Robert Livingston Quotes

When a flight is proceeding incredibly well, something was forgotten.

And even in the open air the stench of whiskey was appalling. To this fiendish poison, I am certain, the greater part of the squalor I saw is due. Many of these vermin were obviously not foreigners—I counted at least five American countenances in which a certain vanished decency half showed through the red whiskey bloating. Then I reflected upon the power of wine, and marveled how self-respecting persons can imbibe such stuff, or permit it to be served upon their tables. It is the deadliest enemy with which humanity is faced. Not all the European wars could produce a tenth of the havock occasioned among men by the wretched fluid which responsible governments allow to be sold openly. Looking upon that mob of sodden brutes, my mind’s eye pictured a scene of different kind; a table bedecked with spotless linen and glistening silver, surrounded by gentlemen immaculate in evening attire—and in the reddening faces of those gentlemen I could trace the same lines which appeared in full development of the beasts of the crowd. Truly, the effects of liquor are universal, and the shamelessness of man unbounded. How can reform be wrought in the crowd, when supposedly respectable boards groan beneath the goblets of rare old vintages? Is mankind asleep, that its enemy is thus entertained as a bosom friend? But a week or two ago, at a parade held in honour of the returning Rhode Island National Guard, the Chief Executive of this State, Mr. Robert Livingston Beeckman, prominent in New York, Newport, and Providence society, appeared in such an intoxicated condition that he could scarce guide his mount, or retain his seat in the saddle, and he the guardian of the liberties and interests of that Colony carved by the faith, hope, and labour of Roger Williams from the wilderness of savage New-England! I am perhaps an extremist on the subject of prohibition, but I can see no justification whatsoever for the tolerance of such a degrading demon as drink.

But given that the children are products of the same biological stock, a much more plausible explanation for the differences in performance has to do with differences in parents' rearing and expectations of their first child compared with their younger children.

When Robert Livingston, one of the American plenipotentiaries, asked the French negotiators precisely where the Purchase territories extended north-westwards, since very few Europeans, let alone cartographers, had ever set foot there, he was told that they included whatever France had bought off Spain in 1800, but beyond that they simply didn’t know. ‘If an obscurity did not already exist,’ Napoleon advised, ‘it would perhaps be a good policy to put one there.’98 The deal was done after nearly three weeks of tough haggling in Paris with Livingston and his fellow negotiator James Monroe, all conducted against the backdrop of the deteriorating situation over Amiens, and was concluded only days before the resumption of war. The financing was arranged via the Anglo-Dutch merchant banks Barings Brothers and Hopes, which in effect bought Louisiana from France and sold it on to the United States for $11.25 million of 6 per cent American bonds, meaning that the American government did not have to provide the capital immediately.99 As a result, Barings were paying Napoleon 2 million francs a month even when Britain was at war with France. When the prime minister, Henry Addington, asked the bank to cease the remittances Barings agreed, but Hopes, based on the continent, continued to pay and were backed by Barings – so Napoleon got his money and Barings and Hopes made nearly $3 million from the deal. ‘We have lived long,’ said Livingston when the deal was concluded, ‘but this is the noblest work of our whole lives. The treaty which we have just signed has not been obtained by art or dictated by force; equally advantageous to the two contracting parties, it will change vast solitudes into flourishing districts. From this day the United States take their place among the powers of first rank.

As after any revolution, purists were vigilant for signs of ideological backsliding and departures from the one true faith. The 1780s and 1790s were to be especially rich in feverish witch hunts for traitors who allegedly sought to reverse the verdict of the war. For the radicals of the day, revolutionary purity meant a strong legislature that would overshadow a weak executive and judiciary. For Hamilton, this could only invite legislative tyranny. Rutgers v. Waddington represented his first major chance to expound the principle that the judiciary should enjoy coequal status with the other two branches of government. If Rutgers v. Waddington made Hamilton a controversial figure in city politics in 1784, the founding of the Bank of New York cast him in a more conciliatory role. The creation of New York’s first bank was a formative moment in the city’s rise as a world financial center. Banking was still a new phenomenon in America. The first such chartered institution, the Bank of North America, had been started in Philadelphia in 1781, and Hamilton had studied its affairs closely. It was the brainchild of Robert Morris, and its two biggest shareholders were Jeremiah Wadsworth and Hamilton’s brother-in-law John B. Church. These two men now cast about for fresh outlets for their capital. In 1783, John Church sailed for Europe with Angelica and their four children to settle wartime accounts with the French government. In his absence, Church named Hamilton as his American business agent, a task that was to consume a good deal of his time in coming years. When Church and Wadsworth deputized him to set up a private bank in New York, Hamilton warmed to it as a project that could help to rejuvenate New York commerce. He was stymied by a competing proposal from Robert R. Livingston to set up a “land bank”—so called because the initial capital would be pledged mostly in land, an idea Hamilton derided as a “wild and impracticable scheme.” 49 Since land is not a liquid asset and cannot be converted into ready cash in an emergency, Hamilton favored a more conservative bank that would conduct business exclusively in notes and gold and silver coins. When Livingston solicited the New York legislature for a charter, the tireless Hamilton swung into action and mobilized New York’s merchants against the effort. He informed Church that he had lobbied “some of the most intelligent merchants, who presently saw the matter in a proper light and began to take measures to defeat the plan.

