One of the richest men in all of America signed the Declaration of Independence knowing it could cost him everything. Then he left home to serve, died far away in a borrowed town, and never came back. Meet Philip Livingston.
This guy was not a scrappy underdog. Just the opposite. He was born in 1716 into the Livingston family, one of the wealthiest, most powerful dynasties in colonial New York. Manor lands, a Yale education, and a shipping empire he built into one of the biggest merchant fortunes in New York City. He had everything the British system was designed to reward.
And he spent that fortune building things that still exist. He helped found King's College, which you know today as Columbia University. He helped start the New York Society Library. He helped create the New York Chamber of Commerce. The man was basically constructing the civic backbone of New York with his own money and time.
Here's the thing though. He was not some hothead revolutionary. He actually feared independence. He worried it would bring chaos and disorder, and he was cautious about the whole idea for a long time. This wasn't a man itching to burn it all down.
But when New York finally gave its delegates the go-ahead, Livingston signed. He put the name of one of the great fortunes in America onto a document the crown treated as treason. A rich man betting his wealth against the empire that made him rich.
And the war came straight for him. When the British took New York, they seized and used his properties. He started selling off his holdings to help fund the fight, watching the empire he'd defied pick apart the life he'd built.
Then comes the ending that gets me. His health was failing, and he knew it. Congress had been driven out of Philadelphia and was meeting in the small town of York, Pennsylvania. Livingston could have gone home to rest. Instead he told his family he probably wouldn't see them again, and he went to York to keep serving anyway.
He died there in June 1778, in the middle of a session of Congress, far from home. He's buried in York, Pennsylvania to this day. He never made it back to the New York he spent his whole life building.
A man who had every reason to stay comfortable and loyal, who gave his fortune and his final months to a country he wasn't even sure would work.
Philip Livingston. He died at his post, a long way from home.
Imagine refusing to stand for:
- Americans over illegals
- Voter ID
- Lowest murder rate in 125 years
- Ending fraud & waste
- Angel families
- Tough-on-crime policies
- No tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security
- Crushing fentanyl
- A Secure border
That’s exactly what Democrats refused to stand for. Tells you everything.
As I get older I realize that having the foresight and wisdom to avoid conflict is better than getting in conflict on any level. Real conflict has the potential for so many unforeseen crazy variables that a wiseman doesn’t want to deal with so it’s best to avoid them as much as possible. Only fools like nonsense.
Life is risk management and decision management. Everyone ends up where they are based on a series of consistent decisions…. Be them good or bad.
I did 9 hours of streams on Arizona State University's incredible ties to the CIA, from its President being the head of the CIA's venture capital arm to its centers & institutes getting millions in grants for intelligence work. As it turns out, it's the #1 U in the Epstein Files
NEW: The family of fallen Army Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis receives a call from President Trump, telling them their son would posthumously receive the Medal of Honor.
Ollis was killed in Afghanistan in 2013 when he shielded a Polish army officer from a su*cide bomber.
Ollis saved the life of Karol Cierpica, who became the father of a baby boy shortly after.
Cierpica named the boy 'Michael' in honor of Michael Ollis.
"Your son is gonna get the highest honor that you can have. There's no higher honor than the Congressional Medal of Honor," Trump said on the call.
Video: SSG Michael Ollis Freedom Foundation / fb.