Autographs
1783 Revolutionary War Request for a Military Pass to New York w/ Robert Livingston Signed Autograph Endorsement
ROBERT LIVINGSTON (1746-1813). Member of the Continental Congress, Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation government, on April 30, 1789 he Administered the Presidential oath of office to George Washington, and Negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from France, first Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (1781"83), and Minister to France (1801"04).
March 3, 1783-Dated Revolutionary War Period, Autograph Endorsement Signed, "R.R. Livingston" at the bottom of a written appeal by Jane Cuyler to the Hon'ble Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1 page, measuring 9.5" x 7," boldly written by Cuyler on laid watermarked period paper, Philadelphia, PA, Very Fine. Here, Robert Livingston appends a certification to a request by Jane Cuyler for a military Pass to go to New York, and attempt to recover property abandoned when the British invaded New York. The Docketing indicates that Mrs. Cuyler received her military Pass, it reading, in full: "1783 March 4th - Petition of Jane Cuyler - read in Council and Ordered That a Pass be granted -" Livingston writes, in full: "I certify that Mrs. Cuyler was a long time an inhabitant of New York that her late husbands family possessed a considerable property there." Livingston's note at bottom and his signature are written in a lighter tan ink than the rest of the document, but it is still quite legible and his signature measures over 2" long at the conclusion. Accompanied by a previous Typewritten transcript from the Lincoln Library. (2 items).
Robert R. Livingston, (born Nov. 27, 1746, New York, N.Y. [U.S.]"died Feb. 26, 1813, Clermont, N.Y.), early American leader who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, first Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (1781"83), and Minister to France (1801"04).



Born into a wealthy and influential New York family, Livingston was admitted to the bar in 1770. Devoted to the idea of independence from Britain, he worked on numerous committees of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia (1775"76, 1779"81, 1784"85), especially in the areas of finance and foreign and judicial affairs. He was a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, and, after helping to draft New York state's first constitution (1777), he served as the state's first chancellor, a judicial office (1777"1801).



With the inauguration of the federal government under the Articles of Confederation (1781), Livingston was appointed secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, in which post he established vital administrative precedents and organized the conduct of foreign affairs on a businesslike basis. He insisted on greater independence for American delegates to the Paris Peace Conference (1782"83) but reprimanded them for negotiating without the full concurrence of France.



On April 30, 1789, under the new Constitution, Chancellor Livingston administered the oath of office in New York City to the nation's first president, George Washington. During the 1790s he gradually associated himself with the anti-Federalists and in 1801 was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson to represent the United States in France. In that capacity he rendered his most distinguished service by helping effect the Louisiana Purchase (1803) - one of the country's greatest diplomatic coups!



In retirement Livingston became enthusiastically involved with steam-navigation experiments, and in partnership with the inventor Robert Fulton, he received a steamboat monopoly in New York waters. Their first successful steam vessel, operating on the Hudson River in 1807, was named the Clermont after Livingston's ancestral home.