 Henry Brockholst Livingston was born on
November 25, 1745 in New York. Livingston was from a politically powerful
family in the New York/New Jersey area. Livingston's father served as
governor of New Jersey, and other members of his family were political
leaders in New York. Livingston attended the College of New Jersey
(Princeton) with James Madison. He read law with James Kent, one of the
foremost legal scholars in early America. He dropped his first name to
distinguish himself from several cousins with the same name. In 1779, he
went to Spain to act as secretary to his brother-in-law,
John Jay.
In 1782, he was captured by the British, but released, and a year later, he
began practicing law in New York. Livingston entered politics in New York,
and attacked Jay in unsigned diatribes. Livingston was quite combative in
politics, and both family and others criticized his behavior. But he was a
political survivor. In 1800, he joined forces with DeWitt Clinton and Aaron
Burr in support of the Jefferson-Burr presidential ticket, and supported
Clinton for Senator two years later. In 1806, Livingston was nominated by
Jefferson to replace the deceased
William
Paterson. In his sixteen years on the Court, Livingston wrote 49
opinions. Story praised Livingston's kindness and affability, a contrast to
the younger Livingston. Livingston's only dissent in a constitutional case
was in
Sturges v. Crowninshield, which held unconstitutional a New York
insolvency law. Four years after Livingston's death in 1823, the Court would
decide Ogden
v. Saunders, which would render nugatory Sturges.
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