The Men Behind the Declaration of Independence. L. Carroll Judson

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      PHILIP LIVINGSTON

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      Men often engage in transactions and designs, that produce results in direct opposition to those anticipated. Thus, religious persecution scattered the primitive Christians into various parts of the earth, and, instead of annihilating the doctrines of the Cross, they were more widely spread and diffused through the world. For the enjoyment of the liberty of conscience, the emigrants to New England left their native homes; for the same reason, the Huguenots of France fled before the withering blasts of the revolution of the edict of Nantes in 1685, many of them settling in the city of New York. To the persecuted and oppressed, America was represented as a land of rest, and emigrants poured in upon our shores from France, Holland, Germany, England, Ireland, and Scotland; among whom were many eminent for piety, intelligence, and liberal principles. To the latter place, we trace the ancestor of the subject of this brief sketch. The great grandfather of Philip Livingston was an eminent divine in the church of Scotland, and, in 1663, emigrated to Rotterdam, a city of the Netherlands, in South Holland, where he died nine years after. His son Robert emigrated to America, and obtained a grant for the manor along the Hudson river, which is remarkable for the beauty of its location and the richness of its soil.

      He had three sons, Philip, the father of the present subject, Robert, grandfather of Chancellor Livingston, and Gilbert, the grandfather of the Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston, who stood high as a scholar and divine. The subject of this memoir was his fourth son, born at Albany, 15th of January, 1716.

      Mr. Livingston was among the few, who, in those days, received a college education. After his preparatory studies, he entered Yale College, and graduated in 1737. In common with most of the descendants of that celebrated family, he was blessed with strong native talent, which he improved by an excellent education. With principles firmly based on religion and moral rectitude, he was eminently prepared to commence a career of usefulness. In those days of republican simplicity, graduates from college, instead of riding rough shod over those whose literary advantages were less, believing themselves forever exonerated from the field, the shop, and the counting-house, thought it no disparagement to apply themselves to agricultural, mechanical, and commercial pursuits. Among them, we find Mr. Livingston extensively and successfully engaged in mercantile business, in the city of New York. Reposing full confidence in his integrity, which was then a necessary passport to public favour, his fellow citizens elected him to the office of Alderman in 1754, in which he continued during nine successive years, contributing largely to the peace and prosperity of the city. In 1759, he was a member of the colonial assembly, which had important duties to perform; Great Britain being at war with France, which brought the colonists in contact with the Canadian French and Indians. Twenty-thousand men were to be raised by the colonists to guard the frontier settlements, and, if practicable, to carry the war into the territory of the enemy.

      The province of New York furnished 2680 men, and 250,000 pounds, to aid in the proposed object.

      Mr. Livingston took an active and judicious part in these deliberations, and also introduced laws for the advancement of commerce, agriculture, and various improvements; manifesting a sound judgment and liberal views. He was an active member of the committee on foreign relations, who wisely selected the celebrated Edmund Burke, to represent their interests in the British parliament. From the lucid communications of Mr. Livingston, that celebrated statesman and friend to America, was made thoroughly acquainted with the situation, feelings, and interests of the colonists.

      After the dissolution of the general assembly by the decease of George II., Mr. Livingston was again elected in 1761, a member of the one under the new dynasty. In 1764, he wrote an answer to the message of lieutenant-governor Colden, pointing out, in respectful, but bold and convincing language, the oppressions and infringements of the British ministry upon the rights of the Americans.

      He soon became a nucleus, around which a band of patriots gathered, and eventually formed a nut too hard to be cracked by all the hammers of the crown. The consequence of the bold stand taken by many of the members, in defence of their dear bought privileges, was the sudden dissolution of the assembly by the governor, whenever he discovered a majority in favour of liberal principles.

      In 1768, the assembly consisted of the brightest luminaries of talent then in the colony, who elevated Mr. Livingston to the honourable and distinguished station of Speaker. Discovering that a majority of the new assembly were unwilling to be slaves and tools, the governor, Sir Henry Moore, dissolved them, and ordered a new election. He succeeded in obtaining a majority of creatures like himself, but a sufficient number of whigs were elected to watch the interests of the people, and hold the minions of the crown in check and awe. Although Mr. Livingston, from disgust at the procedure of the governor and his adherents, had declined being a candidate in the city of New York, he was returned from the manor, and, on mature deliberation, took his seat as a member, although opposed, at first unsuccessfully, because he was not a resident of the district that elected him, in which predicament a large majority of the members were found involved: they therefore concluded not to run the risk of having their own glass houses broken, for the sake of demolishing that of Mr. Livingston. During this session, he offered a resolution setting forth the grievances of his countrymen, which gave great umbrage to the adherents of the crown. This determined them to expel him on the ground at first assumed, which was effected by a vote of 17 to 6; twenty-one of the twenty-four members being similarly situated, not residents of the districts they represented.

      A wider field was now opened before him. He was elected to the first Congress at Philadelphia, and became a brilliant star in that enlightened and patriotic body. He was one of the committee that prepared the spirited address to the British nation, that roused from their lethargy those whose attention had not been called to the all-important subjects then in agitation, involving a nation’s rights and a nation’s wrongs.

      He was continued a member of Congress, and, when the grand birthday of our independence arrived, Mr. Livingston aided in the thrilling duties of the occasion, invoked the smiles of Heaven upon the new born infant, and gave the sanction of his name to the magna charta that secured to it a towering majesty and grandeur before unknown.

      He was also a member of the association that recommended and adopted a non-intercourse with the mother country; president of the provincial Congress assembled at New York, to devise measures for their protection, and was one of those who framed the Constitution of his native State, which was adopted in 1777. Under that he was chosen a Senator, and attended the first session of the legislature of the empire State. The same year he was elected to Congress, then in session at York, Pennsylvania, having retired before their conquering foe. Deeply afflicted with a hydro-thorax, (dropsy of the chest,) he felt that his mortal career СКАЧАТЬ