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politics

No Major Changes for Forest Rangers in the Adirondacks

February 9, 2022 by Peter Bauer 1 Comment

DEC Forest Rangers at work educating hikers and conducting search and rescue operationsThe current New York State budget being negotiated by Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature contains significant new spending on a number of things, like $29 million for a new headquarters for the Adirondack Park Agency, and a new $30 million building for the Olympic Regional Development Authority at the North Creek Ski Bowl, yet funding for Forest Rangers in the Adirondack Park and across the state is flat. [Read more…] about No Major Changes for Forest Rangers in the Adirondacks

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga Tagged With: Basil Seggos, Crime and Justice, Dan Stec, DEC, Environmental History, Forest Rangers, Kathy Hochul, politics

Political Anecdotes from Northern New York Historic Newspapers

February 2, 2022 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

A New York Times pressman checking a newspaper for defects in 1942Trivia clue: Saratoga County Democrats barbecued an 800-pound ox to celebrate his election in 1884.

Correct response: Who is Grover Cleveland? A Glens Falls hotel keeper saved a piece of the rib bone as a souvenir. [Read more…] about Political Anecdotes from Northern New York Historic Newspapers

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Newspapers, Political History, politics, Saratoga, Saratoga County

New Book Considers New York’s Defunct Liberal Party

January 17, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

left in the centerBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

Beginning in 1944 and lasting until 2002, the Liberal Party offered voters an ideological seal of approval and played the role of strategic kingmaker in the electoral politics of New York State. The party helped elect presidents, governors, senators, and mayors, and its platform reflected its founders’ social democratic principles.

In practical politics, the Liberal Party’s power resided in its capacity to steer votes to preferred Democrats or Republicans with a reasonable chance of victory. This uneasy balance between principle and pragmatism ultimately proved impossible to maintain. [Read more…] about New Book Considers New York’s Defunct Liberal Party

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: Books, Political History, politics

Anecdotes from Historic Newspapers

December 17, 2021 by Maury Thompson 1 Comment

signal service at work 1881Trivia clue: This federal agency that started as an experiment of the Army Signals Corps and was transferred in 1887 from the War Department to the Department of Agriculture. [Read more…] about Anecdotes from Historic Newspapers

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Newspapers, Political History, politics

Albany’s Thurlow Weed: Seward, Lincoln’s Election, & The Civil War Years

October 18, 2021 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Lincoln Hamlin 1860 campaign banner The second Republican Party Presidential election was held in 1860. Thurlow Weed wanted supporters of the recently formed Republican Party to nominate William Seward.

Working against Weed was the fact that the Republican convention was to be held in Chicago, Illinois, home state of Abraham Lincoln. Weed knew that his man, Seward, was far better known throughout the country. In addition to being New York’s Governor, Seward had been a U.S. Senator and as a leading anti-slavery proponent he had received extensive publicity. His biggest drawback was that he had been considered at one time to be the most radical anti-slavery member of the Senate. [Read more…] about Albany’s Thurlow Weed: Seward, Lincoln’s Election, & The Civil War Years

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Abe Lincoln, Abolition, Albany, Civil War, Election of 1860, Political History, politics, Thurlow Weed, William Seward

The Dark Side of Memory: South America’s Disappeared Children

October 15, 2021 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, Tessa Bridal, a native of Uruguay, tells the stories of people who disappeared during South American political turmoil in the 1970s in her book The Dark Side of Memory (Rio de La Plata, 2021). [Read more…] about The Dark Side of Memory: South America’s Disappeared Children

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Podcasts, Political History, politics

The End of the Whigs: Thurlow Weed & The Birth of the Republican Party

October 13, 2021 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Thurlow Weed ca 1865 photo by Matthew Brady from the National Portrait GalleryFollowing his political successes in the disputed Election of 1824, Thurlow Weed was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1825 and again in 1830.

In the 1820s, like many in Upstate New York with populist, anti-elite feelings, Weed strongly believed the Masons were trying to control government using secret means. He felt that political affairs should be conducted publicly and particularly opposed the fraternal secrecy of Freemasonry.  An alleged conspiracy by Masons to murder William Morgan in Western New York in September, 1826 sparked the anti-Freemasonry movement. Weed began publishing the Anti-Masonic Enquirer in Rochester, NY in February, 1828.

Soon Weed was hired as editor of the newly formed Anti-Masonic Albany Evening Journal, which began publication on March 22, 1830. The move to Albany made him a statewide leader of the fledgling Anti-Masonic Party. [Read more…] about The End of the Whigs: Thurlow Weed & The Birth of the Republican Party

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Abe Lincoln, Abolition, Albany, Anti-Masonic Party, Compromise of 1850, Free Soil Party, Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Mexican War, Millard Fillmore, Missouri Compromise, Political History, politics, Slavery, Thurlow Weed, William Seward

Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

September 27, 2021 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

Ira HarrisIra Harris was born at Charleston, Montgomery County, NY on May 31st, 1802 to Fredrick Waterman Harris and Lucy Hamilton. When he was six years old, his family moved to Preble, NY where his father became one of the largest landowners in Cortland County.

Harris attended Homer Academy and graduated from Union College in 1824. He studied law for one year in Homer, New York and then moved to Albany where he assisted one of that city’s most highly regarded jurists, Ambrose Spencer. [Read more…] about Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: 1846 NYS Constitution, Abe Lincoln, Albany, Albany County, Albany Law School, Albany Med, Albany Rural Cemetery, Anti-Rent War, Cortland County, Crime and Justice, Horace Greeley, Legal History, Medical History, Montgomery County, Political History, politics, Supreme Court, Temperance, Union College, Vassar College, William Seward, womens history

Nelson Rockefeller and the Politics of Wealth: A Discussion

August 18, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

On this episode of Empire State Engagements, a conversation with Dr. Marsha E. Barrett of the University of Illinois about her new article “‘Millionaires are more Democratic Now’: Nelson Rockefeller and the Politics of Wealth in New York,” which appears in vol. 102.1 of New York History (Summer, 2021). [Read more…] about Nelson Rockefeller and the Politics of Wealth: A Discussion

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Nelson Rockefeller, Podcasts, Political History, politics

NY Newspaper Anecdotes From Political History

August 17, 2021 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Caroline Harrisons piano courtesy Benjamin Harrison Presidential SiteTrivia clue: The piano company that First Lady Caroline Harrison, a music teacher, selected for the White House piano in 1889 after an extensive scrutiny of domestic and foreign brands.

Correct response: Who is J & C Fischer of New York City? [Read more…] about NY Newspaper Anecdotes From Political History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Al Smith, Newspapers, Political History, politics

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