John Albion Andrew
(1818-1867)
Maine & Massachusetts
James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American
Biography 72 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1886) (vol. 1)
George Bancroft Griffith (ed.), The Poets of Maine
216 (Portland, Maine: Elwell, Pickard & Co., 1888):
John A. Andrew was born in Windham, May, 1818, and was fitted
for college at Gorham Academy, under Rev. Reuben Nason. He graduated
at Bowdoin College, in the class of 1837, pursued legal studies
in the office of the late H.W. Fuller, Esq., of Boston, and was
admitted to the Suffolk Bar. His college life was "the flow of
generous impulses and noble purposes, rather than the display
of brilliant talents and extraordinary scholarship. Indeed, as
may be said of many others, his public career developed more shining
qualities and higher traits of genius than his early friends anticipated."
As is well known, his is a conspicuous name in the political annals
of Massachusetts. In 1859 he was in the lower house of its Legislature,
and in 1860 was elected Governor of the State at a critical emergency
in State and Nation, and through his uncommon ability and fitness,
by general consent, acquired the title of "the great war governor."
On retiring from office, in 1866, he declined various honorable
and lucrative positions, resuming the practice of law, which became
extensive and remunerative. On the evening of the 30th of October,
1867, he was seized with apoplexy while sitting with his family,
and survived but a few hours. His remains were interred in Hingham.
A statue of marble has been placed in the State House at Boston.
A writer in the Portland Transcript recurs to an early
reminiscence of Gov. Andrew. "It was the custom of the graduating
members," he writes, "in our day, at Bowdoin, to pass
round the college album for autographs, not confining the mission
exclusively to those of the same class, but extending it to other
circles ad libitum. Among the only relics left by the ravages
of two destructive conflagrations in Portland is one of these
albums, in which this early friend thus autographs his genial
character, no less than his penmanship."
Andrew was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1860 and was re-elected
for four successive terms.
John A. Andrew, Correspondence Between Gov. Andrew
and Maj.-Gen. Butler (Boston: J.J. Dyer, 1862)
John Albion Andrew, The Errors of Prohibition (Boston: Ticknor
& Fields, 1867) [on-line
text]
Orations
John Albion Andrew, Speeches of John A. Andrew
at Hingham and Boston, together with his testimony before the Harper's
Ferry Committee of the Senate, in relation to John Brown. Also,
the Republican platform and other matters (Boston, 1860?)
[on-line
text]
"John Albion Andrew," in 1 American National Biography
489-490 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Albert G. Browne, Sketch of the Official Life of John A. Andrew
as Governor of Massachusetts, to which is added the valedictory
address of Governor Andrew, delivered upon retiring from office,
January 5, 1866, on the subject of reconstruction of the states
recently in rebellion (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1868)
Peleg W. Chandler, Memoir of Governor Andrew with personal reminiscences;
to which are added two hitherto unpublished literary discourses
and the valedictory address (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1880)
John Hamrogue, John A. Andrew, Abolitionist Governor, 1861-1865
(Ph.D. Dissertation, Fordham University, 1974)
Elias Nason, Life and Character of Governor John Albion Andrew
(1868)
George Sennott, Sennott on Andrew and Butler (Boston: Redding
and Co., 1862)
Research Resources
John A. Andrews Papers
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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