. House "he was distinguished as an orator and constitutional lawyer and became a leader of the party in the house." He especially distinguished himself as one of the impeachment managers appointed in 1798 in the impeachment proceedings against William Blount, a U. S. Senator from Tennessee. When it seemed the Federalists were about to vote for Aaron Burr, Bayard is believed to have followed the advice of Alexander Hamilton and persuaded his Federalist colleagues to abstain from voting. It was also believed he struck a deal with the incoming Jefferson, to refrain from the wholesale removal of Federalists from appointed positions. The young Bayard enlisted Representative Samuel Smith (Maryland politician) to negotiate with Jefferson on Federalist control of the Philadelphia and Wilmington custom offices. Jefferson subsequently permitted the Federalist office holders to retain their posts. Just before John Adams left office as U. S. President he used the provisions of the Judiciary Act of 1801 to make many "midnight" judicial appointments. Among those was Bayard's father in law, Richard Bassett. Resigning as Governor of Delaware, Bassett accepted an appointment as a federal judge, but soon was out of work when Jefferson had the act repealed. Bayard himself declined an appointment as Minister to France offered by President John Adams in 1801. So effective was Bayard in opposing Jefferson's administration that an all out effort was made by the Democratic Republicans to defeat him in his attempt at a fourth term in 1802. Caesar Augustus Rodney, nephew of the Revolutionary President of Delaware Caesar Rodney, defeated Bayard by 15 votes. However, two years later, in 1804, the result was reversed with Bayard besting Rodney. In the best Delaware tradition, the two remained friends throughout their electoral rivalry.

Although re elected to the U. S. House in 1804, Bayard never returned there, because before the term began, on November 13, 1804, he was elected by the Delaware General Assembly as U. S. Senator, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of William H. Wells. He began a term of his own the following March 1805, was reelected six years later in 1810, and served in the Senate until his resignation on March 3, 1813. His disposition on membership is unknown, as no known correspondence confirms or denies his interest, and his death was only a few weeks after his election, and a few days after his return from Europe.