Robert Livingston (1746-1813)

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Robert Livingston

Robert R. Livingston (November 27, 1746 – February 26, 1813), of New York, was a delegate to the New York state constitutional convention and a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, although he was recalled by his state before he could sign the final version of the document. Livingston served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1781 to 1783, under the Articles of Confederation. In 1789, as Chancellor of the State of New York, he administered the first term oath of office to George Washington, the first President of the United States, at Federal Hall in the City of New York. Washington is the only President to have taken the oath of office in New York City, which was then the capital of the United States.

Livingston was a candidate for governor of New York in 1798. As U.S. Minister to France from 1801 to 1804, he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase. After the signing of the Louisiana Purchase agreement in 1803, Livingston made this famous 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"^[1].

After the adoption of the New York State Constitution in 1777, Livingston became the state's first Chancellor, the title given to the chief justice of the state's Chancery Court. At that time, it was the state's highest ranking judicial office. Under the title, he became universally known; it remained his nickname even after he left the office in 1802.

During his time as Minister to France, Livingston met Robert Fulton, with whom he developed the first viable steamboat, the Clermont, whose home port was at the Livingston family home of Clermont Manor in the town of Clermont, New York. Its first voyage left New York City, 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.

Of the five figures standing in the center of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, Robert Livingston is depicted in the center of the committee of five presenting the draft Declaration to the Second Continental Congress. The five prominent figures depicted are, from left to right, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.

Robert R. Livingston was the eldest son of Judge Robert Livingston and Margaret Beekman Livingston. He had nine brothers and sisters, all of whom wed and made their homes on the Hudson River near the family seat of Clermont Manor. The Chancellor built a home for himself and wife Mary Stevens Livingston just south of Clermont, called Belvedere, which was burned to the ground along with Clermont in 1777 by the British Army. In 1794 he built a new home, called New Clermont but subsequently named Arryl House (phonetic spelling of his initials "RRL") which was deemed "the most commodious home in America" and contained a library of 4,000 volumes. After his trip to France, he added an orangerie to the grounds.

Livingston attended King's College, the predecessor to today's Columbia University. He was a Freemason, and in 1784, he was appointed the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York. He retained 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. It is still used today when the Grand Master is sworn in, and, by request, when a President of the United States is sworn in.

At his death, Livingston was interred in Tivoli, New York.

Livingston County, Kentucky, Livingston Parish, Louisiana and Livingston County, New York are named for him.

His nephew by marriage was Robert Fulton.

[edit] References

1. ^ The Louisiana State Capitol Building

[edit] External links

• Robert Livingston (1746-1813) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress