ANDREW Jo OHN ALBION ANDREW, a prominent American statesman and orator, was born in Windham, Maine, May 31, 1818, and educated at Bowdoin College. After studying law he was admitted to the bar in 1840, and for twenty years practised his profession in Boston. He took a lively interest in politics, often making political addresses in support of the Whig party, to which he then belonged; and his action as counsel in several fugitive slave cases brought him into prominence as an ardent opponent of slavery. In 1858 he was elected to the State senate and in 1860 was chosen governor of Massachusetts by the Republicans. He promptly seconded the war measures of Lincoln's administration and in a week after the President had called for troops, on April 15, 1861, Governor Andrew had dispatched five regiments to Washington. He was four times reelected to the governorship, holding the office until January, 1866, when he declined further nomination. During the Civil War he delivered many eloquent and patriotic addresses. He was a man of great executive ability and flawless integrity, and as an orator was both forcible and eloquent. He was prominent as a conservative member of the Unitarian body and presided over the first national Unitarian convention in 1865. He died in Boston, October 30, 1867. THE EVE OF WAR FROM ADDRESS TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, Τ HE constitutional choice to the presidency of a citizen who adheres to the original principles of the fathers of the country, is the happy result of the recent national election. But by events which have since transpired in the southern States it appears that a large, influential, and energetic body of men in that section of the country, who control the action of at least the State of South Carolina, desire to resist, if necessary, by force of arms, this peaceful and constitutional triumph of republican principles, to which they ought in honor and loyalty to yield a generous acquiescence. Forgetful of the traditions of their ancestors they seem determined to live in peace under no government which shall not concede to them the privilege not only of enslaving their fellow beings within their own dominion, but also of transporting them at their pleasure into the national territory, or from State to State absolutely without restriction, and of retaining them as slaves wheresoever within the national limits they themselves may please to sojourn. It is the recommendation of President Buchanan in his recent annual message, that by means of constitutional amendments to be initiated by Congress or in a national convention, concessions shall be made for the satisfaction of this extraordinary demand. This is a subject which I commend to your immediate but deliberate consideration, and I shall be happy to concur with what I hope will be the unanimous sentiment of the legislature, in a declaration of the opinion of Massachusetts with reference to the state of the Union and the suggestions of the federal Executive. If Massachusetts, either by voice or vote, can properly do anything to avert from those misguided men the miserable consequences which threaten to succeed their violent action -the pecuniary disturbances and the civil commotions which must necessarily occur within their own borders if they persist in their career, her voice and vote should not be withheld. Not the least deplorable result of the action of South Carolina I apprehend will be the insecurity to life and property which will result throughout the whole South from fear of servile insurrection. Wherever slavery exists, we have the authority of Jefferson for believing that, in his own words, "the hour of emancipation is advancing in the march' of time; it will come; and whether brought on by the gen erous energy of our own minds, or by the bloody process. of St. Domingo, is a leaf of our history not turned over." The enslaved negro population of the South is not destitute of intelligence nor devoid of that sentiment of resistance to tyranny which naturally inspires the oppressed to seek for freedom. If as appears probable it shall once conceive from the present march of events that it has no hope of emancipation from any generous exertion of the minds of its masters a resort to that process will be only the logical impulse of human nature. That God may be pleased to overrule the folly of man so as to avert so dreadful a calamity must be the prayer of every American; but in my judgment it lies at the end of the road which South Carolina invites her sister States upon the Gulf of Mexico to enter. I have searched the position of Massachusetts with all the disinterested patriotism which I could command for the performance of that duty, and I find nothing by which I can reproach her with responsibility for such results if they shall come to pass; but I invite you to a similar examination. The truth of history compels me to declare that one chief source of the difficulty which we are called to encounter lies in the incessant misrepresentation of the principles, purposes, and methods of the people who compose the majority in the free States by superserviceable individuals, who undertake to monopolize friendship for the people of the slaveholding States; and candor requires me to add that they profess a friendship the largest part of which might be analyzed into dislike of their political opponents. I have for twenty years past been a constant and careful observer of public men and affairs; and for twelve years, at least, I have been intimately aware of the private as well as the public declarations and conduct of the representative men in almost every town and village of the Commonwealth. I think I may claim also some intimacy with the great body of the people of Massachusetts of whatsoever party. This period has been one of extraordinary and intense political interest. The tenderest sentiments, the deepest convictions, the warmest emotions have all been stirred by the course of public affairs. Bitter disappointments, the keenest sense of injustice, the consciousness of subjection to most flagrant wrong have fallen to the lot of our people. The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850 with its merciless severity and the ostentatious indignity with which it was executed; the repeal of the Missouri restriction upon the extension of slavery over national territory; the violent means adopted to prevent emigrants from this Commonwealth from participating in the settlement of Kansas; the invasion of that Territory by men armed with the plunder from national arsenals; the imposition of fraudulent legislatures upon a people temporarily subjugated by ruffianism and unprotected by a federal executive which also forbade them to protect themselves; the indiscriminate pillage, fire, and slaughter to which peaceable settlers were subjected without cause or excuse; the repeated exertions of the national administration in conspiracy with the enemies of freedom and good government, to impose and enforce upon Kansas a constitution sanctioning slavery; the attempt to withdraw the discussion of political questions from the people themselves and to confine it to a conclave of judges; the assault upon free speech. in Congress by a murderous attack upon a senator in his seat for opinions expressed in debate and for the manner of their expression; the indifference of positive approval with which this attempt to overthrow representative institutions was treated throughout a large portion of the country; the pros titution of all the powers of the government and the bending of all its energy to propagate a certain interest for the benefit of a few speculators in lands, negroes, and politics, and to discourage the free labor of the toiling masses of the people; the menaces of violence and war against the constitution and the Union with which our arguments and our constitutional resistance have been met; these all are but a part of the record of the last ten years of American political history, which is burned into the memory of the people of Massachusetts. And yet during all the excitement of this period, inflamed by the heats of repeated presidential elections, I have never known a single Massachusetts Republican to abandon his loyalty, surrender his faith, or seal up his heart against the good hopes and kind affections which every devoted citizen ought to entertain for every section of his country. During all this maladministration of the national government, the people of Massachusetts have never wavered from their faith in its principles or their loyalty to its organization. Looking forward to the long ages of the future; building always, in their own minds, for countless generations yet to come; they have endured, and are willing still cheerfully and hopefully to endure, much wrong and more misconception, because they trust in the blood inherited from heroic ancestors; in the principles of constitutional liberty; in the theory of democratic institutions; in the honest purpose of the intelligent masses of the people everywhere; in the capacity of truth and right ultimately to reach and control the minds of men; in an undying affection for their whole country, its memories, traditions, and hopes; and above all in the good Providence of God. It was at a great cost that our fathers established their in |