Livingstone’s tomb in Westminster Abbey was inscribed with a quotation from an unsent letter that he had written to New York Herald publisher Gordon Bennett in April 1872, which ended with the words “All I can add in my loneliness is, may Heaven’s richest blessing come down on everyone—American, English, or Turk—who will help heal the open sore of the world.

Antipatriot sentiments were shared by a wide variety of people across a broad social spectrum. In New York, ironically, some of those who opposed the Revolution were poor tenant farmers from the 160,000-acre Livingston Manor in the Hudson Valley. Robert Livingston, Jr., lord of the manor, was a Whig Revolutionary—not because of deep philosophical convictions, but because his opponents in New York politics were all Tories. Livingston’s tenants, according to historian Staughton Lynd, saw in the Revolution a chance to oppose their Lord and possibly take possession of the land they worked.

No amount of cost-counting, however, and no amount of training in cross-cultural ministry can fully prepare us for what we will face, whether leaving home for a third-world country or a more modern country. I think Mike Tyson articulated this best (yes, the boxer, of all people). He said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart, except the tie that binds my heart to Yours.” —David Livingstone

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston y el joven Thomas Jefferson fueron elegidos por el Congreso Continental como miembros del comité que debía preparar la Declaración. De todos ellos fue Thomas Jefferson el que preparó un borrador. Sabemos que lo escribió de pie, en un atril de un joven albañil llamado Graff y que tardó un par de semanas en redactarlo. Todos consideraron que el texto de Jefferson era preciso y claro pero aún así, buscando un mayor consenso entre las colonias, se alteró más de una cuarta parte. El fragmento suprimido más llamativo fue el que acusaba “al tirano”, al rey Jorge III, de ser responsable del comercio de esclavos.

By the following year, the rumor had been confirmed. Jefferson then spent much of 1802 contemplating the implications of neighboring a large French holding. His immediate concern was access to New Orleans, where the Mississippi River emptied into the Gulf of Mexico—small streams and rivers as far north as Pennsylvania and New York merged and flowed into the vital Mississippi. Jefferson decided to dispatch James Monroe as a special envoy to negotiate with France. Once in Paris, Monroe was to join the American minister to France, Robert R. Livingston, to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans and territories near it. Jefferson authorized up to $10 million. Monroe and Livingston, however, were shocked at the French willingness to cede the entirety of the French holding in North America. As transoceanic communication was only as fast as that of a sailing vessel, and relaying the message back to Washington raised the risk of Napoleon changing his mind, the American negotiators went beyond their mandate and agreed in principle to pay $15 million for the territory ranging from New Orleans up to Canada, with a natural western border ending at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The news of the agreement took well over a month to reach the president. With the details finalized through the remainder of 1803, the United States more than doubled in size.

conservative ideology is in many ways grounded in perceptions of threat.

It is clear from my reading of the Bible which of the moral foundations Jesus valued most. He did not want to be a king (authority), he did not take sides (loyalty), and he embraced even those society considered “unclean,” such as lepers, beggars, and harlots (purity). He was all about justice (fairness) and compassion (not harming others)—so much so that he even showed humanity and forgiveness toward those who betrayed, tortured, and murdered him.

people felt more affirmed, safe, secure, valuable, worthy, respected, and competent—in a deep and genuine way, not just a mantra or story that they tell themselves—then levels of prejudice would decrease.

Research reveals that one of the most effective strategies for getting people to lower their reliance on emotional truth is by increasing their belief that they are competent, worthy, and good—a process known as self-affirmation.

