Livingston, Robert R., Jr. (1746–1813)

• Author: Dennis J. Mahoney
• Pages: 1636

Page 1636

The son of a New York judge, Robert R. Livingston, Jr., was a member of the committees that drafted the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (which he regarded as premature and did not sign) and the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. With JOHN JAY and GOUVERNEUR MORRIS he drafted the New York constitution of 1777. From 1777 to 1801 he was chancellor of New York. In 1788 he was chairman of the New York state convention where he vigorously supported RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. He was later minister to France (1801?1804) and, with JAMES MONROE, negotiated the LOUISIANA PURCHASE TREATY. Livingston became a partner of inventor Robert Fulton and secured a New York steamboat monopoly not broken until GIBBONS V. OGDEN (1824).

DENNIS J. MAHONEY

(1986)