Gilbert Livingston

Gilbert Livingston (December 17, 1742 – September 14, 1806) was a lawyer who, in 1788, served as a delegate to the Poughkeepsie Convention where, despite having arrived at the convention as an Anti-Federalist, he ultimately voted to ratify the United States Constitution. Both before and after that ratification convention, he served in the New York Assembly, representing Dutchess County. Livingston had also been a member of the New York Provincial Congress.

Early life Gilbert was one of the thirteen children of Henry Livingston, Sr. and Susanna Conklin Livingston. Gilbert's father, Henry, was County Clerk in Dutchess County, as well as a legislator in colonial New York. They were members of a less affluent branch of the prominent Livingston family of New York. One of Gilbert's great-grandfathers was the wealthy New York colonial official Robert Livingston the Elder, and one of Gilbert's siblings was the poet Henry Livingston, Jr.

Career Livingston practiced law, owned a small farm with a few tenants, and ran a store in Poughkeepsie with the brother of prominent politician Melancton Smith. His law partners included the renowned jurist James Kent as well as Smith Thompson, who later married Livingston's daughter Sarah.

Hamilton's faction were against any conditional ratification, under the impression that New York would not be accepted into the Union, while Clinton's faction wanted to amend the Constitution, while maintaining the state's right to secede if their attempts failed. During the state convention, New Hampshire and Virginia became the ninth and tenth states to ratify the Constitution, respectively, which made any adjournment unlikely, and increased the odds of a compromise.

Livingston said he would only support ratification if amendments were made: "I will steadily persevere, in every possible means, to secure this desirable object, a revision of the Constitution." Ultimately, he voted for ratification, confident that the desired amendments would eventually be approved. Livingston called his vote to ratify the most difficult political decision of his life, and he later felt vindicated once a bill of rights was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states. However, he was a longtime slave owner, like many of his Livingston relatives. He expressed his mixed feelings towards the institution in letters to his family, expressing his desire to free his own slaves, his own “principles with respect to their natural right to Freedom which i [he] suppose all possess”, while simultaneously speaking to his financial dependence on them.

Personal life In 1763, he married Catherine Crannell (1745–1830), the daughter of law partner Bartholomew Crannell and Tryntje Van Kleeck. Gilbert and Catherine had one child: