A statue of Philip Schuyler is removed from the front of Albany City Hall on June 10, 2023.

In front of historic City Hall in Albany, where for the past century the statue of Major General Philip J. Schuyler of George Washington’s Continental Army stood watch, there is now a small circular bed of what appear to be tulips not yet in bloom.

Not a field of poppies exactly, but akin. The general has fallen, again. Schuyler died 220 years ago.

The seven- or nine-foot statue, depending on accounts, has been stored "at an undisclosed location’’ to await who knows what fate, but most certainly a far cry from what was intended by philanthropist-beer baron George Hawley when he commissioned it a few years after the end of the war that would end all wars as a gift to the city. Schuyler, an Albanian, was highly regarded, both in his lifetime and beyond as an ardent patriot, a significant figure in our Revolution and a masterful politician, as befits Albany.

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After all, General Schuyler was staring up at the Capitol. Now who is going to keep an eye on them?

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan has turned that gift into toxic waste. She has disrespected the historical figure, and the generosity of the statue’s sponsor. What a truly........

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