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William Livingston

November, , 1723 - July, 1790

What he did:

One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence

First governor of New Jersey

Graduated first in his class at Yale

Held the rank of Brigadier General in the militia

What he said:

“I believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, without any foreign comments or human explanations…I believe that he who feareth God and worketh righteousness will be accepted of Him…I believe that the virulence of some…proceeds not from their affection to Christianity, which is founded on too firm a basis to be shake by the freest inquiry, and the Divine authority of which I sincerely believe without receiving a farthing for saying so.”

“The land we posses is the gift of heaven to our fathers, and Divine providence seems to have decreed it to our latest posterity.”

“We earnestly recommend that Friday, the 17th day of May next, be observed by the colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that we may with united hearts confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life appease God’s righteous displeasure, and through the merits and meditation of Jesus Christ obtain His pardon and forgiveness." William Livingston presented this resolution to Congress on March 16, 1776. It was approved without dissent.

Livingston called Christianity “the most holy religion that ever was.”

In Their Own Words