Editing Thomas F. Bayard (section)

== Civil War and Reconstruction ==
Bayard's return to Wilmington in 1858 brought greater involvement in the political scene. James Bayard was a delegate to the [[1860 Democratic National Convention]], and Thomas attended with him. The elder Bayard supported [[Robert M. T. Hunter]] of Virginia for the nomination.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=8}} When the convention deadlocked and the Southern Democrats split from the main party, James Bayard adhered to the regular Democrats, but told Thomas that he thought the nominee, [[Stephen A. Douglas]] of Illinois, was untrustworthy.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=8}} The subsequent election of [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] and [[Secession in the United States|secession]] of the seven states of the [[Deep South]] led both Bayards to fear for the future of the Union, and the elder Bayard to propose a convention of all the states to resolve their differences.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=8}} In the meantime, as four more Southern states seceded, James Bayard encouraged his son to help organize an independent militia unit, the Delaware Guard; Thomas Bayard was commissioned as its First Lieutenant.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=9}}

In 1860, Delaware occupied an unusual position in the free state-slave state divide; nominally a slave state, Delaware's slave population had been in steep decline for decades and represented just 1.6% of the state's people.{{sfn|Essah 1996|pp=5–8}} Opinion on secession was mixed in Delaware, but the Bayards were [[Peace Democrat]]s and leaned to the Southern perspective. They blamed the war on [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] Republicans and believed that secession, while unwise, should not be suppressed with military force.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=13}} Thomas Bayard spoke at a public meeting in Dover in June 1861, saying that "with this secession, or revolution, or rebellion, or by whatever name it may be called, the State of Delaware has naught to do."{{sfn|Spencer 1880|pp=17–18}} Even after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]'s first battles erupted in Virginia, Bayard continued to hope for peace.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=14}} By early 1862, the Delaware Guard came under suspicion of Southern sympathies, and Major General [[Henry du Pont]], commander of the state militia, ordered it disarmed.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=15}} When Bayard refused to comply, he was briefly arrested before being released on [[Parole#Prisoners of war|parole]].{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=15}} Bayard's father was reelected to the Senate in 1862, but resigned shortly thereafter in protest of the new oath of office, which demanded that Senators swear they had never borne arms against the United States nor given aid and encouragement to its enemies.{{sfn|Currie 2006|p=1155}}

Bayard and his father continued in private law practice through the war. Both were pleased with the Democrats' peace platform in 1864, but disappointed in the choice of nominee, Major General [[George B. McClellan]], a [[War Democrat]].{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=19}} In 1866, Thomas Bayard successfully represented four South Carolinians in ''[[habeas corpus]]'' cases against the military.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=20}} The following year, Senator [[George R. Riddle]] died and the legislature elected James Bayard to fill the remainder of the term, which ended in 1869.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=20}}{{efn|The oath to which James Bayard had objected in 1862 had been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in ''[[Ex parte Garland]]'', 71 U.S. 333 (1866).{{sfn|Currie 2006|p=1156n}}}} Bayard became more politically active, speaking at a public meeting in September 1867 against constitutional proposals for ending racial discrimination in voting rights.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=21}} The following year, he condemned the [[Impeachment of Andrew Johnson|impeachment proceedings against]] President [[Andrew Johnson]], who had succeeded to the presidency in 1865 after [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln's assassination]] and had threatened the Republican Congress's plans for [[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]] of the Southern states.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=21}} Both Bayards attended the [[1868 Democratic National Convention]] and, although they were unenthusiastic about the nominee, [[Horatio Seymour]], supported the unsuccessful ticket that year.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|pp=22–23}}