To George Washington from Peter R. Livingston, 13 July 1793
From Peter R. Livingston
New York 13 July 1793
May it Please your Excellency
My Worthy friend Dr John Cockran the present Loan officer1 being again taken very ill and his life dispared of if he should not recover this stroke, and your Excellency should have no objections to grant me the favour if the office should become Vacant to fill it You would confer an Obligation never to be forgotten on one of your most Sincre friends, and most cordial well wisher.2 Your Excellencys Most Obedient and very Humble Servant
Peter R. Livingston
ALS, DLC:GW.
Peter R. Livingston (1737–1794) was the eldest son of Robert Livingston, Jr. (1708–1790), third Lord of Livingston Manor in Columbia County, New York. During the Revolutionary War, he served as chairman of New York’s committee of safety from September 1776 to March 1777 and as colonel of the 10th Albany Regiment.
1. On Dr. John Cochran and his appointment as commissioner of loans for New York State, see Cochran to GW, 1 May 1789, and notes.
2. Marinus Willett, in his second letter to GW of 14 July 1793, also wrote to ask for an appointment to the anticipated vacancy (DLC:GW; see also Willett to GW, 7 July 1789, source note). For Abraham Lott’s interest in this same position, see his letter to GW of 15 July 1793, in the source note for Lott to GW, 7 Aug. 1789. Livingston, Willett, and Lott all failed to get the appointment. For Cochran’s resignation and his successor, see his letter to GW of 1 Aug. 1793, and note 1.