January, 1779, in which several of the more prominent "rebels" pass in review, appears "the black soul of LIVINGSTON, which was 'fit for treason, sacrilege and spoil,' and polluted with every species of murder and iniquity, was condemned to howl in the body of a wolf; and I beheld with surprise, that he retained the same gaunt, hollow and furious appearance, and that his tongue still continued to be red with human gore. Just at this time Mercury touched me with his wand, and thereby bestowed an insight into futurity, when I saw this very wolf hung up at the door of his fold, by a shepherd whose innocent flock had been from time to time thinned by the murdering jaws of this savage animal." These scurrilous publications continued throughout the war, but the governor suffered nothing from such abuse and criticism. The services of Governor Livingston were of great value during the Revolution. His correspondence with the principal men of that time evinces the high estimation in which he was held: especially the letters of Washington, which exhibit the utmost regard and confidence in his patriotism and abilities. "Your Excellency," says he, "will be sensible how much the honor and interest of these States must be concerned in a vigorous co-operation, should the event I have supposed happen, and I shall place the fullest confidence in that wisdom and energy of which your Excellency's conduct has afforded such frequent and decisive proofs.* In January of the year 1781, Governor Livingston was chosen, at the first annual election of the American Philosophical Society, a councillor of that body; and the next year he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, at Cambridge, Mass. On the arrival of the news of peace, he returned to "Liberty Hall," and once more entered upon the superintendence of his home, from which he had been absent for the greater part of the war. His joy at being thus finally allowed to relinquish his wandering life, and in being permanently joined to his wife and children, overflows in his letters written about this time. "Thanks to Heaven," says he, "that the times again permit me to pursue my favorite amusement of raising vegetables; which, with the additional pleasure resulting from my library, I really prefer to all the bustle and splendor of the world." In June, 1785, he was elected by Congress to succeed Mr. Adams at the Court of Holland; but this office he declined on account of his advancing age, "and by the fear of being thought indifferent to the affectionate confidence so many years reposed in him by the State of New Jersey." About the same time he was chosen an honorary member of the Association for the Promotion of Agriculture, of Philadelphia, and in October of the same year (1785) he was re-elected to the office of governor. On the ninth of January, 1786, the first of another series of essays appeared in the New Jersey Gazette, under the title of The Primitive Whig. These were contributed by Governor Livingston, and are written with force and ability. In 1787 he was appointed a delegate to the Federal Convention. "Mr. Livingston did not take his seat in the Convention," says Mr. Madison, "till some progress had been made in the task committed to it, and he did not take any active part in the debates; but he was placed on important committees, where it may be presumed he had an agency and a due influence. He was personally unknown to many, perhaps most of the members, but there was a predisposition in all to manifest the respect due to the celebrity of his name." In the fall of the year 1789, Mr. Livingston was elected Governor of the State for the last time. He had held that position uninterruptedly since his election under the first republican constitution of 1776. On the twenty-fifth of the June following, (1790,) he died, respected, honored and beloved. some, if not all of those villains, are employed by a much greater villain than any of them, even the worshipful David Mathews, Esq., military Mayor of the City of New York, concerning whom one James Allen, lately apprehended for robbery, declared upon his examination, "that he was present when the said mayor desired Mason to endeavor to burn Governor Clinton's house in the course of the summer; that the mayor gave him a description of its situation, and who lived in it; that Mason replied, he should have a little patience and it should be effected.' That the mayor told Mason, Ward, Eteret, and Harding, four of his fellow-robbers, (that is, either Mr. Allen's or Mr. Mayor's, as the reader pleases,) that it was a pity they could not lay some plot, and bring that rascal Governor Livingston. They replied that they had planned matters so in that quarter, that they would have him in less than two months; and that they had proper connections ir that quarter for that purpose." * MS. letter in N. J. State Library: Sedgwick's Life of Livingston, page 263. ↑ Sedgwick's Life of Livingston, page 378. SPEECH TO THE NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. The British soldiery in their march through New Jersey in 1776, committed the most brutal outrages upon the inhabitants of that State. They wantonly destroyed the property they could not carry away, and spread desolation wherever they went. At the same time a spirit of disaffection manifested itself in that colony, arising partly from the irregular state of the militia, who, from the inefficiency and bad ample of their officers, were allowed to plunder many of the inhabitants on pretence of their being tories; and partly from a fondness for the British constitution, and an idea that Great Britain was irresistible and would finally conquer. The following speech, treating of these affairs, was delivered to the New Jersey Assembly on the twenty-eighth of February, 1777: | persevering patriot, who, having embarked his all in the common cause, chooses rather to risk, rather to lose that all, for the preservation of the more estimable treasure, liberty, than to possess it, (enjoy it he certainly could not,) upon the ignominious terms of tamely resigning his country and sterity to perpetual serthose who were made to believe that their imvitude. It has, in a word, opened the eyes of pious merit, in abetting our persecutors, would ex-exempt them from being involved in the general calamity. But as the rapacity of the enemy was boundless, their havoc was indiscriminate, and their barbarity unparalleled. They have plundered friends and foes. Effects, capable