York Congress exacted the most untiring devotion and labor. His name appears as an associate with Jay and others on the secret committee for the obstruction of the Hudson; he was a member of the committee that reported the first constitution of the State of New York, and indeed had a large share in draughting that instrument; he was also a member of a committee to report a plan for a council of safety; and a month or two later his services were required as a member of a committee of twelve to co-operate with Gen. Schuyler against Burgoyne. Finally, the 3d of May, 1777, Livingston was commissioned chancellor of the State of New York, an office since abolished, but not before the services of Livingston, Lansing, and Kent rendered the office one of world-wide fame.
Notwithstanding the duties of his judicial position, Livingston continued active in public affairs. In October, 1779, he became a special delegate to the National Congress, and a few weeks later was appointed a member of a council to govern the southern districts of New York as fast as recovered from the enemy's possession. Again chosen, in 1781, a special delegate to Congress, lie was elected by that body secretary of foreign affairs, and entered upon the duties of his office the 20th of October, 1781, serving in that position till the end of the war.
The diplomatic correspondence of the Revolution affords ample testimony to the ability with which our foreign correspondence was conducted by Robert R. Livingston. Upon him fell the duty of corresponding with our ministers in foreign countries, a task which our unpleasant relations abroad made doubly difficult. Congress was absolutely unable to meet accruing obligations at home, much less those arising abroad. To this task of preserving friendly relations, and especially to the negotiation of the preliminary treaty of peace, Livingston devoted much of his time. His letters still attest his abilities as a diplomatist, for the duties of which profession he was especially fitted by long experience in legislative bodies, his learning as a jurist, and particularly by tact and suavity of manner. To the varied duties of diplomacy was added the task of organizing a department that owes much of its present efficiency to the wisdom and care of the first secretary.
Forced by the laborious duties of his position to seek relief, and unable longer to remain in an office the salary of which was entirely inadequate to pay the expenses of his family, the great chancellor retired from office in 1783, and returned to the less laborious and more congenial duties of the chancellorship, which was again bestowed by his native State. Unfortunately, his judicial decisions, which at the time were described as exhibiting great learning, sagacious judgment, and vigorous language, have not been preserved; and his reputation as a jurist must rest on the tributes of his contemporaries. On the authority of his successor, Chancellor Jones, it has been said that the august tribunal whose justice he dispensed, though since covered with a halo of glory, never boasted a more prompt, more able, or more faithful officer.
The next great service for which Chancellor Livingston must ever receive the gratitude of all lovers of their country was in the convention that finally gave the assent of the people of New York to the Constitution of the United
