biography
| name: |
Livingston, William
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1723–90)
|
| biography:
| Legislator and governor, born in Albany, New York, USA. After graduating from Yale (1741), he chose law instead of the family business, joining the liberal New York firm of James Alexander, noted for championing freedom of the press. In a series of newspaper and magazine articles (1751–2), he attacked a plan to charter King's College (New York City) under the Episcopalians, becoming a leader of the Whigs supporting the separation of Church and state. His party won control of the Assembly (1758), but lost power in 1769 when the ‘Sons of Liberty’ demanded more radical opposition to the Stamp Act. Retreating to his country estate in New Jersey, he soon re-emerged as a leader, joining a Committee of Correspondence before representing New Jersey at the First and Second Continental Congresses. In 1776, he briefly commanded the New Jersey militia, and as New Jersey's first governor (Federalist, 1776–90) he opposed paper currency and treated Loyalists moderately. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he supported the compromises that would ease its acceptance. |
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