| If contemporary voters sometimes lose patience | | | | within minutes what was long remembered as |
| with the dirty tricks politics and "negative | | | | "The Battle of State Street" was well under way. |
| campaigning" said to characterize our age, perhaps | | | | Before it ended, writers of the day claimed, about |
| a look at the way it used to be can offer a bit of | | | | half of the men in Albany had taken part in the |
| perspective. Hard-fought as they may be, the | | | | vicious hand-to-hand combat that turned the |
| battles these days are confined to verbal thrusts | | | | broad street into a mass of brawlers from Pearl |
| and parries and our politicians have taken a giant | | | | Street to Broadway. Among the wounded was |
| step toward civil electioneering when compared to | | | | Solomon Van Rensselaer, the victim of Jenkins's |
| their nineteenth century counterparts. | | | | cane-wielding nephew, Francis Bloodgood (yet |
| In those good old days, the record makes clear, | | | | another future mayor). |
| threats, beatings and even the occasional murder | | | | In the aftermath of the battle, a complex series |
| were included in the campaign arsenals that | | | | of suits and countersuits resulted in numerous |
| aspiring public servants unleashed in their efforts | | | | awards for damages from the many assaults |
| to turn out-or turn away-the vote. | | | | committed and injuries sustained. |
| In the 1840s and 1850s, it was to one Michael | | | | Ironically, General Van Rensselaer, who had landed |
| Brennan, the premier "polling place goon" of the | | | | the first blow, made a $400 profit in the courts, |
| day, that many of the strong-arm responsibilities | | | | despite numerous judgments against him, thanks |
| fell. The 200-pound street fighter, described by | | | | to the nasty gash Bloodgood gave him in the |
| area history chronicler William Rowley as the | | | | back of his head. Van Rensselaer recovered, and |
| "archetype of the Irish bully in Albany," was | | | | he went on to further prominence as not only a |
| charged with the task of maintaining the political | | | | general but a member of Congress and a |
| bosses' version of order on election days. In | | | | postmaster. Another Federalist dignitary was not |
| return, his frequent arrests for non-political | | | | as fortunate, however. William Cooper, the father |
| brawling resulted in only the mildest punishments, | | | | of author James Fenimore Cooper, was the |
| or none at all. Brennan's sanctioned reign of terror | | | | founder of Cooperstown, and held office as a |
| ended on November 6, 1855, when he was shot | | | | judge and a congressman. By the time he wound |
| to death by one of his long-suffering victims. | | | | up on the short end of the stick, he was also a |
| Earlier in the century, too, Albany's growing Irish | | | | veteran of some partisan scuffles in which he had |
| immigrant community had been involved in | | | | emerged as a winner. A notable instance of that |
| election day violence. In the 1830s two | | | | comes from an affidavit among the court records |
| "gentlemen" were severely beaten by a "pack of | | | | of Otsego County, which details the attempt by |
| savages" on the steps of "a respectable | | | | his defeated opponent in a congressional election |
| Broadway business house." The gentlemen were | | | | to exact some physical retribution. ". . .the said |
| Whigs, part of the conservative power structure, | | | | James Cochran confessed to the said William |
| and the savages were Irish Democrats charging | | | | Cooper these words: 'I acknowledge you are too |
| interference at the polling place. | | | | much of a buffer for me,'" the affidavit reads in |
| But the most notable political violence in Albany | | | | part. |
| history involved not the lower classes struggling | | | | That wasn't the case some ten years later, |
| for a foothold on the economic and social ladder, | | | | however, when Cooper was set upon by a |
| but the gentry themselves-and a lot of them. | | | | political opponent outside of Albany's famous |
| On April 21, 1807, General Solomon Van | | | | Lewis's Tavern. That December 1809 attack, or |
| Rensselaer, a prominent Federalist, responded | | | | complications from it, proved fatal. More than a |
| promptly and personally to the inflammatory, | | | | century later, one of Cooper's descendants, |
| published rhetoric of the local Republicans, who | | | | another James Fenimore, wrote of the judge's |
| had passed a resolution questioning Van | | | | death: |
| Rensselaer's honesty. The general proceeded to | | | | "William Cooper, the runaway Quaker boy, died |
| assault his accuser when he and Republican | | | | with his political boots on and in the Federalist |
| recording secretary Elisha Jenkins (later an Albany | | | | cause. He was killed by a blow on the head, |
| mayor) met on State Street. In turn, and before | | | | struck from behind as he was leaving a political |
| the day was over, Republican leader John Taylor | | | | meeting in Albany where he had made a speech |
| (who in his long career served as first judge of | | | | in a heated debate. In those days, murder and |
| the Court of Common Pleas, lieutenant governor | | | | death in the cause of one's political party, were |
| and acting governor of the state) accosted Van | | | | looked upon as among the fortunes of political |
| Rensselaer and the two statesmen squared off in | | | | warfare. No punishment followed such assaults |
| downtown Albany. | | | | and no legal investigations were made. His |
| They were reinforced by scores of partisans and | | | | assailant was known to all. |