Not having the benefit of attending tea with the queen is not the same as having the burden of harassment or violence by the police.

One might argue that being disabled confers an advantage when driving around a parking lot. But believing that people with disabilities have more privilege than able-bodied individuals in general because they get access to closer parking spaces is an example of compartmentalization.

Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and other titans of corporate America. Remember the quiz question posed at the beginning of the chapter? These three men have more wealth than the combined bank accounts and assets of how many ordinary Americans? The answer is G—the combined wealth of the poorest 165 million people in the United States still falls tens of billions of dollars short of the combined wealth of just three White men.

Extending this metaphor to organizations, it’s not sufficient to just have diverse people on a team—it’s also important to recognize and utilize the unique capabilities that they bring to the table.

If we summarize the origins of racism (and sexism) in a single word, it is power. It is both the desire to maintain power and the fear of losing power.

Research confirms that the belief in meritocracy or economic mobility creates tolerance for income inequality, because we then believe that people’s financial status is the product of their own effort.

Education, conversation, and action—in that order.

Beliefs, not facts, lead to choices (for example, hiring decisions), which lead to outcomes (for example, economic disparities). Therefore, it is just as important to understand the source of people’s beliefs about racism as it is to understand the reality of racism.

What is critically important for now is to understand—to really understand—that the heart of racism is power and the soul of racism is fear, with the heart striving to protect the soul.

Assumptions can have a profound effect on actual outcomes.

Your job now is to translate that knowledge into action, while keeping in mind that the goal is not to boil the ocean. It’s to boil the water in your pot or kettle—the bigger the better—and put it in the ocean. With a sufficient number of pot boilers, a pond will boil, as will a lake, and potentially an ocean.

Relationships provide a portal for facts to enter and learning to occur. They create what Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy, refers to as “proximity.” People need to get proximate to one another for change to occur.

To get people truly motivated, engaged, and devoted to a course of action, they must develop a greater understanding, appreciation, and responsibility for the work that is being undertaken and the reasons behind it.

If we focused on these five interconnected foundations of oppression in a thoughtful and effective way, we could eliminate the lion’s share—perhaps 90 percent or more—of systemic racism that exists in our country. 1. Voting rights 2. Economic inequality 3. Public education 4. Criminal justice 5. Healthcare disparities

Much social psychological research has shown that cultural expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies can affect outcomes.

Mother Teresa once said, “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.

In addition, you need to address the “frozen middle,” who often resist or oppose diversity initiatives because they do not understand them or because they see them as a threat to their own professional ascent.

What you do have control over is how much you develop your employees. Focus on being a coach rather than a scout.

He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind is gone.

People are unlikely to take steps toward solving a problem if they don't believe that it concerns them. But assuming there is knowledge of the Condition as well as sufficient Concern, the next question becomes: What do I do to fix it? This is the sage that most individuals and leaders want to jump to *first*, rather than last - - which would be a mistake. It is akin to a doctor prescribing medicine for symptoms (e.g. headache) without performing an examination to better understand the patients' underlying condition and whether the patient will comply with prescribed regimen. If the headache is caused by severe dehydration, for example, and the patient is given ibuprofen to get rid of the headache without any plan for rehydration, then the headache will recur - - not to mention the likelihood of more serious medical problems. In many ways, Strategy is the "easiest" of the five stages.

We divide ourselves into ‘us’ and ‘them’ based on all sorts of random and insignificant traits… According to optimal distinctiveness theory, humans are drawn to social groups that simultaneously fulfill two conflicting needs - - a need for assimilation, or the desire for social connection, affiliation, inclusion, and belonging, and a need for differentiation, or the desire to be unique, special, and distinctive.

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With finely honed political instincts, George Clinton saw that Hamilton was overreaching, and he secretly aided King’s candidacy in order to drive a wedge between the Schuylers and the Livingstons. When New York picked its second senator on July 16, 1789, Rufus King came out on top. Just as Clinton suspected, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston was irate and gradually moved into the governor’s camp.

[Steuben] is now Teaching the Most Simple Parts of the Exercise such as Positition and Marching of a Soldier in a Manner Quite different from that, they Have been heretofore used to, In my Oppinion More agreable to the Dictates of Reason & Common Sence than any Mode I have before seen. HENRY BEEKMAN LIVINGSTON TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, MARCH 25, 17781

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. I pray it weaves through me.