Mayor Edward Livingston

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Mayor Edward Livingston


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1911 Encyclopedia
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Family
Mayor Edward Livingston
(28 May 1764, Clermont NY)
(23 May 1836, Montgomery Place NY)
+ Mary McEvers
(d:13 Mar 1801)

Children:
    Charles Edward Livingston
    Julia Livingston
    Lewis Livingston

+ Louise Moreau de Lassy

Children:
    Coralie Livingston[married Thomas Barton]


Biographical Directory of the American Congress
LIVINGSTON, Edward (brother of Robert R. Livingston and nephew of Philip Livingston and William Livingston), a Representative from New York and a Representative and a Senator from Louisiana; born in Clermont, Livingston Manor, N.Y., May 26, 1764; was graduated from Princeton College in 1781; studied law in Albany, N.Y.; was admitted to the bar in 1785 and commenced practice in New York City; elected as a Democrat from New York to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Congresses (March 4, 1795-March 3, 1801); United States district attorney from March 27, 1801, to July 25, 1803; mayor of New York City 1801-1803; moved to New Orleans, La., in 1804; engaged in the practice of law and in the real-estate business; author of a legal code for Louisiana; served at the Battle of New Orleans on the staff of General Jackson in 1815; member of the State house of representatives in 1820; elected as a Democrat from Louisiana to the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Congresses (March 4, 1823-March 3, 1829); elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1829, until May 24, 1831, when he resigned, having been appointed to the Cabinet; Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Andrew Jackson from May 24, 1831, to May 29, 1833; Minister Plenipotentiary to France from May 29, 1833, to April 28, 1835; inherited from his sister "Montgomery Place" on the Hudson River, Barrytown, Dutchess County, N.Y., and died there May 23, 1836; interment in the family vault at Clermont, N.Y


1911 Encyclopedia
LIVINGSTON, EDWARD (1764-1836), American jurist and statesman, was born in Clermont, Columbia county, New York, on the 26th of May 1764. He was a great-grandson of Robert Livingston, the first of the family to settle in America (see LIVINGSTON, WILLIAM, below). He graduated at Princeton in 1781, was admitted to the bar in 1785, and began to practise law in New York City, rapidly rising to distinction. In 1795 iSoi he was a Republican representative in Congress, where he was one of the leaders of the opposition to Jays treaty, introduced the resolution calling upon President Washington for, all papers relating to the treaty, and at the close of Washingtons administration voted with Andrew Jackson and other radicals against the address to the president. He opposed the Alien and Sedition Laws, introduced legislation on behalf of American seamen, and in 1800 attacked the president for permitting the extradition by the British government of Jonathan Robbins, who had committed murder on an English frigate, and had then escaped to South Carolina and falsely claimed to be an American citizen. In the debate on this question Livingston was opposed by John Marshall. In 1801 Livingston was appointed U.S. district-attorney for the state of New York, and while retaining that position was in the same year appointed mayor of New York City. When, in the summer of 5803, the city was visited with yellow fever, Livingston displayed courage and energy in his cndeavours to prevent the spread of the disease and relieve distress. He suffered a violent attack of the fever, during which the people gave many proofs of their attachment to him. On his recovery he found his private affairs in some confusion, and he was at the same time deeply indebted to the government for public funds which had been lost through the mismanagement or dishonesty of a confidential clerk, and for which he was responsible as district-attorney. He at once surrendered all his property, resigned his two offices in 1803, and removed early in 1804 to Louisiana. He soon acquired a large law practice in New Orleans, and in 1826 repaid the government in full, including the interest, which at that time amounted to more than the original principal.

