Livermore studiously avoided involvement in politics, and all evidence indicates he got along well with both the Mexican and Anglo communities, even becoming a Mexican citizen in 1844. His only participation in the events surrounding the conquest of California was to help carry word from Commodore John Drake Sloat to John C. Frémont at Sutter's Fort that Monterey had been occupied by American forces, and that may have been partly motivated by the fact that Noriega had been captured during the Bear Flag Revolt and was being held at Sutter's Fort.