LIVINGSTON, EDWARD, an American jurist and statesman, was b. on May 26, 1764, at Livingston (afterward Claremont), in the state of New York. He belonged to a family which, for nearly a century, had been of the greatest weight and distinction in the colony. tivingston was the son of Robert Livingston, judge of the supreme court of New York, and the youngest of a very numerous family. After leaving the college of Princeton, he studied law under his brother Robert, 18 years his senior (see below), and devoted special attention to Roman jurisprudence. On being called to the bar, he soon obtained an extensive practice. He had spent his youth among the founders of American independence, all of whom he had known as visitors of his father, and he at once attained a prominent position. FIe was elected a member of congress in 1794; federal attorney and mayor of New York in 1801; and he would probably have been known only as a prosperous lawyer had not a great misfortune at this period befallen him. Livingston, as federal attorney, was intrusted with the collection of debts to the state recovered by legal proceedings. He had the greatest aversion to accounts, and intrusted this part of his duty to a clerk, a Frenchman, who appropriated the funds to his own purposes. When Livingston discovered what had happened, he at once ascer tained the balance due to the state, handed over his whole property to his creditors, threw up his appointment, and resolved to quit New York. No entreaty on the part of his fellow-citizens could induce him to remain. Louisiana had just been annexed to the United States, thanks to negotiations conducted by his brother at Paris, and he resolved to settle in the new state. He joined the New Orleans bar in 1804, and at once obtained lucrative practice. He had great difficulties to encounter. The business had to be con ducted partly in French and Spanish. The law administered was a strange compound of municipal regulations, Spanish and French law, and the Roman law of the civilians. A proposal was made to introduce the common law of England, and this would have been much to the pecuniary advantage of Livingston, but he opposed the scheme in an eloquent and convincing speech to the Louisiana chambers, and it was decided that the law of the state should remain based upon the civil rather than the common law. In the dispute with England in 1814 and 1815, Livingston became aid-de-camp and secre tary to gen. Jackson, and attracted much notice by the admirable bulletins he wrote during the campaign. In 1820 lie was appointed to draw up a code of civil procedure
for Louisiana. It was the simplest known up to that time, was found to work admirably, and received the warmest approval from Bentham and other jurists. Livingston was then employed in reducing to system the civil laws of Louisiana.. He had to aid him in the task the French and other modern codes, the nomenclature of Scotch law, and a familiar acquaintance with all that is most valuabl. in English jurisprudence, and the -work produced, the " Civil Code of Louisiana," is undoubtedly the most successful adaptation of the civil :aw to the conditions of modern society. It was adopted in Louisiana in 1823, and has since become the law of many other states. Livingston was then employed to prepare a new criminal code, and in a preliminary treatise he laid down the principles on which he was to proceed. He propc3ed the abolition of the punishment of death, and a penitentiary system, which at once drew general attention to his labors. His book was reprinted in London, translated into French, and made a sensation all over Europe, and the author received the congratulations of the most eminent publicists and politicians of England, France, and Germany. His code of crimes and punishments was completed, but not adopted without modifications. Livingston was elected in 1829 member for Loniciana of the American senate, and in 1831 appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs. Two years later he went to France as minister plenipotentiary to support a dentand of a million sterling made by- the U. S. government for indemnity on account of French spoliations, and he succeeded in securing payment. He had married a lady of New Orleans, of French family and edneation, had been long conversant with the French language, in which he had been accugtomed to plead before the courts of New Orleans, and he became intimately acquainted with the leading juriSts and poli ticians of France. He was admitted an associate of the academy of moral and political' sciences, and received the warmest tribute of respect as one of the greatest philosophical lawyers of his time, although his distinction at home had been chiefly wou as a careful and painstaking man of business. Livingston died on May 23,1836, at his own estate on the Hudson, in consequence of drinking cold water when very hot.—See notices of his life in French by M. Ta.ihandier and by M. Mignet, and a long biography by Mr. II.. IIunt, with introduction by S. Bancroft.