1829, beaten by Edward D. White.  At the succeeding session of the Legislature, however, he was elected a senator to Congress in the place of Henry Johnson.  From the Senate he was sent as Minister to France, and was afterward Secretary of State during the administration of General Jackson.  It was in his case that Jackson exercised the extraordinary power of directing the Treasurer of the United States to receipt Mr. Livingston for the sum of his defalcation thirty-four years before.  At the time this was done, Tobias Watkins was in prison in Washington for a defalcation of only a few hundreds to the Government.  These two events gave rise to the ludicrous caricature, which caused much amusement at the time, of General Jackson’s walking with his arm in Livingston’s by the jail, when Watkins, looking from the window, points to Livingston, saying to the General:  “You should turn me out, or put him in.”

Immediately upon this receipt being recorded, Livingston presented an account for mileage and per diem for all the time he had served in Congress, and received it.  So long as he was a defaulter to the Government, he could receive no pay for public services.

As a lawyer, Mr. Livingston had no superior.  He was master of every system prevailing in the civilized world; he spoke fluently four languages, and read double that number.  As a statesman he ranked with the first of his country, and was skilled as a diplomatist.  In every situation where placed by fortune or accident, he displayed ample ability for the discharge of its duties.  It is not known, but is generally believed that, as Secretary of State, he wrote the state papers of General Jackson.  The same has been said of that veteran Amos Kendall.  There was one for which Livingston obtained the credit, which he certainly did not write—­the celebrated proclamation to the people of South Carolina upon the subject of nullification.  This was written by Mr. Webster.  Upon one occasion, Mr. Webster, per invitation, with many members of Congress, dined with the President.  When the company was about retiring, General Jackson requested Mr. Webster to remain, as he desired some conversation with him.  The subject of South Carolina nullification had been discussed cursorily by the guests at dinner, and Jackson had been impressed with some of Webster’s remarks; and when alone together, he requested Webster’s opinions on the subject at length.

Mr. Webster replied, that the time was wanting for a full discussion of the question; but if it would be agreeable to the President, he would put them in writing and send them to him.  He did so.  These opinions, expressing fully Mr. Webster’s views, were handed to Mr. Livingston, who, approving them, made a few verbal alterations, and submitted the document, which was issued as the President’s proclamation.  The doctrines politically enunciated in this paper are identical with those entertained in the great speech of Mr. Webster, in the famous contest with Robert T. Hayne, on Foote’s Resolutions, some years before; and are eminently Federal.  They came like midnight at noon upon the States-Rights men of the South, and a Virginian, wherever found, groaned as he read them.