Thomas F. Bayard

Thomas F. Bayard.
Thomas F. Bayard (1828–1898) was a lawyer, politician, and diplomat from Wilmington, Delaware. He served three terms as a US Senator from Delaware and made three unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed him Secretary of State. Bayard worked with Cleveland to promote American trade in the Pacific while avoiding the acquisition of colonies at a time when many Americans clamored for them. He worked to resolve disputes over fishing and seal-hunting rights in the waters around the Canada–United States border. After four years in private life, he returned to the diplomatic arena as Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he continued to strive for Anglo-American friendship. This brought him into conflict with his successor at the State Department, Richard Olney, when Olney and Cleveland were demanding more aggressive diplomatic overtures in the Venezuelan crisis of 1895.