Page "John Albion Andrew" Paragraph 8

A selection from a historical election poster describing Andrew. When Andrew took office on January 2, 1861, on the eve of the Civil War, the Albany Argus called him " a lawyer of a low type and a brutal fanatic " who " proposes to maintain the condemned statutes of, and to force upon the South by arms, an allegiance to the Constitution thus violated.

" Andrew immediately began to ready the Massachusetts militia for duty.

He also asked the governors of Maine and New Hampshire to prepare for war.

Among his early actions were to accept recruits from other states to serve in Massachusetts regiments, including 500 men from California who he encouraged to join the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry in 1862 and early 1863.