Almost immediately upon his arrival in Louisiana, where the legal system had previously been based on Roman, French and Spanish law, and where trial by jury and other peculiarities of English common law were now first introduced, he was appointed by the legislature to prepare a provisional code of judicial procedure, which (in the form of an act passed in April 1805) was continued in force from 1805 to 1825. In 1807, after conducting a successful suit on behalf of a clients title to a part of the batture or alluvial land near New Orleans, Livingston attempted to improve part of this land (which he had received as his fee) in the Batture, Ste 1~Iarie. Great popular excitement was aroused against him; his workmen were mobbed; and Governor Claiborne, when appealed to for protection, referred the question to the Federal government. Livingstons case was damaged by President Jefferson, who believed that Livingston had favored Burr in the presidential election of i8oo, and that he had afterwards been a party to Burrs schemes. Jefferson made it impossible for Livingston to secure his title, and in 1812 published a pamphlet for the use of counsel in the case against Livingston, to which Livingston published a crushing reply. Livingstons final victory in the courts brought him little financial profit because of the heavy expenses of the litigation. During the war with England from 1812 to 1815 Livingston was active in rousing the mixed population of New Orleans to resistance. He used his influence to secure amnesty for Lafitte and his followers upon their offer to fight for the city, and in 1814-1815 acted as adviser and volunteer aide-de-camp to General Jackson, who was his personal friend. In 1821, by appointment of the legislature, of which he had become a member in the preceding year, Livingston began the preparation of a new code of criminal law and procedure, afterwards known in Europe and America as the Livingston Code. It was prepared in both French and English, as was required by the necessities of practice in Louisiana, and actually consisted of four c descrimes and punishments, procedure, evidence in criminal cases, reform and prison discipline. Though substantially completed in I8~4, when it was accidentally burned, and again in 1826, it was not printed entire until 1833. It was never adopted by the state. It was at once reprinted in England, France and Germany, attracting wide praise by its remarkable simplicity and vigour, and especially by reason of its philanthropic provisions in the code of reform and prison discipline, which noticeably influenced the penal legislation of various countries. In referring to this code, Sir Henry Maine spoke of Livingston as the first legal genius of modern times (Cambridge Essays, 1856, p.17). The spirit of Livingstons code was remedial rather than vindictive; it provided for the abolition of capital punishment and the making of penitentiary labor not a punishment forced on the prisoner, but a matter of his choice and a reward for good behaviour, bringing with it better accommodations. His Code of Reform and Prison Discipline was adopted by Guatemala. Livingston was the leading member of a commission appointed to prepare a new civil code, which for the most part the legislature adopted in 1825, and the most important chapters of which, including all those on contract, were prepared by Livingston alone.

Livingston was again a representative in Congress during i Preliminary work in the preparation of anewcivilcodehad been done by James Brown and Moreau Lislet, who in i8o8 reported a Digest of the Civil Laws now in force in the Territory of Orleans with Alterations and Amendments adapted to the present Form 01 Government 1823-1829, a senator in 1829f831, and for two years(I831I833) secretary of state under President Jackson. In this last position he was oneof the most trusted advisers of the president, for whom he prepared a number of state papers, the most important being the famous anti-nullification proclamation of the 10th of December 1832. From 1833 to 1835 Livingston was minister plenipotentiary to France, charged with procuring the fulfilment by the French government of the tfeaty negotiated by W. C. Rives in 1831, by which France had bound herself to pay an indemnity of twenty-five millions of francs for French spoliations of American shipping chiefly under the Berlin and Milan decrees, and the United States in turn agreed to pay to France 1,500,000 francs in satisfaction of French claims. Livingstons negotiations were conducted with excellent judgment, but the French Chamber of Deputies refused to make an appropriation to pay the first instalment due under the treaty in 1833, relations between the two governments became strained, and Livingston was finally instructed to close the legation and return to America. He died on the 23rd of May 1836 at Montgomery Place, Dutchess county, New York, an estate left him by his sister, to which he had removed in 1831. Livingston was twice married. His first wife, iviary McEvers, whom he married on the 10th of April 1788, died on the I3thof March 1801. InJune 1805 he married Madame Louise Moreau de Lassy (d. 1860), a widow nineteen years of age, whose maiden name was Davezac de Castera, and who was a refugee in New Orleans from the revolution in Santo Domingo. She was a woman of extraordinary beauty and intellect, and is said to have greatly influenced her husbands public career.

See C. H. Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston (New York, 1864); Livingstons Works (2 vols, New York, 1873); and Louise Livingston Hunt, Memoir of Mrs Edward Livingston (New York, 1886).


Manor Lords
Edward Livingston (1764-1836), the youngest child of Robert R. Livingston and Margaret Beekman, was another distinguished lawyer and statesman. Among his famous works was the Code of Laws and Criminal Procedure of Louisiana, which though eventually not adopted, brought him international fame. Edward Livingston pledged a large part of his inheritance, including vast land tracts of the Hardenberg Patent, to finance his political campaigns. He was US attorney for New York and got elected mayor of the City, but due to misappropriation of funds by one of his clerks, he had too resign and exiled himself to Louisiana. He successively served as a US representative of Louisiana, US senator, Secretary of State and US minister to France. Edward Livingston married twice and had four children but only Coralie (1806-1873), his daughter by his second wife Louise (D’Avezac de Castera) Moreau de Lassy, survived him and married Thomas Barton, a Quaker from Philadelphia. They had no children thus the familiy estate, including the sizeable estate left to Edward Livingston by his oldest sister Janet (Livingston) Montgomery, descended to Maturin Livingston Delafield, Edward’s great-grand-nephew and a grandson of Gertrude (Livingston) Lewis.

Encarta
Livingston, Edward (1764-1836), U.S. statesman, brother of the U.S. statesman and diplomat Robert R. Livingston, born in Clermont, New York, and educated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He practiced law in New York City and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1795 to 1801 and mayor of New York City from 1801 to 1803. In 1804 he moved to New Orleans and in1815 served on the staff of Major General Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans. He drafted a legal code for Louisiana and represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1823 to 1829 and in the U.S. Senate from 1829 to 1831. He was U.S. secretary of state from 1831 to 1833 and minister to France from 1833 to 1835.










        
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