Robert R. Livingston (chancellor)

This article is about the lawyer, politician, diplomat from New York. For other uses, see Robert Livingston (disambiguation).

Robert Livingston
File:Robert R Livingston, attributed to Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828).jpg
7th United States Minister to France
In office December 6, 1801 – November 18, 1804
President	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Succeeded by	John Armstrong
1st United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs
In office October 20, 1781 – June 4, 1783
Appointed by	Congress of the Confederation
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	John Jay
1st Chancellor of New York
In office July 30, 1777 – June 30, 1801
Governor	George Clinton John Jay
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	John Lansing
Personal details
Born	(1746-11-27)November 27, 1746 New York City, New York, British America
Died	Clermont, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary Stevens (m. 1770)
Children	2
Education	Columbia University (BA)

Robert Robert Livingston (27 November 1746 (Old Style November 16) – 26 February 1813) was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat from New York, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was known as "The Chancellor", after the high New York state legal office he held for 25 years. He was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, along with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Roger Sherman. Livingston administered the oath of office to George Washington when he assumed the Presidency in 1789. He was elected a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1801.

Early life

Livingston was the eldest son of Judge Robert Livingston (1718–1775) and Margaret (née Beekman) Livingston, uniting two wealthy Hudson River valley families. He had two brothers and sisters, all of whom wed and made their homes on the Hudson River near the family seat at Clermont Manor. Among his siblings was his younger brother, Edward Livingston (1764-1836), who also served as U.S. Minister to France, his sister Gertrude Livingston (1757–1833), who married Gov. Morgan Lewis (1754–1844), sister Janet Livingston (d. 1824), who married Richard Montgomery (1738–1775), sister Alida Livingston (1761–1822), who married John Armstrong, Jr. (1758–1843) (who succeeded him as U.S. Minister to France), and sister Joanna Livingston (1759–1827), who married Peter R. Livingston (1766–1847).

His paternal grandparents were Robert Livingston (1688–1775) of Clermont and Margaret Howarden (1693–1758). His great-grandparents were Robert Livingston the Elder (1654–1728) and Alida (née Schuyler) Van Rensselaer Livingston, daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler (1628–1683). His grand-uncle was Philip Livingston (1686–1749), the 2nd Lord of Livingston Manor. Livingston, a member of a large and prominent family, was known for continually quarreling with his relatives.

Livingston graduated from King's College in June 1765 and was admitted to the bar in 1770. King's College was renamed Columbia College of Columbia University following the American Revolution in 1784.

Career

Recorder of New York City

In October 1773, Livingston was appointed Recorder of New York City, but soon thereafter identified himself with the anti-colonial Whig Party, and was replaced a few months later by John Watts, Jr.

Chancellor of New York

On July 30, 1777, Livingston became the first Chancellor of New York, which was then the highest judicial officer in the state. Concurrently, he served from 1781 to 1783 as the first United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation.

Livingston administered the presidential oath of office to George Washington at his first inauguration on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City, which was then the nation's capital.

In 1789, Livingston joined the Jeffersonian Republicans (later known as the Democratic-Republicans), forming an uneasy alliance with his previous rival George Clinton and Aaron Burr, then a political newcomer. Livingston opposed the Jay Treaty and other initiatives of the Federalist party, founded and led by his former colleagues Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. He ran for Governor of New York as a Democratic-Republican, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent governor John Jay in the 1798 election.

After serving as chancellor for almost 24 years, Livingston left office on June 30, 1801. During that period, he became nationally known by his title alone as "The Chancellor", and even after leaving office, he was respectfully addressed as Chancellor Livingston for the remainder of his life.

Declaration of Independence

File:Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull.jpg

The Committee of Five stands at the center of John Trumbull's 1817 painting Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson is depicted presenting the draft Declaration to the Congress with Benjamin Franklin at his side. Behind them are, from left to right, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Livingston.

Livingston depicted on the 1953 postage stamp commemorating the signing of the Louisiana Purchase

On June 11, 1776, Livingston was appointed to a committee of the Second Continental Congress, known as the Committee of Five, which was given the task of drafting the Declaration of Independence. After establishing a general outline for the document, the committee decided that Jefferson would write the first draft. The committee reviewed Jefferson's draft, making extensive changes, before presenting Jefferson's revised draft to Congress on June 28, 1776.

Before he could sign the final version of the Declaration, Livingston was recalled by his state. However, he sent his cousin, Philip Livingston, to sign the document in his place. Another cousin, William Livingston, would go on to sign the United States Constitution.

U.S. Minister to France

Following Thomas Jefferson's election as President of the United States, once Jefferson became President on March 4, 1801, he appointed Livingston U.S. Minister to France. Serving from 1801 to 1804, Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchase. After the signing of the Louisiana Purchase agreement in 1803, Livingston made this memorable statement:

We have lived long but this is the noblest work of our whole lives ... The United States take rank this day among the first powers of the world.

During his time as U.S. minister to France, Livingston met Robert Fulton, with whom he developed the first viable steamboat, the North River Steamboat, whose home port was at the Livingston family home of Clermont Manor in the town of Clermont, New York. On her maiden voyage she left New York City with him as a passenger, stopped briefly at Clermont Manor, and continued on to Albany up the Hudson River, completing in just under 60 hours a journey which had previously taken nearly a week by sloop sailboat. In 1811, Fulton and Livingston became members of the Erie Canal Commission.

