Description:

Livingston Edward

Edward Livingston Writes to Henry Dearborn re: His Proposals to Prepare a Criminal Code in Europe - Written Around the Time of the Monroe Doctrine 


Signed "Edw Livingston" and Dated "4th of February 1823", "New Orleans", 5pp, fine condition.


The letter reads, "Dear Sir, observing that the assertion of the Portuguese Government is directed towards a reform in their Civil Code, I have entertained some thoughts of becoming a competition for the honor of giving them a system of Jurisprudence in conformity with the decree of the . . . The Civil being the common law of the Country, under which I have practiced for Twenty Years, and many of the laws of Spain, which are in force here, having been as I suppose introduced into Portugal, during the period of near a Country, that those countries were united. I possess some facilities for the performance of the Work and which might alone induce me to undertake it, but I am chiefly determined from the Circumstances of my having been appointed, alone to prepare a Criminal and jointly, with two other gentlemen a Civil Code for this state. We are now at work and will have those Codes ready in about two years and I have thought that with some materials and Information from Portugal, I might make the necessary modification to adapt the works I am preparing here for the Meridian of the Tagus. May I beg the favor therefore from you, Sir, to purchase for me the "New Constitution" of Portugal all the laws of a general Nature made since the Establishment of the . . . , and he best historical account of that revolution that can be procured if it exists in some other form, from the Gazelles on pamphlets that may have been published on the subject. I shall also want that statutes of Lamgego enacted by Alphousa the 1st in 1145 such a collection or Abridgment of the Royal Ordinance or Edicts as are used in their courts, particularly the edicts of 1769 - relative to the civil laws and two or three of the most approved Commentators and a System of their practices, (if here be), as I suppose there must be such a book, and the most approved of the Histories of Portugal together with a Portuguese . . . in that language, I do not however wish to go to a greater . . . than one hundred and fifty dollars for those objects for any sum within which limits you will be pleased to draw on . . . of Liverpool. Perhaps the Secretary of State and being informed of the Object for which they are wanted might furnish me with other materials, which I do not know how to designate, but which might be extremely useful to me in the work. As that Government is now engaged in the work of Reformation, I have imagined that some of their Statesmen might like to . . . a plan preparatory to the Execution of the duty to which I have before alluded to which was presented to our legislature I have therefore enclosed two copies (bound) one for his Majesty, the other for the . . . which I pray your Excellency to present with the accompanying Notes, after having given them to the proper address and made - (if that be proper or necessary) a translation of the notes accompany the originals. If I have any need which I very much fear I have, of our apology to his Excellency the Minister, for the liberty I take, and the great trouble I give. I must request my old and highly respected friend General Dearbourn to make my Excuses for me. He will recollect the perilous political struggles we made in the same cause, and will learn perhaps with some surprise - that I am entering again on the same career, in the same station after an interval of more than Twenty Years. As you may like to see what you present, I enclose a copy of the Work (unbound) which perhaps you may find leisure to peruse. There is always some ridicule attached to attempts either unsuccessful or not persevered in - Therefore I would not wish to have my intentions mentioned further, than may be necessary to procure me the means of executing them. I have the honor to be with great respect. Your Excellency;s most Obedient servant. Edw. Livingston."



His elder brother, Robert Livingston, had just successfully completed the negotiations by which the territory of Louisiana became the property of the United States. In December, 1803, he left New York for New Orleans by sailing vessel, reaching the latter city in February, 1804, where he at once resumed his professional career, hoping thereby to retrieve his fortunes. By accepting fees in land in lieu of ready money, he soon acquired property that promised to become a fortune within a few years. He found that the legal practice in the new province consisted of an unfortunate medley of the civil and Spanish law, and in consequence he drew up a code of procedure that in 1805 was adopted by the Louisiana legislature. Among his private debts at the time of his leaving New York was a judgment that had been assigned to Aaron Burr, for which the latter applied through his agent in New Orleans. General James Wilkinson, obtaining this information, attempted in court to connect Livingston with Burr's conspiracy; but the effort failed, and Wilkinson made himself ridiculous by his interference in the matter. One of the most celebrated eases of the time was his controversy with Thomas Jefferson, who was then president of the United States, over the title and possession of the property known as Batture Sainte Marie. In 1820 he was elected to the lower house of the Louisiana legislature, and in 1822 he was sent to congress from the New Orleans district, serving, with two re-elections, from 23 December, 1822, till 3 March, 1829. In 1823 he was appointed, with Louis Moreau Lislet, to revise the civil code of Louisiana, a work which was completed the next year, and substantially ratified by enactment. Meanwhile, in 1821, he was entrusted solely with the task of preparing a code of criminal law and procedure. The next year he made a report of his plan for the work, which was afterward reprinted in London and Paris. His code was submitted to the legislature in 1826, but never directly accepted. It was very favorably received by the legal profession in this country and Europe, adding greatly to his fame. It visibly influenced the legislation of several countries, and parts of it were adopted entirely in Guatemala. He paid his long-standing debt to the government in 1826, with interest amounting to $100,014.89, by the disposal to the United States of property in New Orleans, to which his title was clear and undisputed.


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