James Asheton Bayard Sr. (28 July 1767-6 August 1815) was a member of the US House of Representatives from Delaware's at-large district from 4 March 1797 to 3 March 1803 (succeeding John Patten and preceding Caesar Augustus Rodney) and a US Senator from 13 November 1804 to 3 March 1813 (interrupting William H. Wells' terms). He was a member of the Federalist Party.
Biography[]
James Asheton Bayard Sr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1767, and he married the daughter of US Senator Richard Bassett. In 1787, he became a lawyer in Delaware, and he served in the US House of Representatives from 1797 to 1803 and in the US Senate from 1804 to 1813, serving as a member of the Federalist Party. In 1800, he followed the advice of Alexander Hamilton and persuaded his fellow Federalists to abstain from voting, and he struck a deal with Thomas Jefferson to ensure that the Federalists were not swept from all of their government positions. Bayard died in 1815.