Clermont State Historic Site

Robert Livingston’s involvement in the building of the country started early and continued throughout the conflict with Great Britain.  He concerned himself with military affairs, political affairs and diplomatic affairs, on a state, national and international level.  Through it all he fought for Independence, but only on his terms.

Livingston’s first recorded foray into the resistance movement came during his commencement speech from King’s College in 1765.  He gave an oration “On Liberty”.  The New York Gazette said “many of the audience please themselves with hopes that the young orator may prove an able and zealous asserter and defender of the rights and liberties of his country, as well as an ornament to it.”

This came at right before his father, Judge Robert Livingston sat on the “Stamp Act Congress’ to protest the slew of taxes passed by the British government on their colonies.  Livingston was heard to say that enforcing the taxes would lead to war.  He protested against them strongly, including writing one of the tracts that was sent to Britain in protest but fought hard to keep those protests from becoming a general mob uprising.  In fact when sailors and young men of New York City threatened to riot in protest of taxation, Livingston was seen moving about the city discouraging violence and encouraging the men to return to their homes and ships.

This is the attitude that he instilled in his son.  Both Livingstons came down firmly on the side of the patriots but were unwilling to see the social order of the day upset.  British rule threatened their property; they fought to see that rebellion would not.

            In early 1775 Livingston was chosen to represent Dutchess County at the provincial congress in New York City.  The congress’s only order of business was to choose representatives to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.  Livingston was a unanimous choice.  A few days later on April 23, 1775 he wrote to his father-in-law to explain his decision to go to Philadelphia and ended up revealing much about his motivations in general.  He wrote “some more cautious persons w [ill] advise me to de cline but I am resolved to stand or fall with my country.  My property is here.  I cannot remove it and I will not hold [it] at the will of others.”  Livingston’s resolve seems all the more meaningful, when the fact that news of Lexington and Concord arrived in New York City on April 23.

            When Livingston arrived in Philadelphia he, like most representatives, still hoped for reconciliation.  His first major assignment for Congress came in June of 1775 when he was chosen along with Richard Henry Lee and Edmund Pendleton to draft an address to the people of Great Britain that would explain the complaints of the colonists and how they would like to see them redressed peacefully.  This address was to be part of a set of publications that would go to all parts of the British Empire like a present day public relations campaign.  The most famous of these was the address to King George III, which went down as history as the “Olive Branch Petition.”

            The Address to the people of Great Britain was long attributed to Richard Henry Lee who had a reputation for producing such inflammatory works.  However the discovery of the original draft at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in New York City in 2013 changed all this.  The draft was in Robert Livingston’s handwriting. 

The letter seems rather fiery for Livingston, who is normally considered one of the more moderate members of the continental congress. After listing grievances, including the infringement of their right of Legislation, which he says “rendered our property precarious”, he goes on to try to prove that what they are doing is only right and that Parliament has backed them into the corner they now find themselves in. “ Our Enemies charge us with sedition.  In what does it consist? In our refusal to submit to unwarrantable Acts of Injustice and Cruelty?”  He also vaguely threatens that should Parliament continue on their course than more violence would come.  “On the sword, therefore, we are compelled to rely for Protection.  Should victory declare in your Favour, yet men trained to Arms from their infancy, and animated by the Love of Liberty, will afford neither cheap or easy Conquest.  Of this at least we are assured, that our struggle will be glorious, our success certain, since even in Death we will find the Freedom which in Life you forbid us to enjoy.”

            The document warns the people of England that, “Soldiers who have sheathed their swords in the Bowels of their American Brethren, will not draw them with more reluctance against you”.  And yet the whole document is tinged with the idea that should The King or the people intervene on their behalf with Parliament the people of the colonies would welcome a “happy and permanent reconciliation.”  

            Like the Olive Branch Petition the address received little attention in Great Britain.  In between the decision to produce them and their actual disbursement the Battle of Bunker Hill had made it abundantly clear that neither side would back down from what was most assuredly going to be a horrifically bloody war.  The closest thing that the Olive Branch Petition and the accompanying document received in terms of a response was the King declaring the colonies in rebellion and making them all rebels.

            The Address to the People of Great Britain was well received among the colonials however.  James Madison wrote to William Bradford on July 18, 1775 that the “true Eloquence may vie with the most applauded Oration of Tully himself.”  He also said “I think the traces of Livingston’s pen are visible” although he was probably referring to William Livingston of New Jersey who had written some spirited pamphlets earlier. 

            The address also represented the first in a long string of petty jabs and barbs at Livingston by John Adams, who had a seemingly irrational but deep dislike of Livingston.  He wrote; “Our Address to the People of Great Britain, will find many Admirers among the Ladies, and fine Gentlemen: but it is not to my Taste.  Prettyness, Juvenilities, much less Puerilities, become not a great Assembly like this Representation of a great people.”

            Livingston’s main contributions to the debates in congress during the fall of 1775 seem to have been arguing against non-importation acts and port closures in the North.  He argued that closures would they ruin up to a quarter of New England and New York who depended on trade for their lively hoods, not only sailors and merchants but blacksmiths, riggers, block makers and others. Additionally, he said, closing ports would drive American sailors onto enemy ships and that ammunition for the war effort could not be received if ports were closed.  While this may seem reluctant it is in fact the most business savvy position to take.  Without trade the economy of New York, including Livingston’s own fortunes, would have been imperiled.

            During 1775 Livingston was also making another contribution to the war effort.  He was acting as an agent for his father’s gun powder mill.  The Judge had begun construction of the mill in early 1775.  Gun powder was going to be one of the limiting agents in the American war effort as most of the powder in the colonies was imported.  For the Judge salt peter was the only ingredient of gunpowder not easily accessible.  Livingston was tasked with securing at least parts of shipments of salt peter that arrived in Philadelphia and sending them to his father to be turned into gun powder.  The Livingston powder mill went into production in June of 1775 and continued until December of that year, when it blew up.  Livingston’s brother John took over the rebuilding of the mill the following year.

            Livingston stayed in Congress until November of 1775 when he joined the Committee to the Northward, consisting of him, Robert Treat Paine and John Langdon.  They were tasked with trying to reach the patriot army in Canada to assess their condition.  Philip Schuyler was the intended commanded of the army in the north but health problems forced him to turn command of the expedition over to General Richard Montgomery. 

            This was probably a good inducement for Livingston to set out on what was at best a dangerous mission.  Montgomery was married to Livingston’s sister Janet and the two men had a relationship closer to brothers than brothers –in-law before the war.

            The Committee set out, stopping first in the Hudson Highlands, where they took notes and made suggestions toward their defense.  They were able to travel to Albany fairly easily but north of Albany the trip was nearly disastrous.  Writing to Jay from Fort George he said; “After we got over the mountain, within the reach of woods that close from the lake it was like leaping from Octr. To Decr.”  As the temperature dropped the committee was woefully unprepared.  “They laugh at us here for having brought but one blanket with us, but we hope to make it up in fire.”  Between Fort George and Fort Ticonderoga they slept on makeshift beds they piled out of branches they could drag out of the woods or cut from trees. 

