1To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 6 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I recd your favor of the 16th. ult. just as I was leaving New York for this place which has delayed till now my acknowledging the distinguished attention you have shewn me in procuring for me the honor of a place among the American philosophers. The moment you chose for doing has not a little encreased the obligation, since it was one in which the whole American world (except the man who...
2To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 12 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have this moment only received your favor the 24 Feby. It lay some days in the post Office at New York, from whence it was sent to Clermont & at last followed me to Albany. I hasten to express my gratitude for your frequent attentions to me. I had determined to take upon me no new Office, but to endeavour to promote your interest, which I believed to be intimatly connected with that of my...
3To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 16 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
The delay that your favor of the 24th feby had met with induced me to write an hasty answer on the 12th. instant (the moment it came to hand) as the post was then going out. It appearing by the way bill that some free letters directed to Clermont had miscarried in their passage from New York least mine to you should have met the same fate I think it proper to repeat my grateful acknowledgments...
4To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 17 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I not long since did myself the honor to inform you of the discovery of some bones near the surface of the earth in the Western parts of this State. of these I have as yet been able to obtain no description. by the polite attention however of Judge Williamson I have in my possession three very remarkable teeth which are evidently the dentis incisores of some enormous carnivourous animal. two...
5To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 29 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I avail myself of Mr. DeLaBegarre’s going to Washington to send you the teeth found in the western part of this state, drawings of which, I had before done myself the honor to transmit to you. May they not have belonged to the hippopotamus? The front teeth of that animal in the lower jaw being described “as projecting, furrowed & pointed, & as formed rather to tear than cut.” Fab: Columna ....
6To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 2 May 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
The fear of intruding upon the few hours you can spare to rural occupations, & philosophic retirment has prevented my replying to your favor till your return to Washington, where I am told that this will find you. The character you give of Mr. Sumpter will doubtless render him an acquisition to the public, & in theory, the appointment of the secretary to the legation seems an adviseable...
7To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 31 May 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
My line of law reading has for twenty Years past been confined to civil cases arising in the Court of Chancery only. This must be my appology, if in replying to your questions I should be found in the wrong. In Answer to the first It is true that many of the whig Lawyers have been of opinion that truth cannot be a libel, & this was strenuously maintained by Lord Camden against Lord Mansfield ....
8To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, [4 June 1801] (Jefferson Papers)
The Chancellor Livingston has read with great pleasure the observations of the president on neutral rights—Mr. Livingston is perfectly satisfied that they are founded in reason & justice, & should as such form the Law of nations, for nothing is more absurd than that the quarels of others shd affect the right of peaceable nations—The extention which their adoption would give to the commerce of...
9To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 5 June 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Livingston has the honor to inform the president, that in his opinion the writers of the enclosed have no such political weight or information as should in any sort influence the presidents own sentiments on public measures. They are weak men who have in this instance been probably the dupes of some that are more artful . Mr. Livingston had the honor to state yesterday what he truly...
10To Thomas Jefferson from Robert R. Livingston, 10 August 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I some time since had the honor to write to you on the subject of some of the appointments in New York on which you had requested my opinion. I apprehended from what you then said, that Bailey had voluntarily withdrawn , which I now find is not the case but that he still retains some expectations of the office, & is supported in his pretentions by Armstrong. which renders what I now have to...