city in 1773. Elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, he was
appointed one of a committee of five to draft the Declaration of
Independence, but enforced absence from Philadelphia made it impossible
for him to sign the document. He was soon after elected Chancellor of
the State of New York, and as such administered the oath of office to
George Washington as first President of the United States. His previous
training in public affairs admirably fitted him for assuming the
important duties leading to the transfer of the Louisiana territory, and
to him as much as to any individual belongs the credit for the
successful consummation of the transaction.

At the Exposition a handsome statue of Livingston, by Lukemann, was
erected in the Cascade Gardens, on the approach to the West Pavilion.
Upon the front of the New York State Building appeared this legend:
"Robert R. Livingston of New York, Minister to France 1801-1805,
inaugurated the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase and was the
first to sign the treaty."


ORIGIN OF THE EXPOSITION

The first action looking towards the commemoration of the Louisiana
Purchase was taken at a meeting of the Missouri Historical Society in
September, 1898, when a committee of fifty citizens was appointed to
take the preliminary steps looking to the observance of the occasion.
This committee recommended the submission of the question to a
convention of delegates, representing all the Louisiana Purchase states,
and at this convention, which was held at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis,
January 10, 1899, it was decided to hold a World's Fair as the most
fitting commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the