            After consulting with Schuyler they decided not to continue north.  Livingston wrote to Montgomery; “I believe we shall leave you to manage what you have so prosperously begun”. 

            On the return trip Livingston chose to rest in Albany.  This was a decision he later regretted.  His father, the Judge, passed away unexpectedly in early December.  This came barely six months after the death of his paternal grandfather Robert Livingston, known as Robert of Clermont passed away in June of 1775.  While still reeling from these losses word came from Canada that General Montgomery had been killed attacking the walls of Quebec on New Year’s Eve.  A short time later Colonel Henry Beekman, Livingston’s maternal grandfather, also passed away.

             Livingston slipped into illness and depression.  He was hardly able to leave his bed at times.  Friends and family began to worry. His efforts were needed by the country.  Jay wrote to him, “But remember my Friend that your Country bleeds, and calls for your exertions.”  And yet he could not pull himself away.  He wrote to John Jay in February; “I am not so much in love with life as to be very uneasy on my own account, but I think myself necessary to my family, and I should be sorry to add to the affliction of those who have already felt as much as their constitution will bear.”  In the same letter “it is infinitely better to die in the full career of glory when our reputation is at the height, to be followed to the grave by sorrow of the wise and good then to out live our enjoyments, and be forgotten before we die.”

            Adding to Livingston’s emotional turmoil was the fact that his entire life had just changed.  When he had left for Philadelphia, Livingston was the grandson of great land owners.  In slightly more than six months Livingston found himself the owner of, or with an interest in almost one million acres of land.  He became the landlord to thousands of people virtually overnight.  He also became, to the chagrin, of the Manor branch of the family, the perceived leader of the “Livingston faction”. 

On top of all that he was the man of the family as well, a role he took very seriously.  In September of 1778 he received a letter from Gouverneur   Morris on the character and social standing of Dr. Thomas Tillotson.  Livingston was checking up on the man who wanted to marry his sister Margaret.  Tillotson was a senior surgeon in the Continental Army.  Morris’s sources said that Tillotson was “not of any distinguished Family” and he was not “eminent in his line” but Morris found him neither “above or below the common Mass of Men Brilliant in Nothing…”  Livingston must have found him acceptable though, as Margaret and Tillotson were married in February of 1779.

            Slowly Livingston pulled himself out of his funk and began planning his return to the Continental Congress.  Two things helped in this immensely.  Livingston made plans to lodge he and his wife with John Jay and his wife in the town of Bristol, about ten miles from Philadelphia.  Livingston found them “three Bedrooms and a large parlour in a retired country house”.  The house, on the banks of the Delaware would provide “plentiful provisions for our horses, good fishing before the door, a tavern about ¼ mile from us to lodge our friends, & in short everything that we can wish to render out situation agreeable.”  While this situation never came to fruition because of Jay’s wife’s health it gave Livingston hope while he planned it.

            The other thing that got Livingston moving was news trickling across the ocean from England that the British intended to reinvade the colonies.  Since they had been forced out of Massachusetts on March 17 of 1776 there had been no red coat soldiers in what would become the United States.  Most people anticipated the next strike would come at New York.  On May 21, 1776 Livingston wrote to Jay from Philadelphia that they had received word via the Rifleman that they would soon have 34,000 “commissioners” as he called them arriving.  He was of course talking about the British army, soon to land on Long Island.  The 34,000 commissioners were soldiers making up the largest sea borne invasion in history to that point.  He went on to tell Jay to encourage the New York Congress to plan for the defense of the Hudson, mount 12 pound cannon and build gun boats.  Even then a strike on the Hudson seemed like the most sound military strategy and of course a strike up the Hudson River would imperil Livingston’s own land holdings.

            In Congress Livingston tried to slow the rush toward independence, at one point even suggesting a popular vote be held in all the colonies.  It is possible he was strictly following his orders from New York which did not authorize him to vote for independence.  However it equally likely that he feared a popular uprising should they declare independence and was hesitant to endanger his land and family. 

            When the push became inexorable though Livingston decided on the “propriety of swimming with the Stream which it is impossible to Stem” and he would “concede to the torrent” in order to “direct its course”.  In June of 1776 he was chosen to the single most important committee that the Continental Congress ever chose.  The Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independence consisted of Livingston, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

            What specific contributions Livingston made to the Declaration have not been recorded.  Thomas Jefferson was definitely chosen by the Committee to draft the Declaration.  He then took the document to Adams and Franklin who made changes before taking it to the full committee for more revisions.  Then it was finally submitted to the full Congress were it underwent more revisions before being published as the document we know. 

During the roughly ten days the Committee of Five had to debate the document before it went to Congress, sixteen small changes were made between Jefferson’s draft and what was actually presented to the body as a whole.  Two changes have been attributed to John Adams and five to Benjamin Franklin.  It is extremely doubtful that Livingston sat silently and contributed nothing when the document was presented to the whole Committee. 

The idea of a silent Livingston stems from the idea of him as a reluctant revolutionary.  It has been speculated that he was only placed on the committee as a way to placate the moderates and those opposed to independence or that they hoped attaching his land to the document would sway more people to the idea of independence.  This idea is further supported by John Adams who in writing just a few years later forgot that Livingston was even on the Committee.  He referred to a “Mr. R.” as the fifth member of the Committee but Adams memory of this time was often self-serving and when added to his known dislike for Livingston makes him a doubtful source at best.  However, Livingston had experience writing this type of document.  The Declaration is very similar to the Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain that Livingston had written the year before in tone.  Both documents are, for lack of a better term, press releases for the cause. 

Oddly enough Livingston did not sign the Declaration of Independence.  He left Philadelphia on or around July 6, long before it was signed by the whole Congress on August 2.  It is a mystery why he did not sign it later in the war as several of the signers did, although he most likely felt that his contributions spoke for themselves and signing the Declaration would not change things one way or the other.  He left Philadelphia seeking instruction from New York.  The state government was in chaos and had not issued new orders to their representatives in Philadelphia that would allow them to vote for independence.  However the New York provincial congress assembled again on July 9, before Livingston arrived, and voted in favor of independence.

Livingston threw himself into the defense of his colony rather than return to Philadelphia.  He and Jay were named, among others, to secret committee to plan defenses for the Hudson River.  Livingston was soon made the liaison between the committee and General George Washington, then headquartered in New York City.  Livingston would visit with and correspond with Washington throughout the war on military issues.  Washington received a great deal of unsolicited military advice from men who knew nothing about such matters throughout the war but to Livingston he wrote I “thank you (as I shall always do) for Any hints you may please communicate, as I have great reliance upon your judgment; & knowledge of the country (which I wish to God I was as much master of.)”  An example of Livingston’s advice to Washington from October 1776; “ The enemy may still land above & reduce your Excellency to the necessity of attacking them at their Landing or of suffering them to seize upon advantageous passes from which it will be impossible to dislodge them.”  He also recommended abandoning Fort Washington and moving its arms and stores to other more advantageous post before the British captured the post and took the supplies for themselves.

