Editing Thomas F. Bayard (section)

==Ambassador to Great Britain==
[[File:Thomas Francis Bayard Vanity Fair 28 June 1894.jpg|thumb|Bayard, as depicted in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' in 1894 while ambassador to Britain]]
On June 12, 1893, [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Lord Rosebery]], the British Foreign Secretary, received Bayard in London.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=656–657}} Bayard began his tenure as ambassador with an "instinctive feeling of friendship for England," and a desire for peace and cooperation between the two nations.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=660–661}} That desire was quickly impaired when Cleveland took the side of [[Venezuela]] when that nation insisted on taking [[Venezuela Crisis of 1895|a boundary dispute]] between it and [[British Guiana]] to [[international arbitration]]. The exact boundary had been in dispute for decades, but Britain had consistently denied any arbitration except over a small portion of the line; Venezuela wished the entire boundary included in any arbitration.{{sfn|Welch 1988|pp=180–182}}

Bayard spent mid-1894 in the United States conferring with Gresham. The tension in the Venezuelan boundary dispute continued to escalate, while British disagreements with [[Nicaragua]] also threatened to involve the United States.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=663–665}} Britain had once ruled the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua (the [[Mosquito Coast]]) but had abandoned it in 1860.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=667–669}} Nicaragua had annexed the area while guaranteeing the inhabitants (the [[Miskito people]]) a degree of autonomy.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=667–669}} When Nicaragua expanded their control of the area in 1894, the Miskito chief, [[Robert Henry Clarence]], protested with the support of the British ambassador.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=677–679}} Bayard agreed with Cleveland and Gresham that the British were not attempting to reestablish their colony, but Nicaraguans (and many Anglophobic Americans) saw a more sinister motive, including a possible British-controlled [[Nicaragua Canal|canal through Nicaragua]].{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=679–682}} Returning to England, Bayard met with the new Foreign Secretary, [[John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley|Lord Kimberley]], to emphasize Nicaragua's right to govern the area.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=683–684}}

The tension over Nicaragua soon abated, but the May 1895 death of Secretary Gresham, who like Bayard had favored cooperation with the British, led to increased disagreement over the Venezuela issue.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=688–689}} Cleveland appointed [[Richard Olney]] to take over the State Department, and Olney soon proved more confrontational than his predecessor. [[Olney interpretation|Olney's opinion]], soon adopted by Cleveland, was that the [[Monroe Doctrine]] not only prohibited new European colonies, but also declared an American national interest in any matter of substance within the hemisphere.{{sfn|Welch 1988|pp=180–182}} Olney drafted a long dispatch on the history of the problem, declaring that "to-day the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition&nbsp;..."{{sfn|Welch 1988|p=183}} Bayard delivered the note to the British Prime Minister ([[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|Lord Salisbury]], who was also serving as Foreign Secretary) on August 7, 1895.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|p=709}}

Olney's note was met with vehement disagreement and delay, but when tempers cooled, the British agreed to arbitration later that year.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=735–737}} Bayard disagreed with the bellicose tone of the message, which he attributed to an effort to satisfy Anglophobia among "Radical Republicans and the foolish Irishmen."{{sfn|Tansill 1940|p=702}} Olney, for his part, thought Bayard soft-pedaled the note and asked Cleveland to remove Bayard from office, which Cleveland declined.{{sfn|Nevins 1932|p=638}} The House of Representatives agreed with Olney, and passed a resolution of [[Censure in the United States|censure]] against Bayard in December 1895.{{sfn|Tansill 1940|pp=721–722}} Britain and Venezuela formally agreed to arbitration in February 1897, one month before the Cleveland administration came to an end. The panel's final judgement, delivered in 1899, awarded Britain almost all of the disputed territory.{{sfn|Welch 1988|p=187}}