Albany Regency

Albany Regency name given, after 1820, to the leaders of the first political machine, which was developed in New York state by Martin Van Buren . The name derived from the charge that Van Buren's principal supporters, residing in Albany, managed the machine for him while he served in the U.S. Senate. During the Jacksonian period the Regency controlled the Democratic party in New York. It was one of the first effective political machines, using the spoils system and rigid party discipline to maintain its control. Notable figures in the Regency were William L. Marcy , Silas Wright , Azariah C. Flagg , and the elder Benjamin F. Butler . After 1842 it split into factions ( Barnburners and Hunkers ) over issues of internal improvements and slavery, thereby losing its power.

Bibliography: See J. D. Hammond, The History of Political Parties in the State of New York (3 vol., 1852); R. Remini, Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (1959).

Albany, John Stewart, 2nd duke of [S] (1484–1536). When James IV of Scotland was killed at Flodden in 1513, his son was 17 months old. Albany, a grandson of James II, was heir presumptive. His father had laid claim to the Scottish throne but was defeated and fled to France. Albany was summoned to become regent to his young cousin and held office from 1515 until 1524. Bred in France, Albany strove to restore the Franco-Scottish alliance and by the treaty of Rouen (1517) negotiated marriage for James V to a French princess. From 1517 to 1521 Albany was in France, weakening his Scottish position. In 1521 he effected a reconciliation with Margaret, the king's mother and sister to Henry VIII, and there were rumours of a possible marriage. In 1522 Henry VIII went to war, protesting that the king's life was in jeopardy, but Albany's grand preparations came to nothing. He resumed the contest in 1523 but again the campaign against northern England misfired, and he returned to France for good in 1524. The enduring legacy of his regency was a French marriage for James, though it did not take place until 1537.

J. A. Cannon

New York World (1866–1931), founded as a penny daily religious newspaper. Since morality did not pay, it was forced to go through several mergers, and soon became worldly in fact as well as in name as the organ of the Albany Regency. In 1883 it was purchased by Joseph Pulitzer, who made it a flamboyant crusading paper and attracted an audience by espousing popular causes. In 1894 it inaugurated the multicolored comic strip “Hogan's Alley,” whose hero's name, the Yellow Kid, is said to have been the original of the term “yellow journalism.” The paper vied with the Hearst publications during the Spanish‐American War in gaudy and unscrupulous sensationalism. Under the editorship of Pulitzer's son, its standards were raised, when it championed the Democratic party and became known for such columnists as Walter Lippmann, F.P. Adams, and Heywood Broun. In 1931 it was combined with the New York Telegram to become the WorldTelegram, a member of the Scripps‐Howard chain, which in turn absorbed the New York Sun to become the New York World‐Telegram and The Sun (1950–66), continued to 1967 by merger with the Herald‐Tribune and Journal‐American.