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Administrative History

The governor's authority to investigate the conduct of public officers and to remove them from office has been defined in the state constitution and in numerous statutes. In July of 1876, several Albany residents charged James W. Eaton, superintendent of the new state capitol construction project, with official misconduct. In a notarized petition to Governor Samuel J. Tilden, David Reed, Henry Pottenburgh, and John Scott listed sixteen charges against Eaton and requested his removal and replacement. The complainants charged that Eaton neglected his duties as superintendent and violated the law by engaging in the construction of various other buildings concurrently with the new state capitol project. The group also charged that Eaton's "knowledge and perception of building" was inadequate and that his mismanagement of the project was resulting in "irreparable" injury to the structure and enormous financial loss to the state. Finally, the complainants charged that Eaton arranged for payments to be made to particular individuals for work that was never performed.

In October of 1876, Governor Tilden directed Albany County Judge Thomas J. Van Alstyne to serve as referee in the investigation of the charges against Eaton. Van Alstyne began by meeting informally with Eaton, the complainants, and legal counsel for the parties involved. Immediately thereafter, Van Alstyne began taking testimony from witnesses and continued doing so until March 15, 1877. On March 22, 1877, Van Alstyne reported his findings to Tilden's successor, Governor Lucius Robinson. Van Alstyne concluded that while Eaton did undertake other construction projects while serving as superintendent, the freedom to do so had been granted him as a condition of his acceptance of the position. Van Alstyne found no evidence of illegality or misconduct on Eaton's part in undertaking projects concurrently with construction of the new capitol. He concluded that Eaton was not in fact even supervising certain construction projects as charged. Lastly, the judge reported that none of the remaining charges were "sustained by the evidence."