The Secret Committee’s first goal was to secure more cannon for the Highland forts.  They sent Jay to Connecticut where he was able to secure several guns but not the wheels or “trucks” that would be necessary to mount them in garrison carriages at the forts.  Fortunately Livingston knew a guy.  His cousin Robert Livingston, Third Lord of the Manor, ran the iron works at Ancram.  They were able to produce the necessary trucks so the cannon could be mounted and used.

The Committee also designed more passive defenses for the river.  Chevaux de fries, essentially large wooden spears with iron heads, would be sunk facing down river, in the hopes that British shipping coming up river would impale themselves and sink.  A large chain would also be slung across the river from Fort Montgomery on the west side of the river to a point on the east bank preventing ships from sailing beyond it.  The iron for this chain was also produced at the Third Lord’s iron works.

At the same time Livingston was also involved in stopping the plots of Tories and British spies in the Hudson Valley.  John Jay was a member of the Committee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies and while Livingston does not to appear to have been an official member he was certainly associated with them.  Edward Rutledge wrote to him in the fall of 1776 to ask him to return to Philadelphia and take a seat in Congress where he would do more good for his country then he would “riding about the country foiling the plots of the Tories.”   Writing a similar letter to Jay he received the response that “Governor Tryon has been very mischievous and we find our hands full in counteracting and suppressing the conspiracies formed by him and his adherents.”

In the spring of 1777 Livingston, Jay and Gouvernuer Morris took on the task of drafting a constitution for the state of New York.  Perhaps, Livingston’s most significant contribution to the document was in ensuring that the power to veto bills would not lie in the hands of the governor alone but with a committee of revision which would consist of the governor, supreme court justices and the chancellor of the state.  Under the constitution the chancellor was the highest judge in the state.  His chancellery court had the distinction of being able to rule on what was right, which was not always what was legal or illegal.

All in all, the document that they created was fairly liberal.  The biggest change for many people would be much wider enfranchisement.  This was not ideal for Livingston who favored an educated electorate (of course having money made it much easier to have an education, which led to accusations of classism).  But the thought was that tenants would vote with the landlords.  The constitution was passed by the convention with only one dissenting vote, that of Peter R. Livingston, Livingston’s cousin and heir to the manor, who felt that it was too liberal.  Under the new constitution Livingston was made Chancellor of the state.  However, General Philip Schuyler, the candidate Livingston and most large landholders supported for governor was defeated by General George Clinton, who had the support of the people.

During the summer of 1777 the British army had adopted a plan put forth by General John Burgoyne to finally attack the Hudson River and separate New England from the rest of the colonies.  Burgoyne was leading a large force of British soldiers, German mercenaries and Native Americans down the Champlain Valley to the Hudson River Valley.  In July they had taken Fort Ticonderoga but continuing south had proven to be slow and difficult going and a body of the German mercenaries was soundly defeated outside of Bennington.  Meanwhile General Barry St. Leger was leading another force of British and Native Americans east along the Mohawk Valley.  This wing of the attack stalled on the walls of Fort Stanwix in present day Rome, New York.

These two forces were to have been joined by a third army marching north from New York City under the command of General William Howe.  Howe decided instead to march toward Philadelphia to take the rebel capital.  While he was successful the rebel government simply moved to the town of York.  He left General Henry Clinton in command of a reduced force in New York.  Clinton sent an even smaller force under General John Vaughn up the river to cause a distraction, but they would no longer be a force capable of crushing the Northern Army under General Horatio Gates between them.

Vaughn’s force sailed north, crossing the chevaux de fries without incident.  They could not sail past the chain however and were forced to land and take Fort Montgomery by force and then destroy the chain. 

The force then continued north where they burned Kingston, at that point serving as the capital of New York.  A small force was then detached to continue even further north, some of them being brought across the river to march north, landing in the Rhinebeck area while the rest stayed on ships sailing north.  Their mission was to punish notable rebels.  While not specifically named this could have only meant Livingston. 

The land force marched north burning and pillaging until they arrived at Clermont on October 18, where they were joined by the river borne force.  They burned all of the Livingston houses and outbuildings they could find.  They occupied the land for a few days until word of Burgoyne’s defeat and subsequent surrender at Saratoga reached them.

Livingston had been trapped on the east side of the river by the British approach and was unable to join the rest of the New York government in their flight from the British.  His family, including his mother, wife, sisters and his youngest brother Edward fled to Salisbury, Connecticut where they stayed in home owned by Robert Livingston, the Third Lord.  Livingston himself, joined the militia.  General Israel Putnam brought a force of militia and continentals who had been stationed in Connecticut and lined the river for several miles, which looked impressive but left him to strung out to attack the British.  While there was no heavy fighting at Clermont it should be noted that Vaughn did report having one soldier shot at Livingston Manor.

Livingston was devastated by the loss of his home, but rose to the occasion.  When it was suggested that loyalists in the area be hunted down and punished he said that would only create more loyalists.  He also gave 5,000 acres of land from his holdings on the west bank of the river to the people of Kingston to help in their rebuilding efforts.

While he may have seemed magnanimous in this way he also fiercely blamed Putnam for the loss of his home.  He spent a great deal of effort in the winter of 1777 and into 1778 trying to have Putnam removed from the army.  He questioned his will to fight as well as his ability due to his advanced age.  He wrote to Washington “For my own part I respect his bravery & former services, & sincerely lament that his patriotism will not suffer him to take the repose to which his advanced age & past services, justly entitle him.”  Later he suggested that a court of inquiry into the losses in the Hudson Valley in 1777 would “discover at least the incapacity of Genl. Putnam.”  He went on to say “Not having shaken off with the old government the prejudices we imbibed under it, we continue in command peace officers & dowager Genls. who bring the army into contempt & render the most promising schemes abortive.”

Livingston also sought advancement for his brother Henry Beekman Livingston not only for the personal benefit to his brother but because he truly felt that his brother was one of the better officers the army had.  Which, on the battlefield may have in fact been true.  Having volunteered in 1775 Henry had taken part in the invasion of Canada, where he earned a sword awarded by Congress for his gallantry.  In 1776 he was Lieutenant Colonel of the 2^nd New York Regiment and was commanding less than half the regiment in digging a defensive post on the east end of Long Island.  When the British landed to the west of him rather than panic he operated behind enemy lines for several weeks capturing sheep, cows and other supplies and shipping them to Connecticut.  He was so good at this that the British put a price on his head.  In 1777, while Colonel of the 4^th New York Regiment, he had been the first man into the Hessian lines behind General Benedict Arnold, in what proved to be the decisive move at the second Battle of Saratoga.  He later claimed he would have been first but Arnold was on horseback.  After surviving the winter at Valley Forge, Henry fought bravely at the battle of Monmouth, where when the American line was disintegrating because of bad leadership by Charles Lee, Henry’s regiment and a Massachusetts regiment held the American line, against the British Army while Washington reformed the rest of the army.  One third of his regiment, including Henry was killed or wounded.

