Albany Regency

The Albany Regency was a group of politicians who controlled the New York state government between 1822 and 1838. It was instituted by Martin Van Buren, who remained its dominating spirit for many years. The group was among the first American political machines. In the beginning they were the leading figures of the Bucktails faction of the Democratic-Republican Party, later the Jacksonian Democrats and finally became the Hunkers faction of the Democratic Party.

The Albany Regency was a loosely organized group of politicians with similar views and goals who resided in or near Albany, New York, the state capital. They controlled the nominating conventions and patronage of their party within New York State, and by dictating its general policy, exerted a powerful influence in national as well as state politics. They derived their power largely from their personal influence and political sagacity, and were, for the most part, earnest opponents of political corruption, though they uniformly acted upon the principle, first formulated in 1833 by one of their number (Marcy), that “to the victors belong the spoils.”

The Regency developed party discipline and originated the control of party conventions through officeholders and others subservient to it. The spoils system they created would dominate late-19th-century American politics, but in the beginning observed the technical qualifications of the candidates for office they nominated. Thurlow Weed who coined the name "Albany Regency", wrote he "had never known a body of men who possessed so much power and used it so well".

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