of division, they have divided. Such as were not, they have destroyed. They have warred upon decrepit age; warred upon defenceless youth. They have committed hostilities against the professors of literature, and the ministers of religion; against public records and private monuments, and books of improvement, and papers of curiosity, and against the arts and sciences. They have butchered the wounded, asking for quarter; mangled the dying, weltering in their blood; refused to the dead the rites of sepulture; suffered prisoners to perish for want of sustenance; violated the chastity of women; disfigured private dwellings of taste and elegance; and, in the rage of impiety and barbarism, profaned and prostrated edifices dedicated to Almighty God. GENTLEMEN: Having already laid before the Assembly, by messages, the several matters that have occurred to me, as more particularly demanding their attention, during the present session, it may seem less necessary to address you in the more ceremonious form of a speech. But, conceiving it my duty to the State, to deliver my sentiments on the present situation of affairs, and the eventful contest between Great Britain and America, which could not, with any propriety, be conveyed in occasional messages, you will excuse my giving you the trouble of attending for that purpose. After deploring with you the desolation spread through this State, by an unrelenting enemy who have, indeed, marked their progress with a devastation unknown to civilized nations, and evincive of the most implacable vengeance, I heartily congratulate you upon that subsequent series of success, wherewith it hath pleased the Almighty to crown the American arms; and particularly on the important enterprise against the enemy at Trenton and the signal victory obtained over them at Princeton, by the gallant troops under the command of his Excellency General Washington. Considering the contemptible figure they make at present, and the disgust they have given to many of their own confederates amongst us, by their more than Gothic ravages, (for thus doth the great Disposer of events often deduce good out of evil,) their irruption into our dominion will probably redound to the public benefit. It has certainly enabled us the more effectually to distinguish our friends from our enemies. It has winnowed the chaff from the grain. It has discriminated the temporizing politician, who, at the first appearance of danger, was determined to secure his idol, property, at the hazard of the general weal, from the And yet there are amongst us, who, either from ambitious or lucrative motives, or intimidated by the terror of their arms, or from a partial fondness for the British constitution, or deluded by insidious propositions, are secretly abetting, or openly aiding their machinations to deprive us of that liberty, without which man is a beast, and government a curse. Besides the inexpressible baseness of wishing to rise on the ruins of our country, or to acquire riches at the expense of the liberties and fortunes of millions of our fellow-citizens, how soon would these delusive dreams, upon the conquest of America, end in disappointment? For where is the fund to recompense those retainers to the British army? Was every estate in America to be confiscated, and converted into cash, the product would not satiate the avidity of their national dependants, nor furnish an adequate repast for the keen appetites of their own ministerial beneficiaries. Instead of gratuities and promotion, these unhappy accomplices in their tyranny, would meet with supercilious looks and cold disdain; and, after tedious attendance, be finally told by their haughty masters, that they, indeed approved the treason, but despised the traitor. Insulted, in fine, by their pretended protectors, but real betrayers, and goaded with the stings of their own consciences, they would remain the fright ful monuments of contempt and divine indignation, and linger out the rest of their days in self-condemnation and remorse; and, in weeping over the ruins of their country, which themselves had been instrumental in reducing to desolation and bondage. Others there are, who, terrified by the power of Britain, have persuaded themselves, that she is not only formidable, but irresistible. That her power is great, is beyond question; that it is not to be despised, is the dictate of common prudence. But, then, we ought also to consider her, as weak in council, and ingulfed in debt; reduced in her trade; reduced in her revenue; immersed in pleasure; enervated with luxury; and, in dissipation and venality, surpassing all Europe. We ought to consider her as hated by a potent rival, her natural enemy, and particularly exasperated by her imperious conduct in the last war, as well as her insolent manner of commencing it; and thence inflamed with resentment, and only watching a favorable juncture for open hostilities. We ought to consider the amazing expense and difficulty of transporting troops and provisions above three thousand miles, with the impossibility of recruiting their army at a less distance; save only with such recreants, whose conscious guilt must, at the first approach of danger, appal the stoutest heart. Those insuperable obstacles are known and acknowledged by every virtuous and impartial man in the nation. Even the author of this horrid war, is incapable of concealing his own confusion and distress. Too great to be wholly suppressed, it frequently discovers itself in the course of his speech-a speech terrible in word, and fraught with contradiction; breathing threatenings and betraying terror; a motley mixture of magnanimity and consternation, of grandeur and abasement. With troops invincible, he dreads a defeat, and wants reinforcements. Victorious in America, and triumphant on the ocean, he is a humble dependent on a petty prince; and apprehends an attack upon his own metropolis; and, with full confidence in the friendship and alliance of France, he trembles upon his throne at her secret designs and open preparations. With all this, we ought to contrast the numerous and hardy sons of America, inured to toil, seasoned alike to heat and cold, hale, robust, patient of fatigue, and, from their ardent love of liberty, ready to face danger and death; the immense extent of continent, which our infatuated enemies have undertaken to subjugate; the remarkable unanimity of its inhabitants, notwithstanding the exception of a few apostates and deserters; their