[295] Kent to Livingston, May 13, 1814, Hunt: Livingston, 181-82. Kent was appointed Chancellor of the State of New York, Feb. 25, 1814. His opinions are contained in Johnson's Chancery Reports, to which he refers in this letter.
For twenty years Livingston fought for what he believed to be his rights to the batture, and, in the end, was successful; but in such fashion that the full value of the property was only realized by his family long after his death.
Notwithstanding Jefferson's hostility, Livingston grew in public favor, was elected to the Louisiana State Legislature and then to Congress, where his work was notable. Later, in 1829, he was chosen United States Senator from that State; and, after serving one term, was appointed Secretary of State by President Jackson. In this office he prepared most of the President's state papers and wrote Jackson's great Nullification Proclamation in 1832.
Livingston was then sent as Minister to France and, by his brilliant conduct of the negotiations over the French Spoliation Claims, secured the payment of them. He won fame throughout Europe and Spanish America by his various works on the penal code and code of procedure. In the learning of the law he was not far inferior to Story and Kent.
Aside from one or two sketches, there is no account of his life except an inadequate biography by Charles H. Hunt.
[296] Story, i, 186.
[297] Marshall to Story, Sept. 18, 1821, Proceedings, Mass. Hist. Soc. 2d series, xiv, 330; and see infra, 363-64.
[298] Marbury vs. Madison.
[299] Marshall to Story, July 13, 1821, Proceedings, Mass. Hist. Soc. 2d series, xiv, 328-29.