Despite his skill on the battlefield and the support of his brother Henry never advanced past the rank of colonel.  He had a terrible attitude, was quarrelsome and often refused orders from officers he considered of a lower social rank.

1778 also saw Livingston becoming increasingly disillusioned with New York State government.  He once said they were “hourly perverting the constitution.”  He saw the new laws the government was passing as hurting or stopping business within the state.  In addition taxation became as oppressive as anything the British had attempted.  Even on the Council of Revision he saw trouble.  When they vetoed several bad laws only to have the vetoes overturned by the legislature he began to pull back and stop attending, much to the disappointment of other members of government including John Jay.

The taxes imposed on Livingston seemed to be one of the many perversions he saw..  The state seemed to view the wealthy as an endless source of funds.  In 1780 Livingston’s tax bill was £30,000 but his war depleted income was only about £6,000.  He appealed to Governor George Clinton for relief and even tried sending his bill to the state Treasury for payment. “I have drawn upon the treasury for the amount of my taxes, having no other possible way of discharging them while here & as the State is greatly in my debt I hope they will answer my bills”   Finally he was forced to sell off his horses to pay the bill, which is one of the reasons that men like Livingston joined the revolution to begin with, oppressive taxation that led to the sale of property.

In 1779 Livingston also faced the confiscation act.  The act allowed the property of Tories to be taken without due process.  The bill named many loyalists whose land would be forfeit if it passed.  Livingston wrote “never was there a greater compound of folly, avarice and injustice, then our new Confiscation Bill, to which Benson’s compromising genius not a little contributed.”  Benson being Egbert Benson of Red Hook, another King’s College classmate of Livingston’s.  It also allowed patriots to accuses tory neighbors and have their land confiscated.  “one wishes to possess the house of some poor wretched  Tory another fears him as a rival in his trade or commerce & a fourth wishes to get rid of his debts by Shaking his creditor or to reduce the price of living by depopulating the town”  The chances for abuse were rampant, but the bill was passed over his objections.

Later in 1779 Livingston accepted a reappointment to the Continental Congress, perhaps simply to get away from the state government.  During this time he became an advocate for a bigger government, or at least allowing the Congress to take more power particularly over taxation.  To Washington “I have been long laboring to bring congress to assume the power which will enable them to call forth the resources of the states but unhappily without effect.”  He felt the centralization of resources was the only way to win the war.  He began to resent the fact that the “seat of war” meaning New York seemed to be absorbing all the cost of the fighting.

The following year he provided Washington with what was perhaps the only truly terrible advice he gave during the war.  He wrote to Washington “I should beg leave to submit it to yr Excellency whether this post might not be most safely confided to Genl. Arnold whose courage is undoubted-who is the favorite of our militia, & who will agree perfectly with our govr”.  The post he was referring to was West Point, which Livingston viewed as the only thing between the British and his land.  He wanted the best possible commander he could get there.  The mention of militia refers back to Saratoga where the men of the Livingston Manor militia followed Arnold on his attack of the redoubts.  Of course Arnold’s command of West Point did not end quite as Livingston wished.

In 1781 Livingston was chosen as he first Secretary for Foreign Affairs for the United States under the Articles of Confederation.  The duties of the office were never fully defined but his time as secretary consisted chiefly of receiving updates and reports from American agents in foreign countries and relaying them to Congress as well as disseminating the wishes of Congress and news of the war to the foreign agents. 

Shortly after taking office Livingston was able to send word to his agents of General Charles Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown.  This ultimately led peace negotiations between the states and Great Britain.

During his time as Secretary, Adams’ dislike of Livingston, was a major headache.  At one point Adams, who was representing the United States in the Netherlands, refused to write to Livingston for nearly six months.  When compounded with the time it took messages to cross the Atlantic, left Livingston blind save for second hand accounts to the goings on in one of the most lucrative alliances the young country had for the better part of a year.  He wrote to Adams in 1782; “It is with equal Surprize and concern that I find not the least attention paid to the several Letters I have written you since I have had the honor to be in Office.  I attributed this to their not having reached you, till I saw an extract of a letter which I had written to Mr. Dumas, and which went by the same conveyance with one to you published in the Courier de l’Europe, from which circumstance I conclude it must have been received.  It would give me pleasure to learn that I had been deceived in this particular – Because the punctuality with which your correspondence with Congress has hitherto been maintained would otherwise lead me to conclude that you were not satisfied with the present arrangement of the department for Foreign affairs”.

Franklin, Adams and Jay traveled to Paris to begin negotiating in 1782 to begin peace talks.  The treaty they worked out with the British representatives really gave the States all they wanted: recognition as an independent country, a western border that left room for expansion, fishing rights to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, rights to the Mississippi and most importantly peace.

The only problem, as Livingston saw it, was that the treaty was negotiated without a French representative present.  In a way the peace agents exceeded their authority by negotiating without the French and Livingston chastised them for this.  He feared angering the French by not including them in the negotiations.  They might pull their alliance from the states and at worst might have attacked themselves.  He wrote in March of 1783, But, Gentlemen, tho’ the issue of your treaty has been successful, tho’ I am satisfied that we are much indebted to your firmness and perseverance, to your accurate knowledge of our situation, and of our wants for this success; yet I feel no little pain at the distrust manifested in the management of it, particularly in signing the Treaty without communicating it to the Court of Versailles ‘till after the Signature…”  He went on “For had the Court of France disapproved the terms you had made after they had been agreed upon, they could not have acted so absurdly as to counteract you at that late day, and thereby have put themselves in the power of an Enemy…”  In the end though peace trumped all other concerns and the treaty was approved in September of 1783 shortly after Livingston left office to return to New York.

While he was winding up his time in Philadelphia he had one last challenge in the state to handle.  His opponents in the state were challenging his role as Chancellor since he had not spent a significant amount of time in the state in several years.  He told Clinton he would be returning to assert his position as soon as he could.  Ultimately the challenge amounted to nothing and Livingston continued as Chancellor until he resigned from the post to go to France in 1801. 

A few years after the war ended Livingston was given a distinct honor by the veterans of the Continental Army.  The Society of Cincinnati was formed in Newburgh at the end of the Revolution by the officers of the Army.  The society’s purpose was to maintain the fraternal bonds the men had formed, protect the rights they had fought and died for and to make sure the sacrifice was remembered.  It was open only to the officers of the army and George Washington served as their first president.  A few years later they decided to create honorary members, who had not been in the Continental Army but still made significant contributions to the war.  Livingston was among the first chosen.

