Smyrna times., 1898-10-05
HIS PLACE IN HISTORY.

1t was the peculiar destiny of Mr..
Bayard to stand at one time, and at the
time when he occupied the highest po-
litical station to which he ever attained
as the advance representative and ex-
treme outpost of that national senti-
ment which is now universally rec
ogniZed as Americanism. In spite of
his political education and creed,
against all that might naturally be ex-
pected of the last of the Delaware Bay
ards, the born champion of State SOW
ereignity and the bred enemy of Fed
eral aggrandizement, as Secretary of
State at the beginning of Mr.. Cleve-
lands first term Mr.. Bayard was the
foremost Jingo in the United States,
and the pioneer of American expansion
in the Pacific Mr.. Blaine himself in
that Office says the New York San,
could not have written stronger or
more stalwarthy American instruc-
tions to Consul General Sewall at Apia
regarding the necessity of maintaining
our interests at Samoa, under the
Steinberger concession, and of resist
ing the aggressions of Germany or
England or any other competing
power. There was war in the situation; !;
and, indeed, we did come nearer to the
edge of war at that time than most
people understand; but Mr.. Bayard's s
position, both in his instructions to
his representative at Apia, young
man who took his Americanism seri-
ously, and in his correspondence with
the authorities of Downing street on
the same subject, was patriotic and un-
compromising. The episode, unfortu-
nately for Mr.. Bayards lasting fame,
soon closed, so far as he was con-
cerned, and we refer to it now merely
to record the surprising fact that in
1885 and during part of 1886 the princi-
pal lingo and expansionist in the
United States Government was Thomas
Francis Bayard, Democrat, of Della
ware.
AS soon as Mr.. Cleveland, by his
characteristic mental processes, had
formed his own ideas respecting Amer.
lean policy beyond our borders, Secre.
tary Bayard yielded, as the ivy or the
woodbine yields to the incline of its
support. He witnessed without pro
test the shameful reversal of the policy
he had devised in the interest of the flag
During the rest of his diplomatic career
he was subservient; and there is nc
reason to believe that if at Mr.. Cleve
lands second Inauguration Mr.. Bay
ard had been summoned back to the
! Department of State, instead of going
to London as the first American Am
: bassador to the Court of st. James
, he would have advised or acted other
,, wise than as Judge Gresham advised
! and acted about the abandonment o
! Samoa, and the attempted infamy il
: Hawaii.
: Mr.. Bayard's mistakes in England
/ were those of excellent and friendl,
impulses, imperfectly guided by Judge
/. ment. He sincerely desired to contri
: butte his share toward the bettermen
of the relations of the two countries
and incidentally to render himself per
sonally agreeable; but, unlike MI
Lowell, unlike Mr.. Phelps, unlike MI
Z Lincoln, unlike Mr.. John Hay,
N manifested his good intentions in th
D. form of indiscriminate and often flu
10 some fattery to the face. His officii
70 and semi-official utterances were
!, y treacle-like stream which doubles
10 proved cloying to the recipients. A
h times his unregulated amiability towar
D. the nation to which he was accredited
80 and his wish at the same time to pleas
the chief to whom he owed the onl
~ political distinction ever conferre
=, y upon him, except by his neighbors
q. the State of Delaware, led him int
rd such deplorable excesses as that of b
ve celebrated speech at Boston, in Lii
d, colnshire, when he portrayed NJ
pc Cleveland to British audience as II
y; steel-ribbed ruler of q violent and col
a. a. tentious people too much disposed
= want their own way. Mr.. Bayard
+ reward from Mr.. Cleveland was
k' being substantially ignored during 9
,i- the negotiations concerning the We
:" ezuela question, the most inporta
diplomatic incident that occurred du
:. ing the period of his Ambassadorshi
Ne A good man, gentleman of unblei
=, ished personal record in politics,
~ ~ Senator with long and respectful
he career, and statesman who wou
re have gone further had his mainspri
nd been larger.
he
Az we understand IL. the ttnr,llp III