As governor of Massachusetts during the Civil War, John Albion Andrew (1818-1867) energetically organized the state's resources in support of the Union and pressed for vigorous prosecution of the war.

John Andrew was born on May 31, 1818, in Windham, Maine, where his father was the manager of a general store. After graduating from Bowdoin College in 1837, he moved to Boston to study law. A man of deep religious convictions, he became involved in public affairs as a supporter of humanitarian reform movements and then of antislavery. He entered politics as a Whig but helped organize the antislavery Free Soil party in Massachusetts in 1848; its failure left him politically stranded until the emergence of the Republican party in the mid-fifties. He was elected to a single term in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1857; 2 years later he helped organize legal aid for John Brown, an activity which brought him favorable public notice...