26 Facts About Edward Livingston

Edward Livingston was an American jurist and statesman.

Edward Livingston was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code.

Edward Livingston was born in Clermont, colonial Albany County, Province of New York.

Edward Livingston was the youngest son of Judge Robert Livingston and Margaret Livingston, and was a member of the prestigious Livingston family.

Edward Livingston's father was a member of the New York Provincial Assembly and a Judge of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature, and his mother was heir to immense tracts of land in Dutchess and Ulster counties.

Edward Livingston was admitted to the bar in 1785, and began to practice law in New York City along with James Kent, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, rapidly rising to distinction.

From 1795 to 1801, Edward Livingston was a Democratic-Republican US Representative in the United States Congress from the state of New York, where he was one of the leaders of the opposition to Jay's Treaty, and introduced the resolution calling upon President George Washington to furnish Congress with the details of the negotiations of the peace treaty with the Kingdom of Great Britain, which the President refused to share.

Edward Livingston was a prominent opponent of the Alien and Sedition Laws, introduced legislation on behalf of American seamen, and in 1800 attacked the president for permitting the extradition to the British government of Jonathan Robbins, who had committed murder on an English frigate and then escaped to South Carolina and falsely claimed to be an American citizen.

In 1801, Edward Livingston was appointed United States Attorney for the district of New York, and while retaining that position was in the same year appointed Mayor of New York City.

When, in the summer of 1803, the city was visited with yellow fever, Edward Livingston displayed courage and energy in his endeavors to prevent the spread of the disease and relieve distress.

Edward Livingston suffered a violent attack of fever, during which the people gave many proofs of their attachment to him.

Edward Livingston soon built a large law practice in New Orleans, and in 1826 he repaid the Federal government in full, including the interest, which by that time amounted to more than the original principal.

In 1807, after conducting a successful suit on behalf of a client's title to a part of the batture or alluvial land near New Orleans, Edward Livingston attempted to improve part of this land in the Batture Ste.

The Edward Livingston Code was at once reprinted in England, France, and Germany, attracting wide praise by its remarkable simplicity and vigor, 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.

Edward Livingston became again a US Representative, this time as the first person to serve Louisiana's 1st congressional district.

Edward Livingston served as a US Representative from Louisiana from 1823 to 1829, a US Senator from 1829 to 1831, and for two years United States Secretary of State under President Jackson.

Edward Livingston prepared a number of state papers for President Jackson, the most important being the famous anti-nullification proclamation of December 10,1832.

From 1833 to 1835, Livingston was minister plenipotentiary to France, charged with procuring the fulfillment by the French government of the treaty 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.

Edward Livingston's negotiations were conducted with excellent judgment, but the French Chamber of Deputies refused to make an appropriation to pay the first installment due under the treaty in 1833, relations between the two governments became strained, and Edward Livingston was finally instructed to close the legation and return to America.

Edward Livingston was the daughter of Charles McEvers and Mary McEvers and her sister, Eliza McEvers, was the second wife of Edwards older brother, the merchant John R Livingston.

Edward Livingston was a woman of extraordinary beauty and intellect: "the lady name is short, but she is said to be majestic in her person and elegant in manners with a long purse".

Edward Livingston is said to have greatly influenced her husband's public career.

Together, Louise and Edward Livingston were the parents of two children, only one of whom lived to adulthood:.

Edward Livingston died on May 23,1836,5 days before his 72nd birthday at Montgomery Place in Red Hook, New York, an estate left him by his sister, to which he had removed in 1831.

Edward Livingston is the namesake of counties in Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri, and a parish in Louisiana with its seat of Livingston.

Edward Livingston was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1825 and the American Antiquarian Society in 1833.