Edward Livingston

Edward Livingston
Born	28 5, 1764
Birthplace	Clermont, Province of New York, British America
Died	Template:Death date and age Rhinebeck, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Jurist, statesman, politician
Title	14th United States Minister to France
Known for	Louisiana Civil Code of 1825; service as U.S. Secretary of State; Mayor of New York City
Education	College of New Jersey (now Princeton University)
Spouse(s)	Mary McEvers (m. 1788; d. 1801) Louise Moreau de Lassy (m. 1805)

Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764 – May 23, 1836) was an American jurist, statesman, politician, and slaveholder who held a remarkable range of public offices over a career spanning four decades. Born into one of New York's most prominent colonial families, Livingston served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from both New York and Louisiana, as the 47th Mayor of New York City, as a United States Senator from Louisiana, as the 11th United States Secretary of State under President Andrew Jackson, and as the 14th United States Minister to France. He is perhaps best remembered for his influential role in drafting the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a comprehensive legal code drawn substantially from the Napoleonic Code, which shaped Louisiana's distinctive legal tradition. Livingston's legal scholarship, particularly his work on criminal law reform and codification, earned him international recognition during his lifetime and continued to influence legal thought long after his death. He died five days short of his seventy-second birthday at his estate in Rhinebeck, New York.

Early Life

Edward Livingston was born on May 28, 1764, at Clermont, the family estate along the Hudson River in the Province of New York. The Livingston family was one of the most powerful and politically connected dynasties in colonial and early republican America. Clermont had served as the family's ancestral seat since the late seventeenth century, and generations of Livingstons played central roles in New York politics, commerce, and land ownership.

Edward was the youngest son of Robert R. Livingston (1718–1775), a judge of the New York Supreme Court, and Margaret Beekman Livingston, who came from another prominent Hudson Valley family. His elder brother, Robert R. Livingston, served as Chancellor of New York and was one of the five members of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Another brother, John R. Livingston, was a prominent merchant and landowner.

Growing up at Clermont during the tumultuous years of the American Revolution, the young Edward was exposed from an early age to the intersection of law, politics, and public service that defined his family. The Livingston estate at Clermont was burned by the British in 1777, an act that reinforced the family's commitment to the patriot cause. Edward's formative years were shaped by both the privileges of his family's social standing and the political upheaval of the revolutionary era.

Education

Edward Livingston received his early education through private tutoring, as was customary for sons of the colonial elite. He subsequently enrolled at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), from which he graduated in 1781 at the age of seventeen. Following his graduation, Livingston studied law and was admitted to the New York bar in 1785. He then commenced the practice of law in New York City, where his family connections and legal acumen quickly established him in the profession.

His legal education was shaped by the common law tradition then prevailing in New York, though Livingston would later become deeply versed in civil law traditions after relocating to Louisiana. His fluency in French, developed during his education and through family connections, proved essential to his later work in Louisiana's francophone legal culture.

Career

Early Political Career in New York

Livingston entered politics as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, aligning with the faction led by Thomas Jefferson and opposed to the Federalist Party. In 1794, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing a New York district. He took his seat on March 4, 1795, and served three consecutive terms until March 3, 1801. His predecessor in the seat was John Watts, and he was succeeded by Samuel L. Mitchill.

During his time in the House, Livingston was an active participant in the partisan debates of the early republic. He was a vocal opponent of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which he viewed as unconstitutional encroachments on civil liberties. His stance on these issues placed him firmly within the Jeffersonian camp and established his reputation as a defender of individual rights and limited government.

In 1801, upon the inauguration of President Thomas Jefferson, Livingston was appointed United States Attorney for the District of New York. Simultaneously, he was appointed the 47th Mayor of New York City, serving in that capacity from 1801 to 1803. His predecessor as mayor was Richard Varick, and he was succeeded by DeWitt Clinton.

Financial Scandal and Departure from New York

Livingston's tenure as both United States Attorney and Mayor of New York was cut short by a financial scandal. While serving as U.S. Attorney, he was responsible for the collection of federal debts and the management of funds. A subordinate in his office defaulted on a significant sum of money owed to the federal government, and Livingston, as the responsible officer, found himself personally liable for the loss. The resulting financial obligation was substantial, and Livingston was unable to immediately make restitution.

The scandal effectively ended Livingston's political career in New York. Rather than face continued public embarrassment and financial ruin in a city where his family name had been so prominent, Livingston resigned from his offices in 1803 and made the consequential decision to relocate to New Orleans, which had recently come under American control following the Louisiana Purchase — a transaction in which his brother Robert had played a key diplomatic role as Minister to France.

