ANDREW, JOHN ALBION, LL.D. An American statesman, "war Governor" of Alassa ehusetts. lle was born in Windham, Me., gradu ated at Bowdoin in 1S37, was admitted to the Boston bar in DIM practiced there twenty years, and took a prominent part in the cases which arose under the Fugitive Slave Law. fn 135'S he was a member of the Legislature. and in 1S60 was a delegate in the Republican National Conven tion, and was himself elected Governor of Massa chusetts by the largest popular majority ever given to a candidate. He foresaw the danger of civil war and took immediate steps to perfect the organization of the militia of his State. Within a week after the first call for troops he sent for ward five infantry regiments, a battalion of rifle men, and a battery of artillery. In 1861, and yearly until he insisted on retiring in 1866, he was reelected Governor, and was probably the most efficient of all the "war Governors." continu ally- organizing militia companies, and lending aid in every possible way to the Administration.
He was at the conference of loyal Governors at Altoona, Pa., in September, 1862, and wrote the address presented by them to the President. lie obtained permission from the Secretary of War in January, 1863, to organize colored troops, raised the first colored regiment (the Fif ty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry) which par ticipated in the war, and sent it to the front early in May. After the war he contended for a policy of conciliation, and vigorously opposed all meas ures likely to humiliate the South. In religion he was Unitarian. and presided at the first na tional convention of that denomination in 1865. He declined the presidency of Antioch (Ohio) College, which was offered to him in 1866. After that time lie continued the practice of law in Boston. Consult Chandler, Memoir, With Per sonal Reminiscences (Boston, 1880).