unshaken resolution to maintain their freedom or perish in the attempt; the fertility of our soil in all kinds of provisions necessary for the support of war; our inexhaustible internal resources for military stores and naval armaments; our comparative economy in public expenses; and the millions we save by having reprobated the further exchange of our valuable staples for the worthless baubles and finery of English manufacture. Add to this, that in a cause so just and righteous on our part, we have the highest reason to expect the blessing of Heaven upon our glorious conflict. For, who can doubt the interposition of the Supremely Just, in favor of a people, forced to recur to arms in defence of every thing dear and precious, against a nation deaf to our complaints, rejoicing in our misery, wantonly aggravating our oppressions, determined to divide our substance, and, by fire and sword, to compel us into submission? Respecting the constitution of Great Britain, bating certain royal prerogatives of dangerous tendency, it has been applauded by the best judges; and displays, in its original structure, illustrious proofs of wisdom and the knowledge of human nature. But what avails the best constitution with the worst administration? For, what is their present government, and what has it been for years past, but a pensioned confederacy against reason, and virtue, and honor, and patriotism, and the rights of man? What were their leaders, but a set of political craftsmen, flagitiously conspiring to erect the babel, despotism, upon the ruins of the ancient and beautiful fabric of law; a shameless cabal, notoriously employed in deceiving the prince, corrupting the parliament, debasing the people, depressing the most virtuous, and exalting the most profligate; in short, an insatiable junto of public spoilers, lavishing the national wealth, and, by peculation and plunder, accumulating a debt already enormous? And what was the majority of their parliament, formerly the most august assembly in the world, but venal pensioners to the Crown; a perfect mockery of all popular representation; and, at the absolute devotion of every minister? What were the characteristics of their administration of the provinces? The substitution of regal instructions in the room of law; the multiplication of officers to strengthen the court interest; perpetually extending the prerogatives of the king, and retrenching the rights of the subject; advancing to the most eminent stations men, without education, and of the most dissolute manners; employing, with the people's money, a band of emissaries to misrepresent and traduce the people; and, to crown the system of misrule, sporting our persons and estates, by filling the highest seats of justice with bankrupts, bullies, and blockheads. From such a nation, (though all this we bore, and should perhaps have borne for another century, had they not avowedly claimed the unconditional disposal of life and property,) it is evidently our duty to be detached. To remain happy or safe, in our connection with her, be came thenceforth utterly impossible. She is moreover precipitating her own fall, or the age of miracles is returned, and Britain a phenomenon in the political world, without a parallel. The proclamations to ensnare the timid and credulous, are beyond expression disingenuous and tantalizing. In a gilded pill they conceal | Britain, and obtained an honorable peace, real poison; they add insult to injury. After cheerfully furnish our proportion for continurepeated intimations of commissioners to treat ing the war-a war, founded, on our side, in the with America, we are presented, instead of immutable obligation of self-defence, and in the peaceful olive-branch, with the devouring support of freedom, of virtue, and every thing sword: instead of being visited by plenipotentia- tending to ennoble our nature, and render a ries to bring matters to an accommodation, we people happy; on their part, prompted by are invaded by an army, in their opinion, able boundless avarice, and a thirst for absolute to subdue us. And upon discovering their er- sway, and built on a claim repugnant to every ror, the terms propounded amount to this: "If principle of reason and equity-a claim subyou will submit without resistance, we are con- versive to all liberty, natural, civil, moral and tent to take your property, and spare your religious; incompatible with human happiness, lives; and then (the consummation of arro- and usurping the attributes of Deity, degrading gance!) we will graciously pardon you, for hav- man and blaspheming God. ing hitherto defended both." Let us all, therefore, of every rank and deConsidering, then, their bewildered councils, gree, remember our plighted faith and honor, their blundering ministry, their want of men to maintain the cause with our lives and forand money, their impaired credit and declining tunes. Let us inflexibly persevere in prosecucommerce, their lost revenues and starving ting, to a happy period, what has been so gloislands, the corruption of their Parliament,riously begun, and hitherto so prosperously with the effeminacy of their nation, and the conducted. And let those in more distinguishsuccess of their enterprise is against all proba-ed stations use all their influence and authority bility. Considering further, the horrid enor- to rouse the supine, to animate the irresolute, mity of their waging war against their own brethren, expostulating for an audience, complaining of injuries, and supplicating for redress, and waging it with a ferocity and vengeance unknown to moderate ages, and contrary to all laws, human and divine; and we can neither question the justice of our opposition, nor the assistance of Heaven to crown it with victory. to confirm the wavering, and to draw from his lurking hole the skulking neutral, who, leaving to others the heat and burden of the day, means in the final result to reap the fruits of that victory for which he will not contend. Let us be peculiarly assiduous in bringing to condign punishment those detestable parricides, who have been openly active against their country. And may we, in all our deliberations and proceedings, be influenced and directed by the great Arbiter of the fate of nations, by whom empires rise and fall, and who will not always suffer the sceptre of the wicked to rest on the lot of the righteous, but in due time avenge an injured people on their unfeeling oppressor and his bloody instruments. |