DICTIONARY OF American Biography VOLUME VI LARNED-MILLINGTON Edited by DUMAS MALONE Charles Scribner's Sons New York Livermore Livermore reelected for another six years but resigned in duces a portrait of Mrs. Livermore, attributed to Cop- 1801 because of failing health. Twice he was ley] E.V.M. chosen president of the Senate, pro tempore, and LIVERMORE, SAMUEL (Aug. 26, 1786- as such signed the address to the President on July 11,1833), lawyer and legal writer, was born the death of Washington. Meantime, he had in Concord, N. H., the son of Edward St. Loe also been holding other state offices, the most Livermore [q.v.~\, by his first wife, Mehitable important being that of chief justice of the su­ Harris. He graduated from Harvard College in perior court (1782-90). Thus he did not at first 1804, studied law, and was admitted to the Essex resign when elected to Congress, for there was County bar. After his admission to the bar he then no law requiring it. When the Constitu­ moved to Boston, where he practised law for tion of the United States was being debated, and several years. During the War of 1812 he served the vote of New Hampshire hung in the balance, as a volunteer on board the Chesapeake and was Livermore as a member of the convention of wounded in the engagement with the Shannon. 1788 did great service in bringing about ratifi­ After the war he moved to Baltimore and with cation, thus securing the ninth state and ensur­ others assisted Alexander C. Hanson Iq.v.J in ing the acceptance of the Constitution. In 1791 the publication of the Federal Republican. he was president of the New Hampshire consti­ From Baltimore he moved to New Orleans, tutional convention. where his name appears in the city directory for On Sept. 23, 1759, Livermore married Jane, 1822. Within a few years he had achieved dis­ daughter of the Rev. Arthur Browne of Ports­ tinction as a lawyer. mouth, the first minister of the Church of Eng­ In 1811 Livermore published in Boston A land to settle in New Hampshire. There were Treatise on the Law Relative to Principals, five children, the eldest of whom died in infancy. Agents, Factors, Auctioneers, and Brokers, the Of his surviving sons, Edward St. Loe and Ar­ first American work of its kind (Charles War­ thur tqq.v.'] both became distinguished lawyers, ren, A History of the American Bar, 1911, p. and George Williamson (1764-1805) held for 337). A second edition of this work in two vol­ many years the office of clerk of the court and umes, entitled A Treatise on the Law of Princi­ register of deeds at Holderness. Few more pic­ pal and Agent: and of Sales by Auction, was turesque or important figures than Samuel Liv­ published in Baltimore in 1818. In 1828 he pub­ ermore are found in early New Hampshire his­ lished in New Orleans Dissertations on the Ques­ tory. Homely and sometimes harsh of speech, he tions which Arise from the Contrariety of the possessed a frankness and kindness of heart Positive Laws of Different States and Nations, which atoned for his brusqueness, while his hon­ the first American work on the conflict of laws. esty and common sense as a judge made amends The book has been described as "a forceful but for his contempt for precedents and for his some­ belated attempt to reinstate the statutory theory times inconsistent decisions. He died at his of the mediaeval commentators" (J. H. Beale, home in Holderness and was buried there in the post, part 1, par. 38, p. 49). His doctrines, how­ cemetery of Trinity Church. ever, "could not be applied in a country where [A part of Livermore's journal, telling of his jour­ both commercial and social intercourse between ney to college in 1751, is quoted in a manuscript sketch all parts of it are constant and continuous." of him (140 pp., undated) by his grandson, in the li­ Livermore influenced Story and other Ameri­ brary of the N. H. Hist. Soc. at Concord. This manu­ script also contains copies of letters and other memo­ can lawyers by calling attention to the works of randa. The journal has been printed in part in Put­ medieval authors. He presented to the Harvard nam's Mag., June 1857, pp. 631-35. The N. H. Provin­ cial and State Papers, vols. VII, VIII, X, XXII (1873- Law School his collection of medieval works, r8p3), contain the records of his activities in the state, containing 400 volumes and including the writers and the Jours, of Cong, and Annals of Cong, give his of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth cen­ congressional service. A good sketch of his life by C. R. Corning may be found in the Proc. Grafton and turies on the conflict of laws. This collection Coos County Bar Asso., vol. I (1888), and there are "formed the basis of the large apparatus which also sketches in C. H. Bell, The Bench and Bar of N. H. (1894) ; E. S. Stackpole, Hist, of N. H. (1016), vol. Story's bibliography describes" (Ibid.). Liver­ II; and the iV. H. Hist. Soc. Colls., vol. V (1837). more died at Florence, Ala., while he was on his More of his personality is given in the chapter devoted to him by Geo. Hodges in Holderness (1907). For the way from New Orleans to N-;w England to visit family genealogy, see Henry Bond, Geneals. of the his relatives. Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Wa- tcrtovm, Mass. (1855), and W. E. Thwing, The Liver­ [For biographical data see W. E. Thwing, The Liv­ more Family of America (1902). See also F. M. Colby, ermore Family of America (1902) ; W. T. Davis, Bench "Holderness and the Livermores," Granite Monthly, and Bar of the Commonwealth of Mass. (1895), vol. I; Feb. 1881. A copy of a portrait by Trumbull hangs in Quinquennial Cat. of the Officers and Grads. of Har­ the courtroom in the State Library at Concord and is vard Univ. (1915) ;_and the Florence (Ala.) Gazette, reproduced in the Proc. of the Grafton and Coos Coun­ July 12, 1833. For his legal writings consult J. G. Mar­ ty Bar Asso., vol. II, and by Hodges, who also repro- vin, Legal Bibliog. (1847), and J. H. Beale, A Treatise 3 Livingston Livingston on the Conflict of Laws, or Private Internal, Law, vol. him, but in March 1796 he secured the enactment I, pt. i (1916). References to his gift of books to the Harvard Law School appear in The Centennial Hist, of of a measure for the relief of American seamen the Harvard Law School (1918).] M.J.W. who were impressed or abandoned destitute on LIVINGSTON, EDWARD (May 28, 1764- foreign shores. In the same month the House May 23, 1836), statesman, was born at "Cler­ was called upon for appropriations to carry out mont," Columbia County, N. Y., the youngest Jay's treaty of 1794 with England. Although the son of Robert R. Livingston the elder [q.v.~\ and treaty had been ratified, it was still opposed by Margaret Beekman. His eldest brother was the the Republicans, and Livingston introduced a distinguished Chancellor Robert R. Livingston resolution calling for all the papers from the [<?.£'.], and his sisters, by their marriages, added President, except those which any existing nego­ notable names to the family connection. Upon tiation might render improper to be disclosed the death of his father in 1775, Edward Living­ (Annals of Congress, 4 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 426). ston was sent to school in Albany but he soon Representing the Republican stronghold of New transferred to the school of Dominie Doll at York City, Livingston was reelected in 1796 and Esopus (now Kingston) where he prepared for again in 1798. He was, therefore, a member of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), entering the House of Representatives in 1801 when the the junior class in 1779. He subsequently de­ failure of the electoral college to choose a presi­ clared that at college he had been an indifferent dent threw the election into that body. In the scholar, learning only so much as was absolutely ensuing contest between Aaron Burr and Thomas necessary to obtain his degree, which was grant­ Jefferson, there were rumors, not entirely ed in 1781. But he was already proficient in groundless, that Livingston was favorable to the languages and his interest in philosophy and candidacy of Burr (Hunt, post, p. 86; D. S. poetry was sufficient to attract the attention of Alexander, Political History of The State of New John Jay. From Princeton he returned to "Cler­ York, 1906, I, 103; Edward Livingston Manu­ mont" to spend a year in the study of French scripts). The two men came from the same so­ under a Mr. Tetard and German under a refugee cial class in New York and were personal friends. minister to whom his mother had given shelter. Nevertheless, Livingston was one of the six New In 1782 he began the study of law at Albany in York members who voted consistently for Jef­ the office of John Lansing tq.v.] where he found ferson, although it was believed he did so with­ as fellow students Alexander Hamilton, Aaron out enthusiasm. Burr, and James Kent. The removal of the Brit­ Livingston had refused to run again for Con­ ish troops from New York City in November 1783 permitted the Livingston family to reoccupy gress in 1800 but the success of the Republicans their town house and there Edward continued in the election led to his appointment as United his studies until his admission to the bar in Janu­ States attorney for the District of New York.