A Federalist Opposes the Jay Treaty: The Letters of Samuel Bayard

Abstract

O N April i9, i795, Samuel Bayard, a member of an important American family and a Federalist in politics, sat at a desk in London and offered by letter his impressions of British politics, the French Revolution, and, in a passing reference, the Jay Treaty.' Bayard had been sent to London in November i794 as American Commissioner of Claims; his letter of April i9 and those that followed were addressed primarily to Elias Boudinot and William Bradford, both relatives and both prominent Federalist politicians.2 The correspondence of Samuel Bayard was ancillary to the main business for which he had been selected by the Washington administration. A young man, he was the personal representative of the President and the unofficial spokesman of American merchants whose ships had been confiscated by Great Britain early in the wars of the French Revolution. His authority stemmed from an informal appointment rather than a formal commission and from indirect recognition by Congress rather than by direct confirmation. The situation was unsatisfactory to Bayard, and in