It Happened Here -- The Albany Regency

If you ask most residents of New York's Capital District what the Albany Regency was,  most would respond it was a hotel/motel on the south end of Albany, now defunct. They would be right, of course, but long before this property that began its life as a Howard Johnson Motor Inn, the term "Albany Regency" referred to a group of politicians organized in the 1820's to dominate state politics.
It's creator was Martin Van Buren, life-long resident of Kinderhook,  who made his way from local politics, to state  politics, to national politics via his election to the U.S. Senate and then the Vice Presidency through his work in crafting a successful campaign for Andrew Jackson.  Following Jackson, he would become the eight President.

Martin, whose father was a farmer/tavern keeper learned
politics at an early age in his father's tavern

Through his climb to power in state politics, Van Buren came to realize most of politics was driven by the convergence of supporters around charismatic men.  Groups of supporters of men like Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Burr dominated the politics of the first decades of the United States. But a politics based on personalities was inherently unstable.

 

Gradually Van Buren came to believe that politics driven by positions and principals hammered out in caucuses and in conventions; and candidates whose views and support were revealed through conventions and nominated by groups of party members provided a more stable and democratic base for selecting candidates for election. Candidates thus democratically nominated whose ideas had been examined and approved in party caucuses could claim/demand greater loyalty from party followers. The greater degree of organization necessary to enable this degree of consensus required a new type of politician, "the Professional." And "professionals" could maximize the gains from elections by steering government contracts and appointed jobs to party loyalists.

Van Buren headed a splinter group of the New York Democratic Republicans known as the "Bucktails" who were opposed to the Dewitt Clinton wing of the party.  Eventually they would become Jacksonian Democrats.
                                                         

After a failed  Presidential re-election bid Van Buren retired to Kinderhook to his home, Lindenwald, on the Albany Post Road where he could continue to keep in touch with political developments in New York and the nation.

                                                                                       

On Rte 9J, Kinderhook Landing

Benjamin Franklin Butler, from Kinderhook Landing was an early supporter of Van Buren, (not to be confused with the Benjamin F. Butler, a union general and infamous military governor of New Orleans.) He became one of a group of Van Buren's political insiders that became known as the "Albany Rengency"

This group was given the name "Albany Regency" by Thurlow Weed, the editor of the Albany Evening Journal when Van Buren was elected Senator and  left for Washington. Weed, a Whig opponent of Van Buren compared his power to that of a monarch's and when Van Buren left he  decried the takeover of his powers by a "Regency" of his supporters.

The Knower house, Main Street, Altamont

Another insider was  Benjamin Knower, a successful
hat manufacturer in West Guilderland, (Altamont), whose daughter married  William L. Marcy, a member of the "Regency" who became governor 1833 to 1838.  Commenting on the patronage jobs that became available to the winning candidates in an election Marcy uttered the memorable quote, "[Politicians] see nothing wrong in the rule, that to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy.." (The highest mountain in New York State was also named in his honor.)

 

Silas Wright was another member of the "Regency" that became governor.  Wright's role in attempting to suppress the Anti-rent Movement has been mentioned in a previous post.

Wright's law office, Rte 4, Hudson Falls

Finally, not all members of the "Regency" were full time politicians. Phillip Hooker was a part-time politician and a very successful architect. His buildings included the first New York State Capital, the second Albany City Hall, Hyde Hall in Cooperstown, the original Albany Academy, in Academy Park, numerous houses of wealthy Albanians, and the First Reformed Church in Albany.

1st Reformed Church. from Clinton Sq..N.Pearl St. Albany