William Livingston (November 1723-July 25, 1790) was a Brigadier General in the militia and a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses. He signed the U.S. Constitution, being 61 years old at the time. He served as the first Governor of New Jersey, and was re-elected for 14 years.
Growing up on the frontier around Albany, William Livingston knew the missionaries who worked among the Mohawks. He graduated first in his class from Yale and went on to study law. While living in New York, he published articles defending the faith, many of which were published in The Independent Reflector, such as No. 46:
<I believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, without any foreign comments or human explanations....I believe that he who feareth God and worketh righteousness will be accepted of Him....
I believe that the virulence of some...proceeds not from their affection to Christianity, which is founded on too firm a basis to be shaken by the freest inquiry, and the Divine authority of which I sincerely believe without receiving a farthing for saying so.> 1723WL001
In 1768, William Livingston said:
<The land we possess is the gift of Heaven to our fathers, and Divine Providence seems to have decreed it to our latest posterity.> 1723WL002
In 1772, William Livingston took in Alexander Hamilton, who was 16 years old at the time, and opened the doors for him to attend King's College (Columbia University) in New York. Hamilton went on to become the first Secretary of the Treasury.
On March 16, 1776, as recorded in the Journal of Congress, General William Livingston presented a resolution in the Continental Congress, which passed without dissent, declaring May 17, 1776, as a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer:
<We earnestly recommend that Friday, the 17th day of May next, be observed by the colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that we may with united hearts confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life appease God's righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ obtain His pardon and forgiveness.> 1723WL003
In September of 1776, in his Inaugural Address as the first elected Governor of the State of New Jersey, William Livingston stated:
<May the foundation of our infant State be laid in virtue and the fear of God, and the superstructure will rise glorious, and endure for ages.> 1723WL004
In early October, 1777, New Jersey Governor William Livingston described the expelling of the British out of his State as:
<...reliance upon the divine blessing...conspicuous the finger of Heaven.> 1723WL104
William Livingston wrote in a letter:
<If the history (New Testament) be not true, then all the whole laws of nature were changed; all the motives and incentives to human actions that ever had obtained in this world have been entirely inverted; the wickedest men in the world have taken the greatest pains and endured the greatest hardship and misery to invent, practice, and propagate the most holy religion that ever was.> 1723WL005
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1723WL001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Livingston, 1768. The World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago, IL: Field Enterprises, Inc., 18 vols., 1957; W.F. Quarrie and Company, 8 vols., 1917; World Book, Inc., 22 vols., 1989). Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 11.30. William Livingston. Vincent Wilson, Jr., The Book of the Founding Fathers (Brookeville, MD: American History Research Associates, 1974), p. 44. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 169. William Livingston, The Independent Reflector- No. 46. Life and Letters of William Livingston, reprinted by Theodore Sedgwick, Jr.. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 288.
1723WL002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Livingston. Vincent Wilson,Jr., The Book of the Founding Fathers (Brookeville, MD: American History Research Associates, 1974), p. 44. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 170.
1723WL003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Livingston, March 16, 1776, in a resolution passed in the Continental Congress declaring May 17, 1776, as a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, presented by General William Livingston. Journal of Congress, Vol. II, p. 93. Carl E. Prince, ed., The Papers of William Livingston, 5 vols. (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1979), Vol. I, pp. 43-44. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 287-288. M.E. Bradford, Religion & The Framers-The Biographical Evidence (Marlborough, NH: Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1991), p. 5. 1723WL004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Livingston, September 1776, in his Inaugural Address as the Governor of the State of New Jersey. Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, "The Providential Perspective" (Charlottesville, VA: The Providence Foundation, P.O. Box 6759, Charlottesville, Va. 22906, January 1994), Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 5.
1723WL104. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Livingston, October, 1777, as Governor, describing the British being expelled from New Jersey.
1723WL005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Livingston. Livingston's Familiar Letters to a Gentleman, upon a variety of seasonable and important Subjects in Religion. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), pp. 287-288.