17761776 Club
New Jersey swears in its first governor: William Livingston takes office
A lawyer who trained in New York courts now leads a state that is still being organized while at war.
New Jersey had just declared independence and needed someone to run it. On August 31, 1776, William Livingston, a lawyer who had spent the past two years representing New Jersey in the Continental Congress, was elected governor of New Jersey and sworn in the same day. He took the job while the British army was massing around New York Harbor, less than a week before the Battle of Long Island. Livingston would hold the office for the rest of his life…
