Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of USA >> Declaration of Independence >> Philip Livingston





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial

For More Information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday


 


Philip Livingston

Signer of the Declaration of Independence

PHILIP LIVINGSTON was born January 15, 1716. Born to wealth, he was reared on the family manor near Albany, New York; he graduated in the class of 1737 from Yale, married a well-to-do girl from Albany, Christina Ten Broeck. He then established a thriving import business in New York City.

Livingston helped to found he New York Society Library, the St. Andrews Society, the City's Chamber of Commerce and King's College (now Columbia University). It was only at the age of forty, however, that he entered into politics as a member of the city's board of alderman.  This office was important and respectable and Livingston was reelected to the office for nine consecutive years. In 1759, he joined the provincial assembly and subsequently would represent the colony at the Stamp Act Congress.

While Livingston wrote and spoke against British oppression, he and his family worked hard for reconciliation. The colony of New York was for a time more under the influence of the British crown than were most other colonies. Likewise, New York more slowly adopted measures hastening the revolution. But all along there were individuals in New York that desplayed patriotic feelings and were ready to rise in opposition to British agressions. Livingston was one of those patriots. 

Livingston was elected to represent New York in Congress in 1774. During the deliberations of this congress, he assisted in preparing an address to the people of Great Britian. In the Second Congress, Philip served on a number of important committees, including the marine committee, the committee on Indian affairs, the committee on commerce, and the treasury board. "He was very useful", a delegate said, "in committees where a knowledge of figures or commercial subjects was required". Another delegate said, "There was a dignity, with a mixture of austerity, in his deportment, which rendered it difficult for strangers to approach him, and which made him a terror to those who swerved from the line or faltered in the path of personal virtue and patriotic duty." Another member of Congress reported, "There is no holding conversation with him. He blusters away."

On the eve of independence there were four Livingstons in Congress: Philip, his younger brother William, young cousin John Jay and the still younger cousin Robert. All Livingstons believed that America should be free, yet not wholly independent of the mother country. It was Philip's cousin, Robert, who perhaps summed up the family's attitude best of all, "Every good man wishes that America should remain free, in this I join heartily; at the same time I do not desire she should be wholly independent of the mother country. How to reconcile their jarring principles, I profess I am altogether at a loss." Once the vote for independence was in, however, the Livingston family abandoned this position and accepted reality. Philip was the only Livingston present on the day the Declaration was signed. Thus he signed for the family. 

The following year, Livingston was reelected to congress by the state convention and in May 1777 he was chosen a senator for the southern district of the first legislature of the state of New York. In October of the same year, he was reelected to Congress and on May 5, 1778 he took his seat. This was a critical and dismal period in the history of the Revolution. The British had taken Philadelphia, requiring congress to hold their sessions at York. At this time, Livingston's health was severely unstable. His health was so compromised that his doctors gave him no hope of recovery. Yet, his patriotic spirit was so strong that he did not hesitate to attend the sessions of Congress.   Prior to his departure for York, he visited his friends in Albany and gave them his final farewell as he did not expect to see them again. His family, at this time were at Kingston, and he also said his good-byes and told them that he would not return. Livingston's sad anticipation proved true. On May 5, 1778, he took his seat in congress and his health deteriorated rapidly. He died on June 12, 1778 at the age of sixty-two. He was buried in York.





Source: Centennial Book of Signers

For a High-resolution version of the Original Declaration of Independence

  For a High-resolution version of the Stone ngraving

 We invite you to read a transcription of the complete text of the Declaration as presented by the National Archives.

&

 

The article "The Declaration of Independence: A History," which provides a detailed account of the Declaration, from its drafting through its preservation today at the National Archives.  

   

Virtualology  welcomes the addition of web pages with historical documents and/or scholarly papers on this subject.  To submit a web link to this page CLICK HERE.  Please be sure to include the above name, your name, address, and any information you deem appropriate with your submission.

 

 

National Archives and Records Administration


Start your search on Philip Livingston.


The Congressional Evolution of the United States Henry Middleton


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum