Political Office
Col Albert Pawling
- Record of political offices held
- The attempted removal of Albert Pawling from the position of Mayor of the City of Troy in Jul 1819
From Rensselaer County, page 370:
Col Albert Pawling held the following political offices:
- High Sheriff of Rensselaer County, NY - 1791
- President of the Village of Troy, Rensselaer, NY - 1802-1803, 1804-1805, 1815-1816
- Mayor of the City of Troy, Rensselaer, NY - 1816-1820
- He was again appointed Mayor on 14 Feb 1821, but declined to serve
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From Rensselaer County, pages 247-249:
"In July, 1819, an event occurred which stirred the people of the city of Troy to widespread expressions of great indignation. Colonel Albert Pawling, who had been appointed the first mayor of the city, was a man beloved and confided in by all, regardless of party. He had been one of the greatest benefactors of the village and city and at the time of his appointment there was no opposition to him, as far as can be learned. Suddenly, and without warning of his intention, Governor De Witt Clinton removed him from office and appointed in his place Thomas Turner, a man evidently unpopular and possessed of few qualifications for the office. The removal and new appointment resulted in a spontaneous outburst of indignation. The commission of Mr. Turner reads as follows:
'The People of the State of New-York, by the Grace of GOD Free and Independent:
'To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Know Ye, That WE, reposing especial trust and confidence in the ability and integrity of Thomas Turner of our City of Troy Esquire, Have nominated, constituted and appointed, and by these Presents, Do nominate, constitute and apppoint him the said Thomas Turner Esquire MAYOR of our said City of Troy hereby giving and granting unto him the said Thomas Turner, Esq., all and singluar the powers and authorities to the said office by law belonging or appertaining. TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said office of Mayor of our said City of Troy together with the fees, profits and advantages to the same belonging, for and during the term of ONE year from the date hereof.
'IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, We have caused these our Letters to be made Patent, and the Great Seal of our said State to be hereunto affixed: WITNESS our trust and well-beloved DE WITT CLINTON, Esquire, Governor of our said State, General and Commander in Chief of all the Militia, and Admiral of the Navy of the same, by and with the advice and consent of the Council of Appointment, at our City of Albany, the third day of July in the year of our Lord one thousant eight hundered and nineteen and in the forty-third year of our Independence.
'De Witt Clinton.
'Passed the Secretary's Office, the 12th day of July, 1819.
'J.V.R. Yates, Secretary.'
"An illustration of the popular feeling over what was considered by the people of Troy as an unwarranted abuse of power on the part of Governor Clinton may be had in the following communication, which appeared in the Troy Northern Budget July 13, 1819, the issue next following the news of the apppointment of Mr. Turner. The communication was signed 'A Trojan.'
'A report reached this city in the early part of last week that Thomas Turner had been appointed Mayor in the place of Col. Pawling, but it was so unwelcome to the great body of citizens that they were unwilling to believe it. The report however proves to be true. What has this city done to merit this indignity? If the feelings and policy of the Governor would not permit him to spare an old soldier of the Revolution--the companion in arms and ardent friend of his father and uncle--the citizen of unblemished reputation, the zealous and upright magistrate--the man who with propriety may be called one of the fathers of our city, who had taken care of its infancy and watched with parental solicitude over its rising prosperity, I ask if the Governor could not spare <such> a man, why has he given us <such> a successor? The insult admits of no palliation. Mr. Clinton knew the standing of Turner: because he had been recently and reluctantly compelled to recede from his purpose of making him Sheriff of this county by the indignant voice of the people. He also knew from the expressed opinion of the most respectable men of all parties in this city, that the citizens wished the continuance of the old Mayor.
'When that venerable patriot Gen. Clinton, in his declining years, expressed with feeling regret his apprehension of the evils that this state would suffer by the unprincipled ambition of his nephew, he probably had some indistinct forebodings of the political abuses which have now fallen upon us; but how inexpressibly poignant would have been his regret, if he could have foreseen the very transactions on which I am now commenting,--A young man flew to the standard of this patriot and participated with him for seven years the dangers and sufferings by which our liberties were achieved. When he left the service of his country, he carried with him the love and affection of this patriot and the commendation of Washington. No act of his after life, disgraced this auspicious beginning. Having been a pupil in the school of the revolution his political sentiments emanated from the purest principles of republicanism.--Amidst all the changes and vicissitudes which this State has undergone, he has not erred in his political faith. In his old age he would not belie those principles which he loved in his youth, and practised in his manhood,--of course he could not be a favorite of present administration. Those very virtues which won the respect and esteem of General James Clinton and George Clinton, have drawn down upon the gray head of Col. Pawling the displeasure of Dewitt Clinton. The merit of this act belongs exclusively to the Governor, and his comfort arising from reflections on it, will excite no man's envy. I shall not attempt to do justice to public feeling on this occasion among our citizens, nor comment upon other acts of the present administration, which evinces its baseness. Let them hunt down and proscribe political virtue as much as they please, they never can make the people insensible to a want of it in themselves. The hoary headed patriot may feel their rage, but they cannot reach his reputation. Every such victim will make a martyr. Though a man more entitled to respect that the late Mayor of this city has not encountered executive ire, nor fewer qualifications to redeem the misdeed, could be found in any successor, we have this consolation that other parts of teh state are suffering evils similar in kine if not equal in degree with ourselves; and from this common suffering may and will arise a sense of the necessity of a remedy; and if the people of this State are not tamer that the slaves of despotism in a few months, this intolerable reign, in which talents are proscribed and virtue is a victim, will have passed away forever.'
"In response to an overwhelming popular demand Mr. Turner refused to serve in the office to which he had been appointed and Mayor Pawling continued to act until February, 1820, when Esaias Warren was named as his successor."