In 1880, Bayard was, as this cartoon suggests, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.  He was hurt by his strong support of the gold standard, which alienated many Democrats who favored inflationary greenbacks or silver.  His peace stance during the Civil War would make him a weaker candidate against the Republican nominee, James Garfield, who was a former Union general.  The electoral insignificance of his tiny home state of Delaware further undermined his chances for the nomination.  Finally, Bayard’s participation in the Electoral Commission of 1877, despite casting his votes for Democrat Samuel Tilden, meant that he would not get the endorsement of Tilden, the acknowledged spiritual leader of the party.  Still, Bayard managed to finish second on the first ballot, less than twenty votes behind the frontrunner, General Winfield S. Hancock, who won on the second ballot.  In 1884, Bayard again finished second on the first ballot, but that time his tally was far behind frontrunner Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York, who was nominated on the second ballot.

In March 1885, President Cleveland appointed Bayard as his secretary of state.  Serving in the first Democratic administration since before the Civil War, Secretary Bayard was flooded with requests for office, but largely abided by his civil service principles to make appointments based on merit, instead of partisanship.  Much of his time was taken negotiating with Great Britain concerning a longstanding dispute over fishing rights.  In February 1888, Bayard and the British colonial secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, signed a treaty defining which Canadian waters would be open to American fishermen.  The Republican-controlled senate, however, rejected the Bayard-Chamberlain treaty in August, a few months before the fall elections.  Although Bayard failed to get an agreement with Britain to curtail its seal-hunting practices, which were threatening the herd with extinction, his efforts set the stage for a future treaty (1893).  Likewise, his negotiations regarding a conflict between Germany, Britain, and the United States over Samoa laid the groundwork for a future settlement. 

When Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, were attacked in 1885, killing 28, the Chinese government demanded that monetary damages be awarded by the American government.  Bayard denied the federal government’s legal responsibility for the acts of private citizens, but said that the president could make such a request of Congress as an act of generosity.  The American government paid the Chinese an indemnity, and Bayard negotiated a treaty banning the importation of Chinese workers for 20 years.  The Chinese government refused to ratify the treaty, so the American Congress responded with the Scott Act of 1888, which unilaterally enacted the terms of the treaty (and extended the terms of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act).