Okla-homey
2/26/2008, 07:46 AM
February 26, 1813: “The Chancellor” Dies
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/45555/2000064659439255544_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000064659439255544)
Robert R. Livingston.
195 years ago on this day in 1813, New York Patriot Robert R. Livingston dies. Robert R. (or R.R.) Livingston was the eldest of nine children born to Judge Robert Livingston and Margaret Beekman Livingston in their family seat, Clermont, on the Hudson River in upstate New York.
The Livingston family were proprietors of large land claims in the Hudson Valley and their attempt to enforce restrictive leases led to tenant uprisings in 1766, during which the tenant farmers (a/k/a "sharecroppers") threatened to kill the lord of Livingston Manor, Robert Livingston (R.R.’s relative), and destroy his opulent homes. The British army suppressed the revolt, saving the Livingstons, in 1766.
In 1777, the British army burned down Clermont and another of R.R.’s estates, Belvedere, in retribution for Livingston’s decision to side with the Patriots.
During the intervening 11 years between the tenant uprising and the burning of Clermont, Robert R. Livingston, who had graduated from King’s College (now Columbia University) in 1764, had established himself as a lawyer and political leader.
As a phenomenally wealthy and influential person, he represented the Provincial Congress of New York at the Continental Congress in 1776 and helped to draft the Declaration of Independence, although he returned to New York before he was able to sign the document because NY had not authorized him to sign.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/46978/2000077047998250950_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000077047998250950)
Of the five figures standing in the center of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, Robert Livingston is depicted in the center of the committee of five presenting the draft Declaration to the Second Continental Congress. The five prominent figures depicted are, from left to right, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.
During the Revolution, Livingston served as secretary of foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation. In 1783, he accepted the post of chancellor of the state of New York; he bore the title as a moniker for the rest of his life.
The “chancellor” was a Federalist delegate to the Constitutional ratification convention in New York, and, as New York’s senior judge, administered President Washington’s first oath of office.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/46978/2000070352216123545_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000070352216123545)
Livingston (in the black robe) stands behind Washington
He was a Freemason, and in 1784, he was appointed the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York. He retained this title until 1801. The Grand Lodge's library in Manhattan bears his name. The Bible Livingston used to administer the oath of office to President Washington is owned by St. John’s Lodge No. 1. It is still used today when the Grand Master is sworn in, and, by request, when a President of the United States is sworn in.
Under President Jefferson, Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchase while serving as ambassador to France, and sponsored his nephew Robert Fulton’s development of the first commerically viable steamboat which Fulton named "Clermont" in honor of Livingston's rebuilt family manse on the Hudson from which it was launched.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/44018/2000035558459015740_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000035558459015740)
Robert Fulton...steamboat inventor
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/44284/2001412342385117897_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001412342385117897)
Fulton's Clermont. Bankrolled by Robert Livingston
Today, both a statue in the U.S. Capitol and the name of New York’s Masonic Library memorialize R.R. Livingston as “the Chancellor.” Livingston County, Kentucky, Livingston Parish, Louisiana and Livingston County, New York are named for him.
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/44515/2000041366743877586_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000041366743877586)
Every state has two statues in the Capitol's "Statuary Hall." NY sent this one of Livingston as one of its two.
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/45041/2001409553511270992_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001409553511270992)
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/45555/2000064659439255544_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000064659439255544)
Robert R. Livingston.
195 years ago on this day in 1813, New York Patriot Robert R. Livingston dies. Robert R. (or R.R.) Livingston was the eldest of nine children born to Judge Robert Livingston and Margaret Beekman Livingston in their family seat, Clermont, on the Hudson River in upstate New York.
The Livingston family were proprietors of large land claims in the Hudson Valley and their attempt to enforce restrictive leases led to tenant uprisings in 1766, during which the tenant farmers (a/k/a "sharecroppers") threatened to kill the lord of Livingston Manor, Robert Livingston (R.R.’s relative), and destroy his opulent homes. The British army suppressed the revolt, saving the Livingstons, in 1766.
In 1777, the British army burned down Clermont and another of R.R.’s estates, Belvedere, in retribution for Livingston’s decision to side with the Patriots.
During the intervening 11 years between the tenant uprising and the burning of Clermont, Robert R. Livingston, who had graduated from King’s College (now Columbia University) in 1764, had established himself as a lawyer and political leader.
As a phenomenally wealthy and influential person, he represented the Provincial Congress of New York at the Continental Congress in 1776 and helped to draft the Declaration of Independence, although he returned to New York before he was able to sign the document because NY had not authorized him to sign.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/46978/2000077047998250950_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000077047998250950)
Of the five figures standing in the center of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, Robert Livingston is depicted in the center of the committee of five presenting the draft Declaration to the Second Continental Congress. The five prominent figures depicted are, from left to right, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.
During the Revolution, Livingston served as secretary of foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation. In 1783, he accepted the post of chancellor of the state of New York; he bore the title as a moniker for the rest of his life.
The “chancellor” was a Federalist delegate to the Constitutional ratification convention in New York, and, as New York’s senior judge, administered President Washington’s first oath of office.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/46978/2000070352216123545_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000070352216123545)
Livingston (in the black robe) stands behind Washington
He was a Freemason, and in 1784, he was appointed the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York. He retained this title until 1801. The Grand Lodge's library in Manhattan bears his name. The Bible Livingston used to administer the oath of office to President Washington is owned by St. John’s Lodge No. 1. It is still used today when the Grand Master is sworn in, and, by request, when a President of the United States is sworn in.
Under President Jefferson, Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchase while serving as ambassador to France, and sponsored his nephew Robert Fulton’s development of the first commerically viable steamboat which Fulton named "Clermont" in honor of Livingston's rebuilt family manse on the Hudson from which it was launched.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/44018/2000035558459015740_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000035558459015740)
Robert Fulton...steamboat inventor
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/44284/2001412342385117897_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001412342385117897)
Fulton's Clermont. Bankrolled by Robert Livingston
Today, both a statue in the U.S. Capitol and the name of New York’s Masonic Library memorialize R.R. Livingston as “the Chancellor.” Livingston County, Kentucky, Livingston Parish, Louisiana and Livingston County, New York are named for him.
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/44515/2000041366743877586_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000041366743877586)
Every state has two statues in the Capitol's "Statuary Hall." NY sent this one of Livingston as one of its two.
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/45041/2001409553511270992_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001409553511270992)