Edward Livingston (1764-1836), American jurist and statesman, was one of the great legal reformers of the 19th century.

Edward Livingston was born on May 28, 1764, at Clermont, N.Y., into a wealthy family. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1781. After a legal apprenticeship he was admitted to the bar in 1785. In 1789 he married Mary McEvers, daughter of a New York merchant.

In 1794 Livingston was elected to the U.S. Congress. Vigorously anti-Federalist, he attacked Jay's Treaty and the Alien and Sedition Acts. After serving three terms he declined to seek reelection in 1800, instead accepting two appointments: as U.S. attorney for the District of New York and as mayor of New York City. In office he sought to reform the Mayor's Court and showed concern for the city's poor, but a clerk's misappropriation of federal taxes, for which Livingston accepted full responsibility, ruined his career...