THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON; SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

For more than five years from the commencement of the Revolution, the foreign concerns of Congress were transacted through a committee, which was first appointed on the 29th of November, 1775, and called the Committee of Secret Correspondence. It was their duty to correspond with all the American Agents, Commissioners, and Ministers abroad, to report to Congress on these matters from time to time, and receive such instructions from that body as occasion required. It is to be understood, however, that in this respect they acted only a subordinate part, for it was customary for the Ministers abroad to direct their letters to the President of Congress. After having been read in that Assembly, they were put into the hands of the Committee, whose business it was to answer them. On account of the absence of the members, the committee itself was frequently very thin, and sometimes for weeks together not more than one member was present at the seat of Government. Hence responsibility rested nowhere, and it is no wonder that delays, neglect, and ill management were the consequences.

Various causes retarded the adoption of a better system, but chiefly the warmth of party and internal jealousies, which prevailed within the walls of Congress for a long time, and too often defeated measures of essential importance, when there was a probability that they would throw a new weight of power into a scale of doubtful preponderance. To this state of circumstances it is in a great degree to be attributed, that no plan for a regular Department of Foreign Affairs was resolved upon till the 10th of January, 1781, and that no person was appointed to fill the office thus created till seven months later. On the 10th of August, Robert R. Livingston was chosen Secretary of Foreign Affairs, but he did not enter upon the duties of the Department till the 20th of October.

From this date a salutary change found its way into the management of Foreign Affairs. To abilities and other qualifications well suited to the station, Mr Livingston added energy, diligence, and promptitude, as his numerous letters on a great variety of topics abundantly testify. We hear no more complaints from the Ministers abroad, that their letters are forgotten and unanswered, or that they receive no intelligence nor instructions from home.

The details of the Department were so modified, after he accepted the appointment, as to embrace Domestic Affairs to a certain extent. He was to correspond with the President of Congress, the Governors of the States, the Commander in Chief, and generally with all persons on topics in any manner connected with the primary objects of his office. His letters to the American Ministers at Foreign Courts, and to the French Ministers in this country, have already been printed in the correspondence of those persons respectively. This order was thought preferable, as the continuity of the subjects embraced in the different branches of correspondence would thus be more distinctly preserved. The letters, which follow, are chiefly to the President of Congress, and to other officers and persons, who were in the United States at the time they were written.

Mr Livingston continued a little short of two years in the Department of Foreign Affairs. He resigned in June, 1783.