Of course Livingston is best known for his activities after the war, giving the oath of office to Washington, the steam boat, sheep, the Louisiana Purchase to name a few.  In France Livingston saw what could have happened had he not been a force for a controlled type of radicalism during the Revolution.  While he fought for independence from Great Britain he also fought to keep the social order in place and the country from descending into anarchy.    He wrote to an associate; ‘The people of France may be (and I believe are) happy but they will never be free.”

This is the attitude that he instilled in his son.  Both Livingstons came down firmly on the side of the patriots but were unwilling to see the social order of the day upset.  British rule threatened their property; they fought to see that rebellion would not.

In early 1775 Livingston was chosen to represent Dutchess County at the provincial congress in New York City.  The congress’s only order of business was to choose representatives to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.  Livingston was a unanimous choice.  A few days later on April 23, 1775 he wrote to his father-in-law to explain his decision to go to Philadelphia and ended up revealing much about his motivations in general.  He wrote “some more cautious persons w [ill] advise me to de cline but I am resolved to stand or fall with my country.  My property is here.  I cannot remove it and I will not hold [it] at the will of others.”  Livingston’s resolve seems all the more meaningful, when the fact that news of Lexington and Concord arrived in New York City on April 23.

When Livingston arrived in Philadelphia he, like most representatives, still hoped for reconciliation.  His first major assignment for Congress came in June of 1775 when he was chosen along with Richard Henry Lee and Edmund Pendleton to draft an address to the people of Great Britain that would explain the complaints of the colonists and how they would like to see them redressed peacefully.  This address was to be part of a set of publications that would go to all parts of the British Empire like a present day public relations campaign.  The most famous of these was the address to King George III, which went down as history as the “Olive Branch Petition.”

The Address to the people of Great Britain was long attributed to Richard Henry Lee who had a reputation for producing such inflammatory works.  However the discovery of the original draft at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in New York City in 2013 changed all this.  The draft was in Robert Livingston’s handwriting

The letter seems rather fiery for Livingston, who is normally considered one of the more moderate members of the continental congress. After listing grievances, including the infringement of their right of Legislation, which he says “rendered our property precarious”, he goes on to try to prove that what they are doing is only right and that Parliament has backed them into the corner they now find themselves in. “ Our Enemies charge us with sedition.  In what does it consist? In our refusal to submit to unwarrantable Acts of Injustice and Cruelty?”  He also vaguely threatens that should Parliament continue on their course than more violence would come.  “On the sword, therefore, we are compelled to rely for Protection.  Should victory declare in your Favour, yet men trained to Arms from their infancy, and animated by the Love of Liberty, will afford neither cheap or easy Conquest.  Of this at least we are assured, that our struggle will be glorious, our success certain, since even in Death we will find the Freedom which in Life you forbid us to enjoy.”

The document warns the people of England that, “Soldiers who have sheathed their swords in the Bowels of their American Brethren, will not draw them with more reluctance against you”.  And yet the whole document is tinged with the idea that should The King or the people intervene on their behalf with Parliament the people of the colonies would welcome a “happy and permanent reconciliation.”  

Like the Olive Branch Petition the address received little attention in Great Britain.  In between the decision to produce them and their actual disbursement the Battle of Bunker Hill had made it abundantly clear that neither side would back down from what was most assuredly going to be a horrifically bloody war.  The closest thing that the Olive Branch Petition and the accompanying document received in terms of a response was the King declaring the colonies in rebellion and making them all rebels.

The Address to the People of Great Britain was well received among the colonials however.  James Madison wrote to William Bradford on July 18, 1775 that the “true Eloquence may vie with the most applauded Oration of Tully himself.”  He also said “I think the traces of Livingston’s pen are visible” although he was probably referring to William Livingston of New Jersey who had written some spirited pamphlets earlier. 

The address also represented the first in a long string of petty jabs and barbs at Livingston by John Adams, who had a seemingly irrational but deep dislike of Livingston.  He wrote; “Our Address to the People of Great Britain, will find many Admirers among the Ladies, and fine Gentlemen: but it is not to my Taste.  Prettyness, Juvenilities, much less Puerilities, become not a great Assembly like this Representation of a great people.”

Livingston’s main contributions to the debates in congress during the fall of 1775 seem to have been arguing against non-importation acts and port closures in the North.  He argued that closures would they ruin up to a quarter of New England and New York who depended on trade for their lively hoods, not only sailors and merchants but blacksmiths, riggers, block makers and others. Additionally, he said, closing ports would drive American sailors onto enemy ships and that ammunition for the war effort could not be received if ports were closed.  While this may seem reluctant it is in fact the most business savvy position to take.  Without trade the economy of New York, including Livingston’s own fortunes, would have been imperiled.

During 1775 Livingston was also making another contribution to the war effort.  He was acting as an agent for his father’s gun powder mill.  The Judge had begun construction of the mill in early 1775.  Gun powder was going to be one of the limiting agents in the American war effort as most of the powder in the colonies was imported.  For the Judge salt peter was the only ingredient of gunpowder not easily accessible.  Livingston was tasked with securing at least parts of shipments of salt peter that arrived in Philadelphia and sending them to his father to be turned into gun powder.  The Livingston powder mill went into production in June of 1775 and continued until December of that year, when it blew up.  Livingston’s brother John took over the rebuilding of the mill the following year.

Livingston stayed in Congress until November of 1775 when he joined the Committee to the Northward, consisting of him, Robert Treat Paine and John Langdon.  They were tasked with trying to reach the patriot army in Canada to assess their condition.  Philip Schuyler was the intended commanded of the army in the north but health problems forced him to turn command of the expedition over to General Richard Montgomery. 

This was probably a good inducement for Livingston to set out on what was at best a dangerous mission.  Montgomery was married to Livingston’s sister Janet and the two men had a relationship closer to brothers than brothers –in-law before the war.

The Committee set out, stopping first in the Hudson Highlands, where they took notes and made suggestions toward their defense.  They were able to travel to Albany fairly easily but north of Albany the trip was nearly disastrous.  Writing to Jay from Fort George he said; “After we got over the mountain, within the reach of woods that close from the lake it was like leaping from Octr. To Decr.”  As the temperature dropped the committee was woefully unprepared.  “They laugh at us here for having brought but one blanket with us, but we hope to make it up in fire.”  Between Fort George and Fort Ticonderoga they slept on makeshift beds they piled out of branches they could drag out of the woods or cut from trees. 

            After consulting with Schuyler they decided not to continue north.  Livingston wrote to Montgomery; “I believe we shall leave you to manage what you have so prosperously begun”. 

            On the return trip Livingston chose to rest in Albany.  This was a decision he later regretted.  His father, the Judge, passed away unexpectedly in early December.  This came barely six months after the death of his paternal grandfather Robert Livingston, known as Robert of Clermont passed away in June of 1775.  While still reeling from these losses word came from Canada that General Montgomery had been killed attacking the walls of Quebec on New Year’s Eve.  A short time later Colonel Henry Beekman, Livingston’s maternal grandfather, also passed away.