Career in Louisiana

Arriving in New Orleans in 1804, Livingston quickly established himself as one of the city's leading attorneys. His legal knowledge, combined with his command of the French language and his familiarity with both common law and civil law traditions, made him exceptionally well-suited to practice in Louisiana, where the legal system was a complex blend of French, Spanish, and American legal traditions.

Livingston threw himself into the legal and civic life of New Orleans. He built a thriving law practice and became involved in land disputes, commercial litigation, and questions of property law that were particularly complex in the newly acquired territory. He also became a slaveholder, acquiring enslaved people as part of his establishment in the plantation economy of Louisiana.

One of Livingston's most notable early undertakings in Louisiana involved a protracted legal dispute over the batture — a tract of alluvial land along the Mississippi River near New Orleans. Livingston claimed ownership of the batture and sought to develop it, but President Jefferson ordered his eviction from the land in 1807, asserting that it was public property. The resulting legal battle between Livingston and the federal government became one of the most celebrated property law disputes in early American history and dragged on for years, involving some of the finest legal minds of the era.

The Louisiana Civil Code of 1825

Livingston's most enduring contribution to American law was his role in the drafting and shaping of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825. Louisiana's legal system, rooted in the French and Spanish civil law traditions, was fundamentally different from the common law systems of the other American states. In 1808, the territory had adopted its first civil code, known as the Digest of 1808, but this document was regarded as incomplete and in need of revision.

Livingston was appointed to a commission tasked with revising Louisiana's civil law. Drawing heavily on the Napoleonic Code (the French Civil Code of 1804), as well as on Spanish legal sources and the principles of natural law, the commission produced the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825. This comprehensive body of law governed matters of persons, property, obligations, and contracts, and it established Louisiana's distinctive legal identity within the American federal system.

Livingston's contributions to this codification effort went beyond mere translation or adaptation. He brought a systematic legal philosophy that emphasized clarity, accessibility, and the rational organization of legal principles. His work on the code reflected his broader commitment to legal reform and codification, which he believed was essential to making the law comprehensible and just.

Criminal Law Reform

In addition to his work on civil law, Livingston undertook an ambitious project to draft a comprehensive criminal code for Louisiana. His proposed System of Penal Law was a groundbreaking work that addressed not only substantive criminal law but also criminal procedure, prison discipline, and the prevention of crime. The code was notable for its humanitarian approach, advocating for the rehabilitation of offenders rather than purely punitive measures, and for its opposition to the death penalty in most cases.

Although the Louisiana legislature never adopted Livingston's penal code in its entirety, the work attracted widespread attention both in the United States and abroad. Jeremy Bentham, the English utilitarian philosopher and legal reformer, praised Livingston's work, and legal scholars in Europe and Latin America studied it as a model of enlightened criminal law reform. The penal code project cemented Livingston's international reputation as one of the foremost legal thinkers of his era.

Return to National Politics

Livingston's legal accomplishments in Louisiana also revived his political career. In 1822, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district, a newly established seat. He took his seat on March 4, 1823, and served three terms until March 3, 1829. He was succeeded in that seat by Edward D. White Sr.

During the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815, Livingston had served as an aide and advisor to General Andrew Jackson, helping to organize the city's defenses and acting as a liaison between Jackson's forces and the diverse population of New Orleans. This association forged a lasting political and personal bond between the two men that would prove decisive in Livingston's later career.

In 1829, Livingston was elected to the United States Senate from Louisiana, succeeding Dominique Bouligny. He served in the Senate from March 4, 1829, until May 24, 1831, when he resigned to join President Jackson's cabinet. He was succeeded in the Senate by George A. Waggaman.

Secretary of State

On May 24, 1831, Edward Livingston was appointed the 11th United States Secretary of State by President Andrew Jackson, succeeding Martin Van Buren. He served in this capacity until May 29, 1833.

As Secretary of State, Livingston confronted several significant diplomatic challenges. Among the most pressing was the ongoing dispute with France over claims dating from the Napoleonic Wars. American merchants had suffered extensive losses from French seizures of American shipping, and the United States government sought compensation. Livingston negotiated the French Spoliation Claims Treaty of 1831, under which France agreed to pay 25 million francs in indemnities. However, the French government subsequently delayed payment, leading to a prolonged diplomatic crisis that extended beyond Livingston's tenure as Secretary of State.

Livingston also dealt with diplomatic questions arising from the Nullification Crisis of 1832–1833, in which South Carolina threatened to nullify federal tariff laws. While this was primarily a domestic matter, it had foreign policy implications, and Livingston assisted Jackson in drafting the famous Nullification Proclamation of December 1832, which asserted the supremacy of federal law and the indissolubility of the Union. Livingston's legal expertise and literary skill were instrumental in crafting the proclamation's arguments.

