Borden, Morton. The Federalism of James A. Bayard. 1955. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1968.
BAYARD, James Asheton, Sr.
1767–1815
Biography
BAYARD, James Asheton, Sr., (father of Richard Henry Bayard and James Asheton Bayard, Jr., nephew of John Bubenheim Bayard, grandfather of Thomas Francis Bayard, Sr., and great–grandfather of Thomas Francis Bayard, Jr.), a Representative and a Senator from Delaware; born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 28, 1767; graduated from Princeton College in 1784; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1787 and commenced practice in Wilmington, Del.; declined the appointment as Minister to France tendered by President John Adams in 1801; elected as a Federalist to the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Congresses (March 4, 1797-March 3, 1803); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1802; one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1798 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against William Blount, a Senator from Tennessee; elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate in 1804 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Hill Wells; reelected in 1805 and 1811 and served from November 13, 1804, to March 3, 1813, when he resigned; appointed a member of the commission to negotiate peace with Great Britain in 1813; aided in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent, signed in December 1814; declined the appointment as Minister to Russia tendered by President James Madison in 1815; died in Wilmington, Del., August 6, 1815; interment at Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Md.; reinterment about 1842 in Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery, Wilmington, Del.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]External Research Collections
Boston Public Library
Boston, MA
Papers:
6 letters.
Historical Society of Delaware
Wilmington, DE
Papers:
70 items (1790-1813) in Bayard papers and Callery collection. Personal, business, and congressional correspondence and a portrait. Finding aid.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Washington, DC
Papers:
Items in Bayard family papers, 1797-1885, available on 4 microfilm reels; Thomas F. Bayard papers, 1780-1899, 239 containers; and William Harris Crawford papers, 1772-1834. Finding aid.
Massachusetts Historical Society
Boston, MA
Papers:
Several items by or about him in various collections. Finding aid.
New York Public Library
New York, NY
Papers:
1800-1814. 40 items and 1 volume. Letterbook (1802-1814) containing copies of Bayard's letters to Caesar Augustus Rodney, dealing especially with public and political affairs at Washington in 1812, his mission to Russia in 1813, and his travels in Europe, 1814; and copies, in Bayard's handwriting, of correspondence (1800-1802) with Alexander Hamilton, relating to politics in New York.
Pierpont Morgan Library
New York, NY
Papers:
1 letter (May 26, 1809) regarding a guardianship arrangement in the Gilder Lehrman collection.
University of Delaware Library
Newark, DE
Papers:
1790-1813. 3 letters. Copies of originals at Boston Public Library.
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Bibliography / Further Reading
Conrad, Henry C., ed. Letters of James Asheton Bayard. Wilmington: Historical Society of Delaware, 1901.
Donnan, Elizabeth, ed. Papers of James A. Bayard, 1796-1815. 1915. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971. Originally published in Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1913, vol. 2.