             Livingston slipped into illness and depression.  He was hardly able to leave his bed at times.  Friends and family began to worry. His efforts were needed by the country.  Jay wrote to him, “But remember my Friend that your Country bleeds, and calls for your exertions.”  And yet he could not pull himself away.  He wrote to John Jay in February; “I am not so much in love with life as to be very uneasy on my own account, but I think myself necessary to my family, and I should be sorry to add to the affliction of those who have already felt as much as their constitution will bear.”  In the same letter “it is infinitely better to die in the full career of glory when our reputation is at the height, to be followed to the grave by sorrow of the wise and good then to out live our enjoyments, and be forgotten before we die.”

            Adding to Livingston’s emotional turmoil was the fact that his entire life had just changed.  When he had left for Philadelphia, Livingston was the grandson of great land owners.  In slightly more than six months Livingston found himself the owner of, or with an interest in almost one million acres of land.  He became the landlord to thousands of people virtually overnight.  He also became, to the chagrin, of the Manor branch of the family, the perceived leader of the “Livingston faction”. 

On top of all that he was the man of the family as well, a role he took very seriously.  In September of 1778 he received a letter from Gouverneur   Morris on the character and social standing of Dr. Thomas Tillotson.  Livingston was checking up on the man who wanted to marry his sister Margaret.  Tillotson was a senior surgeon in the Continental Army.  Morris’s sources said that Tillotson was “not of any distinguished Family” and he was not “eminent in his line” but Morris found him neither “above or below the common Mass of Men Brilliant in Nothing…”  Livingston must have found him acceptable though, as Margaret and Tillotson were married in February of 1779.

            Slowly Livingston pulled himself out of his funk and began planning his return to the Continental Congress.  Two things helped in this immensely.  Livingston made plans to lodge he and his wife with John Jay and his wife in the town of Bristol, about ten miles from Philadelphia.  Livingston found them “three Bedrooms and a large parlour in a retired country house”.  The house, on the banks of the Delaware would provide “plentiful provisions for our horses, good fishing before the door, a tavern about ¼ mile from us to lodge our friends, & in short everything that we can wish to render out situation agreeable.”  While this situation never came to fruition because of Jay’s wife’s health it gave Livingston hope while he planned it.

            The other thing that got Livingston moving was news trickling across the ocean from England that the British intended to reinvade the colonies.  Since they had been forced out of Massachusetts on March 17 of 1776 there had been no red coat soldiers in what would become the United States.  Most people anticipated the next strike would come at New York.  On May 21, 1776 Livingston wrote to Jay from Philadelphia that they had received word via the Rifleman that they would soon have 34,000 “commissioners” as he called them arriving.  He was of course talking about the British army, soon to land on Long Island.  The 34,000 commissioners were soldiers making up the largest sea borne invasion in history to that point.  He went on to tell Jay to encourage the New York Congress to plan for the defense of the Hudson, mount 12 pound cannon and build gun boats.  Even then a strike on the Hudson seemed like the most sound military strategy and of course a strike up the Hudson River would imperil Livingston’s own land holdings.

            In Congress Livingston tried to slow the rush toward independence, at one point even suggesting a popular vote be held in all the colonies.  It is possible he was strictly following his orders from New York which did not authorize him to vote for independence.  However it equally likely that he feared a popular uprising should they declare independence and was hesitant to endanger his land and family. 

            When the push became inexorable though Livingston decided on the “propriety of swimming with the Stream which it is impossible to Stem” and he would “concede to the torrent” in order to “direct its course”.  In June of 1776 he was chosen to the single most important committee that the Continental Congress ever chose.  The Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independence consisted of Livingston, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

            What specific contributions Livingston made to the Declaration have not been recorded.  Thomas Jefferson was definitely chosen by the Committee to draft the Declaration.  He then took the document to Adams and Franklin who made changes before taking it to the full committee for more revisions.  Then it was finally submitted to the full Congress were it underwent more revisions before being published as the document we know. 

During the roughly ten days the Committee of Five had to debate the document before it went to Congress, sixteen small changes were made between Jefferson’s draft and what was actually presented to the body as a whole.  Two changes have been attributed to John Adams and five to Benjamin Franklin.  It is extremely doubtful that Livingston sat silently and contributed nothing when the document was presented to the whole Committee. 

The idea of a silent Livingston stems from the idea of him as a reluctant revolutionary.  It has been speculated that he was only placed on the committee as a way to placate the moderates and those opposed to independence or that they hoped attaching his land to the document would sway more people to the idea of independence.  This idea is further supported by John Adams who in writing just a few years later forgot that Livingston was even on the Committee.  He referred to a “Mr. R.” as the fifth member of the Committee but Adams memory of this time was often self-serving and when added to his known dislike for Livingston makes him a doubtful source at best.  However, Livingston had experience writing this type of document.  The Declaration is very similar to the Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain that Livingston had written the year before in tone.  Both documents are, for lack of a better term, press releases for the cause. 

Oddly enough Livingston did not sign the Declaration of Independence.  He left Philadelphia on or around July 6, long before it was signed by the whole Congress on August 2.  It is a mystery why he did not sign it later in the war as several of the signers did, although he most likely felt that his contributions spoke for themselves and signing the Declaration would not change things one way or the other.  He left Philadelphia seeking instruction from New York.  The state government was in chaos and had not issued new orders to their representatives in Philadelphia that would allow them to vote for independence.  However the New York provincial congress assembled again on July 9, before Livingston arrived, and voted in favor of independence.

Livingston threw himself into the defense of his colony rather than return to Philadelphia.  He and Jay were named, among others, to secret committee to plan defenses for the Hudson River.  Livingston was soon made the liaison between the committee and General George Washington, then headquartered in New York City.  Livingston would visit with and correspond with Washington throughout the war on military issues.  Washington received a great deal of unsolicited military advice from men who knew nothing about such matters throughout the war but to Livingston he wrote I “thank you (as I shall always do) for Any hints you may please communicate, as I have great reliance upon your judgment; & knowledge of the country (which I wish to God I was as much master of.)”  An example of Livingston’s advice to Washington from October 1776; “ The enemy may still land above & reduce your Excellency to the necessity of attacking them at their Landing or of suffering them to seize upon advantageous passes from which it will be impossible to dislodge them.”  He also recommended abandoning Fort Washington and moving its arms and stores to other more advantageous post before the British captured the post and took the supplies for themselves.

The Secret Committee’s first goal was to secure more cannon for the Highland forts.  They sent Jay to Connecticut where he was able to secure several guns but not the wheels or “trucks” that would be necessary to mount them in garrison carriages at the forts.  Fortunately Livingston knew a guy.  His cousin Robert Livingston, Third Lord of the Manor, ran the iron works at Ancram.  They were able to produce the necessary trucks so the cannon could be mounted and used.

