Robert R. Livingston

Livingston, Robert R.

(1746–1813) lawyer, diplomat; born in New York City. He practiced law before entering the Continental Congress (1775–76, 1779–81, 1784–85). He was the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (1781–83), and as ambassador to France (1801–04), he scored a diplomatic coup by seizing the opportunity to make the Louisiana Purchase agreement with France. As chancellor of New York (1777–1801), he played a major role in state affairs, helping to write its constitution and getting its support for the new federal constitution. He also subsidized Robert Fulton's experiments that led to the successful voyage of the steamboat Clermont.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.