Samuel Livermore Recommends Vermont Statehood
Samuel Livermore was an inaugural member of the US House of Representatives who had spent time as the Continental Congress’ Grand Committee chairman.
Samuel Livermore
Samuel Livermore was born in Massachusetts and attended the College of New Jersey, but decided to spend his life as a resident of New Hampshire.
Livermore opened a law practice and won election to the Colonial Assembly.
By the time of the American Revolution, Samuel had spent five years as New Hampshire’s Attorney General.
Grand Committee
Livermore was a respected leader in his adopted State and as such was sent to the Continental Congress on two occasions.
While in Congress, Samuel was elected chairman of the Grand Committee.
This Committee consisted of one Delegate from each State and was tasked with negotiating agreements on difficult issues in an effort to have the Continental Congress operate more smoothly.
While in this seat, (in 1782) Livermore led the Grand Committee in recommending two major changes.
The first was to accept Vermont as a State assuming they agree to Congress’ borders and send Delegates immediately to sign the Articles of Confederation.
The second was to charge commissioners for each State to collect revenue that was due to the Congress.
Both of these decisions were rejected by Congress and Livermore was soon replaced by George Clymer.
Justice and Representative
Just because Livermore had been defeated in Congress did not hamper his importance to New Hampshire.
Through most of the 1780’s Samuel served as Chief Justice of the States.
Furthermore, he was elected as a Federalist to the inaugural House of Representatives. His four years in that office were followed by seven years as a United States Senator.
He resigned due to ill health in 1801 when he was approaching 70 years old.
If you would like to read about another woman publisher during the Revolution, check out this article:
George Frost Joins The Governor’s Council
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While Samuel Livermore does not have a biography, you can learn more about Revolutionary Vermont in ‘A Few Lawless Vagabonds’ which can be found through the Amazon affiliate link below.