The Committee also designed more passive defenses for the river.  Chevaux de fries, essentially large wooden spears with iron heads, would be sunk facing down river, in the hopes that British shipping coming up river would impale themselves and sink.  A large chain would also be slung across the river from Fort Montgomery on the west side of the river to a point on the east bank preventing ships from sailing beyond it.  The iron for this chain was also produced at the Third Lord’s iron works.

At the same time Livingston was also involved in stopping the plots of Tories and British spies in the Hudson Valley.  John Jay was a member of the Committee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies and while Livingston does not to appear to have been an official member he was certainly associated with them.  Edward Rutledge wrote to him in the fall of 1776 to ask him to return to Philadelphia and take a seat in Congress where he would do more good for his country then he would “riding about the country foiling the plots of the Tories.”   Writing a similar letter to Jay he received the response that “Governor Tryon has been very mischievous and we find our hands full in counteracting and suppressing the conspiracies formed by him and his adherents.”

In the spring of 1777 Livingston, Jay and Gouvernuer Morris took on the task of drafting a constitution for the state of New York.  Perhaps, Livingston’s most significant contribution to the document was in ensuring that the power to veto bills would not lie in the hands of the governor alone but with a committee of revision which would consist of the governor, supreme court justices and the chancellor of the state.  Under the constitution the chancellor was the highest judge in the state.  His chancellery court had the distinction of being able to rule on what was right, which was not always what was legal or illegal.

All in all, the document that they created was fairly liberal.  The biggest change for many people would be much wider enfranchisement.  This was not ideal for Livingston who favored an educated electorate (of course having money made it much easier to have an education, which led to accusations of classism).  But the thought was that tenants would vote with the landlords.  The constitution was passed by the convention with only one dissenting vote, that of Peter R. Livingston, Livingston’s cousin and heir to the manor, who felt that it was too liberal.  Under the new constitution Livingston was made Chancellor of the state.  However, General Philip Schuyler, the candidate Livingston and most large landholders supported for governor was defeated by General George Clinton, who had the support of the people.

During the summer of 1777 the British army had adopted a plan put forth by General John Burgoyne to finally attack the Hudson River and separate New England from the rest of the colonies.  Burgoyne was leading a large force of British soldiers, German mercenaries and Native Americans down the Champlain Valley to the Hudson River Valley.  In July they had taken Fort Ticonderoga but continuing south had proven to be slow and difficult going and a body of the German mercenaries was soundly defeated outside of Bennington.  Meanwhile General Barry St. Leger was leading another force of British and Native Americans east along the Mohawk Valley.  This wing of the attack stalled on the walls of Fort Stanwix in present day Rome, New York.

These two forces were to have been joined by a third army marching north from New York City under the command of General William Howe.  Howe decided instead to march toward Philadelphia to take the rebel capital.  While he was successful the rebel government simply moved to the town of York.  He left General Henry Clinton in command of a reduced force in New York.  Clinton sent an even smaller force under General John Vaughn up the river to cause a distraction, but they would no longer be a force capable of crushing the Northern Army under General Horatio Gates between them.

Vaughn’s force sailed north, crossing the chevaux de fries without incident.  They could not sail past the chain however and were forced to land and take Fort Montgomery by force and then destroy the chain. 

The force then continued north where they burned Kingston, at that point serving as the capital of New York.  A small force was then detached to continue even further north, some of them being brought across the river to march north, landing in the Rhinebeck area while the rest stayed on ships sailing north.  Their mission was to punish notable rebels.  While not specifically named this could have only meant Livingston. 

The land force marched north burning and pillaging until they arrived at Clermont on October 18, where they were joined by the river borne force.  They burned all of the Livingston houses and outbuildings they could find.  They occupied the land for a few days until word of Burgoyne’s defeat and subsequent surrender at Saratoga reached them.

Livingston had been trapped on the east side of the river by the British approach and was unable to join the rest of the New York government in their flight from the British.  His family, including his mother, wife, sisters and his youngest brother Edward fled to Salisbury, Connecticut where they stayed in home owned by Robert Livingston, the Third Lord.  Livingston himself, joined the militia.  General Israel Putnam brought a force of militia and continentals who had been stationed in Connecticut and lined the river for several miles, which looked impressive but left him to strung out to attack the British.  While there was no heavy fighting at Clermont it should be noted that Vaughn did report having one soldier shot at Livingston Manor.

Livingston was devastated by the loss of his home, but rose to the occasion.  When it was suggested that loyalists in the area be hunted down and punished he said that would only create more loyalists.  He also gave 5,000 acres of land from his holdings on the west bank of the river to the people of Kingston to help in their rebuilding efforts.

While he may have seemed magnanimous in this way he also fiercely blamed Putnam for the loss of his home.  He spent a great deal of effort in the winter of 1777 and into 1778 trying to have Putnam removed from the army.  He questioned his will to fight as well as his ability due to his advanced age.  He wrote to Washington “For my own part I respect his bravery & former services, & sincerely lament that his patriotism will not suffer him to take the repose to which his advanced age & past services, justly entitle him.”  Later he suggested that a court of inquiry into the losses in the Hudson Valley in 1777 would “discover at least the incapacity of Genl. Putnam.”  He went on to say “Not having shaken off with the old government the prejudices we imbibed under it, we continue in command peace officers & dowager Genls. who bring the army into contempt & render the most promising schemes abortive.”

Livingston also sought advancement for his brother Henry Beekman Livingston not only for the personal benefit to his brother but because he truly felt that his brother was one of the better officers the army had.  Which, on the battlefield may have in fact been true.  Having volunteered in 1775 Henry had taken part in the invasion of Canada, where he earned a sword awarded by Congress for his gallantry.  In 1776 he was Lieutenant Colonel of the 2^nd New York Regiment and was commanding less than half the regiment in digging a defensive post on the east end of Long Island.  When the British landed to the west of him rather than panic he operated behind enemy lines for several weeks capturing sheep, cows and other supplies and shipping them to Connecticut.  He was so good at this that the British put a price on his head.  In 1777, while Colonel of the 4^th New York Regiment, he had been the first man into the Hessian lines behind General Benedict Arnold, in what proved to be the decisive move at the second Battle of Saratoga.  He later claimed he would have been first but Arnold was on horseback.  After surviving the winter at Valley Forge, Henry fought bravely at the battle of Monmouth, where when the American line was disintegrating because of bad leadership by Charles Lee, Henry’s regiment and a Massachusetts regiment held the American line, against the British Army while Washington reformed the rest of the army.  One third of his regiment, including Henry was killed or wounded.

Despite his skill on the battlefield and the support of his brother Henry never advanced past the rank of colonel.  He had a terrible attitude, was quarrelsome and often refused orders from officers he considered of a lower social rank.

