in which the Crown and the people of this Colony are constitutionally represented, and the power and authority of the said Legislature cannot lawfully or constitutionally be suspended, abridged, abrogated, or annulled by any power, authority, or prerogative whatsoever; the prerogative of

COURT-HOUSE,

the Crown ordinarily exercised for prorogations and dissolutions only excepted." It so offended the governor that he dissolved the assembly on the 2d of January, 1769. In the election that followed Philip Livingston was unseated by the Tory majority.

He was soon called into the higher councils as a representative to the first Centennial Congress, which met in Philadelphia in 1774. He was the leader of the New York delegation. John Adams mentioned him in his Diary as a man of great popularity, and said his manner of speech was "downright and straightforward." De Witt Clinton described him as possessing" in an extraordinary degree, an intuitive perception of character," but said "there was a dignity, with a mixture of austerity in his deportment, which rendered it difficult for strangers to approach him." He seems to have exercised much power in Congress, and took part in the most important committees. He was elected to the second Congress; and a few days after affixing his name to the immortal document was made a member of the Board of Treasury. A few months later he was placed upon the Marine Committee. In 1777 he served in the convention that assembled in Kingston to frame the constitution for the State of New York, and was one of those who, on the 22d of April, stood in front of the court-house while the secretary, Robert Benson, read the important document, standing upon a barrel, to the assembled multitude. He was chosen State senator, and on the 10th of September of the same year attended the initial meeting of the new Legislature, when our noble constitution received the first principles of life. He was also re-elected to Congress.

In the mean time he had sold a considerable portion of his private property to sustain the public credit of the country. He lived in a house near the Hudson, not far from Kingston, and his daughter Sarah, the wife of the celebrated divine, Rev. John Henry Livingston, D.D., was with her family making the same dwelling her present home. Another daughter, Margaret, married Dr. Thomas Jones of New York. Mr. Livingston was in feeble health, but in the spring of 1778, under a strong sense of duty, proceeded to York, Pennsylvania, where Congress had retired after the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, and took his seat on the 5th of May. The sessions were held in the "Old Town House," and the prospect. for America's future was very dark. The war had seemed to demoralize all classes of society. Trade with the British soldiers was pushed on every side. While Washington's army were nearly starved, the farmers were sup, plying the markets of Philadelphia. In the midst of the general depression the attempt to displace Washington for Gates-the "Conway Cabal"had intensified the anxiety of all true patriots. The records of the pro

ceedings of Congress throw no light upon the part taken by Mr. Livingston in this controversy, but tradition declares that his latest and most effective efforts were in behalf of Washington. Washington Irving relates that Judge William Jay once said to him: "Shortly before the death of John Adams, I was sitting alone with my father (Chief-Justice John Jay), conversing about the American Revolution. Suddenly he remarked, 'Ah, William! the history of that Revolution will never be known. Nobody now alive knows it, but John Adams and myself.' Surprised at such a declaration, I asked him to what he referred? He briefly replied, 'The proceedings of the old Congress.' Again I inquired, 'What proceedings?' He answered, 'Those against Washington; from first to last, there was a most bitter feeling against him.' As the old Congress held its sessions with closed doors, nothing but what that body saw fit to disclose was made public. We have no doubt that had it not been for this, the members of the Cabal would never have dared to venture upon any open attempt to injure Washington with the army and the people."

Livingston grew rapidly very ill, and died in York on the 12th of June, of dropsy in the chest. Congress attended his funeral in a body, at six o'clock on the evening of the 14th, each member wearing crape on his arm. The Rev. Mr. Duffield, the attending chaplain, officiated, and the interment took place in what is now "Prospect Hill Cemetery," where the monument was subsequently erected by his grandson, General Van Rensselaer.

In reply to an inquiry as to the present condition of this monument, a correspondent in York writes, under date of October 26, 1885: "I was in 'Prospect Hill Cemetery,' yesterday, and observed its condition. The grass in the inclosure and the box-wood and ornamental trees were in such good trim compared with some other lots in the cemetery, that I inquired of an employee of the cemetery company whether any one was paid for keeping it in order. Two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in York, and I never pass the places that mark these graves without a mental tribute of veneration and admiration. I paused before Livingston's tomb yesterday, and read the inscription, although I had read it more than a hundred times before. It struck me as a remarkable coincidence that on returning from the cemetery I found your letter of inquiry upon my table."

Martha I Lamb

THANKSGIVING DAY, PAST AND PRESENT

Our American Thanksgiving has a history of its own. This may not lead directly back to ancestral halls rich in noble tradition, but it does lead back to a birthplace of which every true American may well be proud, a birthplace that savors of the soil of a new continent, and tells of the conditions which surrounded the infancy of a great people.

Entire originality in the matter of feast days, fast days and holidays is a thing of the past. Practically every day in the year was pre-empted for anniversary purposes long ago, and should a new nation spring into existence to-morrow and seek to mark the event by the establishment of a general public festival, some uneasy book-worm would rise up and prove by the production of a Chaldean or Assyrian or Aztec calendar, that a similar festival was annually observed by primeval man some ten thousand odd years more or less before the Christian era. Has it not been demonstrated that Christmas and New Year and Easter, and even the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, are mere perpetuations of heathenish festivals that had already existed for centuries?

This however, is a very materialistic not to say "narrow" view of the subject. The true significance of a national festival lies in the idea which directly leads to its establishment, and it is not of the slightest consequence, save as a matter of curiosity, to trace back the analogies which can as a matter of course be found in the pages of history.

It

Considered in this liberal sense, Thanksgiving may fairly claim to be the oldest and the most distinctive of our few American festivals. officially antedates the Fourth of July by more than a century and a half (1621-1776), and was the first recognized State holiday to attain a regular annual observance in the colonies. Originality of conception has never been authoritatively claimed for it. The Harvest Home of the Saxons and Celts, the Cerealia of the Romans, the Israelitish Feast of Tabernacles, and for all that we know to the contrary the post-harvest celebrations of preadamite man were its actual precursors. Even among the American Indians there was held an autumnal festival which might not unfairly claim precedence as the true aboriginal Thanksgiving of the Western World.

A distinguished divine, recently passed over to the majority,* has said -and his words will find an echo in the heart of every New Englander

*The late Rev. Wm. Adams, D.D., of New York.