It was here that the English from all the colonies, before and during the French and Indian wars met to consult with the Indians and make treaties with them. It was the gathering place of armies where troops from all the colonies assembled and the objective of hostile French forces and their Indian allies on several occasions, yet was never taken by an enemy and never saw an armed foe. Even during the Revolutionary War, when its strategic importance was fully recognized by both armies, it remained immune, though at one time the objective against which Burgoyne's unsuccessful expedition was directed.
In 1777 the English general, John Burgoyne (1722-1792), was placed at the head of British and Hessian forces gathered for the invasion of the Colonies from Canada and the cutting off of New England from the rest of the Colonies. He gained possession of Ticonderoga and Ft. Edward; but pushing on, was cut off from his communications with Canada and hemmed in by a superior force at Saratoga Springs, 30 M. north of Albany. On the 17th of Oct. his troops, about 3,500 in number, laid down their arms, surrendering to Gen. Horatio Gates. This success was the greatest the colonists had yet achieved and proved the turning-point in the war.
In 1797 Albany became the permanent state capital. The election of Martin Van Buren as governor in 1828 marked the beginning of the long ascendancy in the state of the "Albany Regency," a political coterie of Democrats in which Van Buren, W.L. Marcy, Benjamin Franklin Butler and Silas Wright were among the leaders.
Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), the bitterest enemy of this coterie, and the man who gave them their name, declared of them that he "had never known a body of men who possessed so much power and used it so well." Until the election of William H. Seward (the Whig candidate) as governor in 1838, New York had usually been Democratic, largely through the predominating influence of Van Buren and the "Regency." Weed had an important share in bringing about their defeat. He owed his early political advancement to the introduction into state politics of the Anti-Masonic issue; for a time he edited the _Anti-Masonic Enquirer_. In 1830 he established and became editor of the Albany _Evening Journal_, which he controlled for thirty-five years.