1778 also saw Livingston becoming increasingly disillusioned with New York State government.  He once said they were “hourly perverting the constitution.”  He saw the new laws the government was passing as hurting or stopping business within the state.  In addition taxation became as oppressive as anything the British had attempted.  Even on the Council of Revision he saw trouble.  When they vetoed several bad laws only to have the vetoes overturned by the legislature he began to pull back and stop attending, much to the disappointment of other members of government including John Jay.

The taxes imposed on Livingston seemed to be one of the many perversions he saw..  The state seemed to view the wealthy as an endless source of funds.  In 1780 Livingston’s tax bill was £30,000 but his war depleted income was only about £6,000.  He appealed to Governor George Clinton for relief and even tried sending his bill to the state Treasury for payment. “I have drawn upon the treasury for the amount of my taxes, having no other possible way of discharging them while here & as the State is greatly in my debt I hope they will answer my bills”   Finally he was forced to sell off his horses to pay the bill, which is one of the reasons that men like Livingston joined the revolution to begin with, oppressive taxation that led to the sale of property.

In 1779 Livingston also faced the confiscation act.  The act allowed the property of Tories to be taken without due process.  The bill named many loyalists whose land would be forfeit if it passed.  Livingston wrote “never was there a greater compound of folly, avarice and injustice, then our new Confiscation Bill, to which Benson’s compromising genius not a little contributed.”  Benson being Egbert Benson of Red Hook, another King’s College classmate of Livingston’s.  It also allowed patriots to accuses tory neighbors and have their land confiscated.  “one wishes to possess the house of some poor wretched  Tory another fears him as a rival in his trade or commerce & a fourth wishes to get rid of his debts by Shaking his creditor or to reduce the price of living by depopulating the town”  The chances for abuse were rampant, but the bill was passed over his objections.

Later in 1779 Livingston accepted a reappointment to the Continental Congress, perhaps simply to get away from the state government.  During this time he became an advocate for a bigger government, or at least allowing the Congress to take more power particularly over taxation.  To Washington “I have been long laboring to bring congress to assume the power which will enable them to call forth the resources of the states but unhappily without effect.”  He felt the centralization of resources was the only way to win the war.  He began to resent the fact that the “seat of war” meaning New York seemed to be absorbing all the cost of the fighting.

The following year he provided Washington with what was perhaps the only truly terrible advice he gave during the war.  He wrote to Washington “I should beg leave to submit it to yr Excellency whether this post might not be most safely confided to Genl. Arnold whose courage is undoubted-who is the favorite of our militia, & who will agree perfectly with our govr”.  The post he was referring to was West Point, which Livingston viewed as the only thing between the British and his land.  He wanted the best possible commander he could get there.  The mention of militia refers back to Saratoga where the men of the Livingston Manor militia followed Arnold on his attack of the redoubts.  Of course Arnold’s command of West Point did not end quite as Livingston wished.

In 1781 Livingston was chosen as he first Secretary for Foreign Affairs for the United States under the Articles of Confederation.  The duties of the office were never fully defined but his time as secretary consisted chiefly of receiving updates and reports from American agents in foreign countries and relaying them to Congress as well as disseminating the wishes of Congress and news of the war to the foreign agents. 

Shortly after taking office Livingston was able to send word to his agents of General Charles Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown.  This ultimately led peace negotiations between the states and Great Britain.

During his time as Secretary, Adams’ dislike of Livingston, was a major headache.  At one point Adams, who was representing the United States in the Netherlands, refused to write to Livingston for nearly six months.  When compounded with the time it took messages to cross the Atlantic, left Livingston blind save for second hand accounts to the goings on in one of the most lucrative alliances the young country had for the better part of a year.  He wrote to Adams in 1782; “It is with equal Surprize and concern that I find not the least attention paid to the several Letters I have written you since I have had the honor to be in Office.  I attributed this to their not having reached you, till I saw an extract of a letter which I had written to Mr. Dumas, and which went by the same conveyance with one to you published in the Courier de l’Europe, from which circumstance I conclude it must have been received.  It would give me pleasure to learn that I had been deceived in this particular – Because the punctuality with which your correspondence with Congress has hitherto been maintained would otherwise lead me to conclude that you were not satisfied with the present arrangement of the department for Foreign affairs”.

Franklin, Adams and Jay traveled to Paris to begin negotiating in 1782 to begin peace talks.  The treaty they worked out with the British representatives really gave the States all they wanted: recognition as an independent country, a western border that left room for expansion, fishing rights to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, rights to the Mississippi and most importantly peace.

The only problem, as Livingston saw it, was that the treaty was negotiated without a French representative present.  In a way the peace agents exceeded their authority by negotiating without the French and Livingston chastised them for this.  He feared angering the French by not including them in the negotiations.  They might pull their alliance from the states and at worst might have attacked themselves.  He wrote in March of 1783, But, Gentlemen, tho’ the issue of your treaty has been successful, tho’ I am satisfied that we are much indebted to your firmness and perseverance, to your accurate knowledge of our situation, and of our wants for this success; yet I feel no little pain at the distrust manifested in the management of it, particularly in signing the Treaty without communicating it to the Court of Versailles ‘till after the Signature…”  He went on “For had the Court of France disapproved the terms you had made after they had been agreed upon, they could not have acted so absurdly as to counteract you at that late day, and thereby have put themselves in the power of an Enemy…”  In the end though peace trumped all other concerns and the treaty was approved in September of 1783 shortly after Livingston left office to return to New York.

While he was winding up his time in Philadelphia he had one last challenge in the state to handle.  His opponents in the state were challenging his role as Chancellor since he had not spent a significant amount of time in the state in several years.  He told Clinton he would be returning to assert his position as soon as he could.  Ultimately the challenge amounted to nothing and Livingston continued as Chancellor until he resigned from the post to go to France in 1801. 

A few years after the war ended Livingston was given a distinct honor by the veterans of the Continental Army.  The Society of Cincinnati was formed in Newburgh at the end of the Revolution by the officers of the Army.  The society’s purpose was to maintain the fraternal bonds the men had formed, protect the rights they had fought and died for and to make sure the sacrifice was remembered.  It was open only to the officers of the army and George Washington served as their first president.  A few years later they decided to create honorary members, who had not been in the Continental Army but still made significant contributions to the war.  Livingston was among the first chosen.

Of course Livingston is best known for his activities after the war, giving the oath of office to Washington, the steam boat, sheep, the Louisiana Purchase to name a few.  In France Livingston saw what could have happened had he not been a force for a controlled type of radicalism during the Revolution.  While he fought for independence from Great Britain he also fought to keep the social order in place and the country from descending into anarchy.    He wrote to an associate; ‘The people of France may be (and I believe are) happy but they will never be free.”

To close a quote from Gouverneur Morris which seems to describe how Livingston lived; “You cannot be mediocre and by Heaven if you do not fill the first Rank brilliant comme L’astre du jour You deserve tenfold Shame and may expect it as the proper Reward of you Ingloriousness.”