American politician, born in Philadelphia on the 28th of July 1767. He graduated at Princeton and then practiced law at Wilmington. He was sent to England in 1795 as American agent in ship cases growing out of the Orders in Council, and in 1796 was elected to Congress as a Federalist. In 1797 he managed the successful impeachment of William Blount, a Senator from Tennessee, on the charge of plotting, while governor of the Southwest, to put the British in possession of New Orleans. When the electoral college was equally divided between Jefferson and Burr in 1800, it was the influence of Bayard and Hamilton that determined the choice of Jefferson by the House of Representatives. He was appointed minister to France by President John Adams, before the new administration of 1801, and although confirmed by the Senate, he declined the office. His service extended from May 15, 1797, till March 3, 1803, and in 1804 he became United States Senator, as the successor of William H. Wells. He served from January 15, 1805, till March 3, 1813, and opposed the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812. In 1813 President Madison appointed him a commissioner, with Albert Gallatin (rejected by the Senate) and John Quincy Adams, to negotiate a peace with Great Britain, through the mediation of Russia. He left Philadelphia May 8, 1813, and met Mr. Adams in St. Petersburg in July. This mission was not successful, and he went to Holland and took a prominent part in the negotiations resulting in the treaty of peace signed in Ghent, December 24, 1814. He was appointed United States minister to Russia, but declined the office, and returned to Wilmington on June 15, 1814, where he died, August 6th, following.
