James A. Bayard (elder) - U.S. Senate and Peace Commissioner

U.S. Senate and Peace Commissioner

Although 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 until his resignation on March 3, 1813.

By his own admission, it mattered little who represented Delaware, if they were a Federalist, because the party was in such a minority. Like most of his party, Bayard opposed "Mr. Madison's War" as the War of 1812 was sometimes scornfully called, but like the Democratic-Republicans, he was outraged at the British actions on the high seas and recognized the need for action. As the possibility of war became more likely, he urged caution, thinking of the lack of preparedness of the military and especially of the vulnerability of coastal Delaware. However, once the war began he and all Delaware Federalists wholeheartedly supported the effort, avoiding the suspicion of treason earned by Federalists in New England.

Because of that support, he was the only Federalist appointed as one of the peace commissioners who eventually negotiated the Treaty of Ghent. Resigning his Senate seat he went to Europe and played a major role in the negotiations that ended the War of 1812 when the treaty was signed in December 1814. Subsequently, President James Madison offered him an appointment as Minister to Russia, but Bayard declined, believing a Federalist could hardly well-represent a Democratic-Republican administration.