coolness and great courage. A detachment of British soldiers
had taken a position at St. Regis, seven miles from the American camp.
Selecting one hundred and seventy picked men, Lieutenant Marcy
cautiously approached the fort at night, overpowered the guards on the
outposts, surprised the sentries at the entrance, broke down the
gates, and charged the enemy in the face of a volley of musketry. When
it was over he had the fort, a file of prisoners, several stands of
arms, and a flag. Van Buren thought this record was good enough.

The appointment of Talcott, Marcy, and Butler changed the existing
political system. Prior to their activity, the distribution of
patronage depended largely upon the local boss. His needs determined
the men who, regardless of their personal fitness, should be given
office. But Talcott and his colleagues introduced new methods, with a
higher standard of political morality, and a better system of party
discipline. They refused to tolerate unworthy men, and when the little
souls stormed and raged, their wise counsels silenced the selfish and
staggered the boss. Gradually, their control of patronage and of the
party's policy became so absolute that they were called the "Albany
Regency." It was, at first, simply a name given them by Thurlow
Weed;[215] there was neither organisation nor legal authority. Power
came from their great ability and high purpose.

[Footnote 215: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
36.]

The Albany Regency was destined to continue many years, and to number
among its members men of character and great influence. Roger Skinner,
a United States district judge, was an early member of it; so were
Edwin Croswell of the Albany _Argus_, and Benjamin Knower, the state
treasurer. At a later day came John A. Dix, Azariah C. Flagg, Silas
Wright, and Charles E. Dudley. In his autobiography, Thurlow Weed says
he "had never known a body of men who possessed so much power and used
it so well." They had, he continues, "great ability, great industry,
indomitable courage, and strict personal integrity."[216] But the men
who organised the Regency, giving it power and the respect of the
people, by refusing to do what their fine sense of honour did not
approve, were Talcott, Marcy, and Butler. It was as remarkable a trio
as ever sat about a table.

[Footnote 216: _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 1, p. 103.]

In the passing of these three great intellects, there is so