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Rh night while on her journey to meet the president, after his inauguration. The hall was decorated with flowers, and a brilliant assemblage of distin- guished guests gathered to do her honor. In the morning Washington himself came out to escort her to the city. His retirement was soon inter- rupted by the progress of public events, and he was elected a deputy for the province of New Jersey to the 1st Continental congress in July, 1774, and re- elected to the 2d and 3d congresses. In June, 1776, he left congress for Elizabethtown, to assume the duties of brigadier-general and commander-in- chief of the New Jersey militia, an invasion by the British being feared. This duty prevented his re- turn to Philadelphia, and explains the absence of his name from the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In August he was elected first governor of the state of New Jersey, and after resigning his military command he continued in office until his death. Gov. Livingston, in his message in 1777 to the assembly, recommended the abolition of slavery, and in 1786, through his in- fluence, caused the passage of an act forbidding the importation of slaves, he himself liberating those in his own possession, with the resolution never to own another. During the occupancy of New Jersey by British troops he filled his office with great efficiency, as is shown by Washington's writings. Several expeditions were made for the purpose of kidnapping him, but he was always fortunate in escaping. Gov. Livingston was known as the " Itinerant Dey of New Jersey," " the Knight of the most honorable Order of Starvation and Chief of the Independents," and the " Don Quixote of the Jerseys," on account of his being very tall and thin. A "female wit " dubbed him " the whip- .ping-post." In 1787 he was a delegate to the con- vention that framed the U. S. constitution, and he had previously declined the appointment of com- missioner to superintend the construction of the Federal buildings, and that of minister to Holland. He received the degree of LL. D. from Yale in 1788, was among the original trustees of the New York society library, and in 1751 was made one of the trustees of Kings (now Columbia) college, but declined to qualify when he found that the presi- dent must be a clergyman of the Church of Eng- land. For some time he was president of the "Moot," a club of lawyers formed in 1770 and well known in the early history of New York city. and he was also a member of the American philo- sophical society and of the American academy of arts and sciences. President Timothy Dwight. of Yale, says of him: "The talents of Gov. Livingston were very various. His imagination was brilliant, his wit sprightly and pungent, his under- standing powerful, his taste refined, and his con- ceptions bold and masterly. His views of politi- cal subjects were expansive, clear, and just. Of freedom, both civil and religious, he was a distin- guished champion." Gov. Livingston began the publication in 1752 of "The Independent Re- flector," a weekly political and miscellaneous journal, in which he opposed the establishment of an American episcopate and the incorporation of an Episcopal college in New York. It was discon- tinued after the publication of fifty-two numbers. He wrote largely for the newspapers, and. besides numerous political tracts, published " Philosophic Solitude, or the Choice of a Rural Life," a poem (New York, 1747) ; " A Funeral Elogium on the Rev. Aaron Burr" (1757); " A Soliloquy " (1770); and, with William Smith, Jr., "A Digest of the Laws of New York -1691 -1762" (1752-62). See "Life and Letters of William Livingston," by Theodore Sedgwick, Jr. (New York, 1833).— William's son, Henry Brockholst, lawyer, b. in New York city, 26 Nov., 1757 : d. in Washington, D. C, 19 March, 1823, was graduated at Princeton in 1774, at the beginning of the Revolutionary war entered the American army with the grade of cap- tain, and, being selected by Gen. Philip Schuvler as one of his aides, was attached to the north'ern department with the rank of major. Subsequently he was aide to Gen. Arthur St. Clair during the siege of Ticonderoga. and was with Benedict Ar- nold at the surrender of Burgoyne's army in Oc- tober, 1777. Later he served again with Gen. Schuyler, and obtained the rank of lieutenant-colo- nel. In 1779 he accompanied his brother-in-law, John Jay. to Spain, as private secretary. On his return voyage in 1782 he was captured by a British vessel, and on reaching New York was thrown into prison. He was liberated on the arrival of Sir Guy Carleton. who sent him home to his father, saying that he came to conciliate and not to fight. Liv- ingston then went to Albany, where he began the study of law with Peter Yates, ami in IT*:} was ad- mitted to the bar. After the evacuation of New York he established himself in that city, and from that time he dropped his first name. He was regarded as "one of the most accomplished scholars,

able advocates, and fluent speakers of his time in the city, but violent in his political feelings and conduct." In June, 1802. he was made a puisne judge of the state supreme court, and in 1807 he succeeded William Patterson as associate justice of the U. S. supreme court. Judge Livingston was appointed one of the trustees of the New York society library, on its reorganization in 1?KS, and was elected 2d vice-president <if the New York his- torical society on its organization in 1805. He was also one of the first corporators of the public-school system of New York city. In 1S18 the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Harvard, and in 1790 he delivered an oration before the president and other notable persons in St. Paul's chapel, New York, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He also contributed political articles to the press of his time under the pen-name of Decius.— The second Philip's grandson, Walter, lawyer, b. in 1740; d. in New York city, 14 May. 1797. was a resident of Albany, and a member of the provincial congresses that were held in New York during April and May. 1775. In 1777 he was appointed one of the judges for Albany by the convention that made his kinsman, Robert R. Livingston, chancellor. He was a mem- ber of congress in 17S4-*5, and appointed in 1785 one of the first commissioners of the treasury. Mr. Livingston married Cornelia Schuyler, step-daugh- ter of Dr. John Cochrane. In 17*79 Mrs. Living- ston and Mrs. Cochrane were specially invited to dine with Gen. Washington, whose headquarters