Life of Edward Livingston

Philosophy and Poetry ? Lafayette ? The Family at Clermont. LIVINGSTON enjoyed, in one respect, a favorable opportunity for becoming a spoiled child. All the idolatry which his family had for any member was yielded to him from the first, as it was retained by him to the last. Yet the species of tyranny which that kind of worship engenders in common natures did not find any lodgment in his. His brothers and sisters have all borne testimony to that perennial sweetness of temper in the child and youth, which, in the man, was something more than philosophic, something more than simply Christian. Once, and but once, they said, when he was about eight years old, he was charged with violent conduct. The accusation was brought by one of the sisters to the mother. "Then go in the corner," said Margaret Beekman. " I am sure you have been very naughty, or Edward would not have done so." The home at Clermont was rural and secluded, ? a plain large mansion overlooking the Hudson from the forests and farming lands of the lower manor, with rooms for many guests, as well as for the large number of regular inmates. Judge Livingston had also a town-house in New York,where the family resided in winter. The journey between the two establishments was usually performed on board a sloop, and was an affair of days instead of hours. The greater part of what is now the State of New York was then a wilderness, the settlements being mainly confined to the neighborhood of the Hudso... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.