His predecessor as Secretary of State was Martin Van Buren, and he was succeeded by Louis McLane.

Minister to France

Following his service as Secretary of State, Livingston was appointed the 14th United States Minister to France on September 30, 1833, again under President Jackson. He served in this diplomatic post until April 29, 1835.

In Paris, Livingston was tasked with resolving the continuing impasse over the French spoliation claims. Despite having negotiated the original treaty, he found the French government resistant to honoring its financial commitments. The French Chamber of Deputies repeatedly refused to appropriate the funds required for payment, and relations between the two countries deteriorated to the point that Jackson, in his annual message to Congress in December 1834, suggested that reprisals might be necessary. The French government, offended by Jackson's language, recalled its minister from Washington and demanded an explanation. Livingston found himself in an increasingly difficult diplomatic position, caught between Jackson's confrontational approach and French intransigence.

Livingston's predecessor as Minister to France was Levett Harris, who had been serving in an acting capacity, and he was succeeded by Lewis Cass.

Livingston returned to the United States in 1835, his health declining. He retired to his family's estate at Rhinebeck, New York.

Personal Life

Edward Livingston married twice. His first wife was Mary McEvers, whom he married on April 10, 1788. Mary McEvers Livingston died on March 13, 1801. Following his relocation to New Orleans, Livingston married Louise Moreau de Lassy, a young widow of French Creole background, in 1805. Louise was a woman of considerable intelligence and social grace, and she became Livingston's partner in the social and intellectual life of New Orleans and, later, in the diplomatic circles of Washington and Paris.

Livingston was a slaveholder, a fact that has received increased scholarly attention. The Edward Livingston Historical Association, based in Livingston Parish, Louisiana — a parish named in his honor — has hosted discussions examining the historical connections between defenses of slavery and later segregation.

Edward Livingston died on May 23, 1836, at Rhinebeck, New York, five days before his seventy-second birthday. He was buried at the Livingston Memorial Church and Burial Ground.

Recognition

During his lifetime, Livingston was recognized as one of America's leading legal scholars. His work on the Louisiana Civil Code and his proposed system of penal law earned him praise from jurists and reformers on both sides of the Atlantic. Jeremy Bentham corresponded with Livingston and lauded his criminal code project as a model of rational legal reform.

Livingston was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Several places in the United States bear Livingston's name, reflecting the scope of his influence. Livingston Parish, Louisiana, was named in his honor, and the parish continues to maintain an active historical association dedicated to preserving and studying his legacy.

His grandson, Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, became a pioneering physician in the treatment of tuberculosis and founded the Saranac Laboratory in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The American Thoracic Society awards the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal in recognition of exemplary achievements in respiratory health, perpetuating the Livingston family's legacy of public service in a different sphere.

Legacy

Edward Livingston's legacy is most firmly established in the field of law. The Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, to which he contributed significantly, remains the foundation of Louisiana's distinctive civil law system — the only state in the Union whose legal framework derives primarily from the continental European civil law tradition rather than the English common law. The code has been revised and updated over the ensuing centuries, but its essential structure and many of its principles trace back to the work of Livingston and his fellow commissioners.

His proposed system of penal law, though never fully enacted, represented one of the most ambitious and philosophically coherent attempts at criminal law codification in nineteenth-century America. The work influenced criminal law reform movements in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, and scholars continued to study and cite it well into the twentieth century.

As a politician, Livingston's career illustrated the fluidity of early American political life. His ability to reinvent himself after the financial scandal that ended his New York career — building a new life and a new political base in the culturally distinct environment of Louisiana — demonstrated both personal resilience and adaptability. His close association with Andrew Jackson placed him at the center of Jacksonian democracy, though his own temperament and interests were more those of a scholar and jurist than a populist politician.

Livingston's role as Secretary of State, while relatively brief, coincided with significant moments in American diplomacy, including the Nullification Crisis and the French spoliation claims dispute. His contribution to Jackson's Nullification Proclamation helped articulate constitutional principles regarding federal supremacy that would resonate through subsequent decades of American political debate, culminating in the constitutional arguments surrounding the Civil War.

The tensions inherent in Livingston's legacy — a legal reformer who advocated humanitarian principles in criminal law while simultaneously participating in the institution of slavery — reflect broader contradictions in the political culture of the early American republic. Modern scholars have increasingly examined these contradictions, situating Livingston within the complex and often troubling history of American law, politics, and race.