Later life

Livingston was a Freemason, and in 1784, he was appointed the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, retaining this title until 1801. The Grand Lodge's library in Manhattan bears his name. The Bible Livingston used to administer the oath of office to President Washington is owned by St. John's Lodge No. 1, and is still used today when the Grand Master is sworn in, and, by request, when a President of the United States is sworn in.

On July 4, 1786, he was part of the second group elected as honorary members of the New York Society of the Cincinnati, along with Chief Justice Richard Morris, Judge James Duane, Continental Congressman William Duer, and Justice John Sloss Hobart.

Personal life

File:Mrs. Robert R. Livingston - Gilbert Stuart.png

Margaret Beekman Livingston, mother of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston

On September 9, 1770, Livingston married Mary Stevens (1751–1814), the daughter of Continental Congressman John Stevens and sister of inventor John Stevens III. Following their marriage, he built a home for himself and his wife south of Clermont, called Belvedere, which was burned to the ground along with Clermont in 1777 by the British Army under General John Burgoyne. In 1794, he built a new home called New Clermont, which was subsequently renamed Arryl House, a phonetic spelling of his initials "RRL", which was deemed "the most commodious home in America" and contained a library of four thousand volumes. Together, Robert and Mary were the parents of:

• Elizabeth Stevens Livingston (1780–1829), who married Lt. Governor Edward Philip Livingston (1779–1843), the grandson of Philip Livingston, on November 20, 1799.
• Margaret Maria Livingston (1783–1818), who married Robert L. Livingston (1775–1843), the son of Walter Livingston and Cornelia Schuyler, on July 10, 1799.

Livingston died on February 26, 1813, and was buried in the Clermont Livingston vault at St. Paul's Church in Tivoli, New York.

Livingston family

Through his eldest daughter Elizabeth he was the grandfather of four:

• Margaret Livingston (1808–1874), who married David Augustus Clarkson (1793–1850)
• Elizabeth Livingston (1813–1896), who married Edward Hunter Ludlow (1810–1884)
• Clermont Livingston (1817–1895), who married Cornelia Livingston (1824–1851)
• Robert Edward Livingston (1820–1889), who married Susan Maria Clarkson de Peyster (1823–1910)

Legacy and honors

• Livingston County, Kentucky, and Livingston County, New York, are named for him.
• A statue of Livingston by Erastus Dow Palmer was commissioned by the state of New York and placed in the National Statuary Hall collection of the U.S. Capitol building, pursuant to the tradition of each state selecting two individuals from the state to be so honored.
• Livingston is included on the Jefferson Memorial pediment sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman, which honors the Committee of Five.
• The Robert Livingston high rise building at 85 Livingston St. in Brooklyn, NY is named for him.

Robert Livingston Issue of 1904

File:Louisiana Purchase 1904 Issue-10.jpg Map of Louisiana Purchase Issue of 1904

File:Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC 2012.JPG The Jefferson Memorial's pediment and its sculpture of the Committee of Five

In popular culture

• The 1969 Broadway musical 1776 includes Livingston as a supporting character. He is featured with a solo verse in the song "But, Mr. Adams", in which each member of the Committee of Five offers reasons why they should not be the one chosen to write the first draft of the Declaration of Independence.
• In the 1972 film version of 1776, Livingston was played by actor John Myhers.
• In the 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams, Livingston was portrayed by actor Alex Draper.

See also

• Livingston family

Further reading

• Alexander, D. S. "Robert R. Livingston, The Author of the Louisiana Purchase." Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association 6 (1906): 100-114 online.
• Bonham, Jr., Milledge L. "Robert R. Livingston". in Samuel Flagg Bemis, ed. The American Secretaries of State and their diplomacy V.1 (1928) pp 115–92.
• Brandt, Clare. An American Aristocracy: The Livingstons (Doubleday Books, 1986).
• Brecher. Frank W. Negotiating the Louisiana Purchase: Robert Livingston's Mission to France, 1801–1804 (McFarland, 2006)
• Dangerfield, George. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York, 1746–1813 (1960)
  • online review; also another review
• De Peyster, Frederic. "A Biographical Sketch of Robert R. Livingston" (NY Historical Society, October 3, 1876) online

Primary sources

• Livingston, Robert R. The Original Letters of Robert R, Livingston, 1801–1803 ed. by Edward A. Parsons (1953).

External links

• Robert R. Livingston at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• The Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library of New York
• Louisiana Purchase Risks and Rewards page

Party political offices
Preceded by Robert Yates	Democratic-Republican nominee for Governor of New York 1798	Succeeded by George Clinton
Legal offices
Preceded by Thomas Jones	Recorder of New York City 1773–1774	Succeeded by John Watts
New office	Chancellor of New York 1777–1801	Succeeded by John Lansing
Political offices
New office	United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1781–1783	Succeeded by John Jay
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Charles Pinckney	United States Minister to France 1801–1804	Succeeded by John Armstrong