John Albion Andrew (May 31, 1818 – October 30, 1867) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He was elected in 1860 as the 25th Governor of Massachusetts, serving between 1861 and 1866, and led the state's contributions to the Union cause during the American Civil War (1861–1865). He was a guiding force behind the creation of some of the first African-American units in the United States Army, including the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. He belonged to the Whig, Free Soil, and Republican parties during his career.

Educated at Bowdoin College, Andrew was a radical abolitionist of slavery from an early age, engaged in the legal defense of fugitive slaves against owners seeking their return. He provided legal support to John Brown after his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, raising his profile and propelling him to the Massachusetts governor's chair. Andrew was a persistent voice criticizing President Abraham Lincoln's conduct of the war, and pressing him to end slavery. By the end of the war, his politics had moderated, and he came to support the Reconstruction policies of Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson.

In Massachusetts, Andrew opposed the Know Nothing movement of the 1850s and the state's strict alcohol prohibition laws, and oversaw the state takeover of the Hoosac Tunnel construction project. In 1865, he signed legislation establishing the Massachusetts State Police, the first statewide police force of its type in the nation. He died early of apoplexy at the age of 49.

Early life and career

Andrew was born in Windham (in modern-day Maine, then a part of Massachusetts) on May 31, 1818, the eldest of four children. His father, Jonathan Andrew, was descended from an early settler of Boxford, Massachusetts, and ran a small but prosperous merchant business in Windham. His mother, Nancy Green Pierce, was a teacher at Fryeburg Academy. Andrew's 5th great-grandfather was an immigrant from England named George Andrew who settled in Boxford, Massachusetts, in 1637. His 4th great-grandfather was born in Boxford, Massachusetts, in 1638, being his first American-born ancestor.

Andrew received his primary education first at home, and then at several area boarding schools. After his mother's death in 1832, he attended Gorham Academy in nearby Gorham. During his youth he exhibited talent for both memory and public speaking, memorizing church sermons and recounting them with the same oratorical style in which they were delivered. While a teenager, he was exposed to the early abolitionist writings of William Lloyd Garrison and others. He entered Bowdoin College in 1833.

After his graduation in 1837, Andrew moved to Boston to study law under Henry H. Fuller, with whom he became close friends.

After his admission to the bar, Andrew joined the Whig Party and became actively involved in the anti-slavery movement. As a Conscience Whig, he opposed the election of "Cotton Whig" Robert Charles Winthrop in the 1846 election for Congress, promoting Charles Sumner (over the latter's objection) as an independent candidate. He sat on the executive committee of Boston's first vigilance committee, an anti-slavery organization established in 1846 that was devoted to assisting escaped slaves. Andrew participated in the establishment in 1848 of the Free Soil Party, whose principal political goal was ending the expansion of slavery into western territories. The Free Soilers nominated Martin Van Buren for president; he placed third in the election, but the party was somewhat more successful at the state level, gaining seats in the state legislature and Congress.

In 1847, Andrew, then 29 and with his law practice underway, met Eliza Jane Hersey of Hingham at an anti-slavery fair. They were engaged that year and married on Christmas evening in 1848. They had four children: John Forrester (1850), Elizabeth Loring (1852), Edith (1854), and Henry Hersey (1858).

The Boston Vigilance Committee attracted many new members following congressional passage of the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required law enforcement officials and citizens of free states as well as slave states to aid in the recovery of fugitive slaves. Andrew sat on a subcommittee that handled the legal defense of individuals accused of being fugitive slaves. He was also a regular attendee at meetings of the "Bird Club", a political group organized by businessman Francis Bird. Its members were mainly anti-slavery ex-Whigs, described by Samuel Gridley Howe as "straight & impractical republicans". Bird Club members would dominate the state's political establishment into the 1870s. Andrew's political activity was otherwise minimal, as he was devoted to his growing law practice and family, which was settled in Hingham. By 1855, his practice was sufficiently successful that he also purchased a house on Charles Street in Boston.

thumb|left|upright|Andrew used this house at 110 [[Charles Street (Boston)|Charles St., Boston, as a city residence from 1855 to 1867.]]

In 1854, Andrew became personally involved in the highly publicized fugitive slave case of Anthony Burns, defending one of the men who was arrested for trying to rescue Burns from the ship on which he was being held. Anger over that year's passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which overturned the limitation of slavery's expansion under the Missouri Compromise of 1820) revitalized the Free Soil movement. He once defended a poor mixed race man on a murder charge at the Norfolk County Courthouse, pro bono.

Andrew was elected chair of a committee to manage a nominating convention for the 1854 elections. This meeting resulted in the first organization of the Republican Party in Massachusetts. Its slate was undermined by Henry Wilson's defection to the Know Nothing movement, which swept the state's elected offices that year. The Republicans reorganized in 1855, but Andrew was not involved in the party processes that resulted in the eventual election of Nathaniel Prentice Banks as the first Republican governor in 1857. He continued legal activity on behalf of anti-slavery interests.

In 1857, Andrew won election as a representative in the Massachusetts General Court, as part of a complete Republican takeover of the Massachusetts government. He was quickly promoted as a leading abolitionist voice, filling a void left after Sumner was severely injured in an attack in Congress. Andrew led the debate in favor of removing Judge Edward Loring from office over his actions in the Burns case, and in opposition to the proposed repeal of the state's stringent anti-slavery personal liberty law. Although he did not run for reelection, Andrew gained popularity as his actions became known in the state Republican party. He was selected to chair the 1858 state Republican convention. In anticipation of gaining a higher elected office, Andrew refused Governor Banks' offer of a seat on the Superior Court bench in 1859.