William P. Fessenden
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William Pitt Fessenden | |
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United States Senator from Maine | |
In office March 4, 1865 – September 8, 1869 | |
Preceded by | Nathan A. Farwell |
Succeeded by | Lot M. Morrill |
In office February 10, 1854 – July 1, 1864 | |
Preceded by | James W. Bradbury |
Succeeded by | Nathan A. Farwell |
26th United States Secretary of the Treasury | |
In office July 5, 1864 – March 3, 1865 | |
President | Abraham Lincoln |
Preceded by | Salmon P. Chase |
Succeeded by | Hugh McCulloch |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd district | |
In office March 4, 1841 – March 3, 1843 | |
Preceded by | Albert Smith |
Succeeded by | Robert P. Dunlap |
Personal details | |
Born | William Pitt Fessenden October 16, 1806 Boscawen, New Hampshire, U.S. |
Died | September 8, 1869 Portland, Maine, U.S. | (aged 62)
Resting place | Evergreen Cemetery |
Political party | Republican (1860–1869) |
Other political affiliations |
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Spouse |
Ellen Deering (m. 1832–1857) |
Children | 5, including James and Francis |
Education | Bowdoin College (BA) |
Signature | |
William Pitt Fessenden (October 16, 1806 – September 8, 1869) was an
A lawyer, he was a leading antislavery Whig in Maine; in Congress, he fought the
After the war, Fessenden was back in the Senate, as chair of the
He is the only person to have three streets in Portland named for him: William, Pitt and Fessenden streets in the city's Oakdale neighborhood.[4]
Youth and early career
Fessenden was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire on October 16, 1806. His father was attorney and legislator Samuel Fessenden. His mother was Ruth Greene. The parents were unmarried. William was separated from his mother at his birth, and he raised by his paternal grandmother for seven years.[citation needed]
He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1823 and then studied law. He was a founding member of the Maine Temperance Society in 1827.[5] That year he was admitted to the bar, and practiced with his father, who was also a prominent anti-slavery activist. He practiced law first in Bridgton, Maine, a year in Bangor, and afterward in Portland.[citation needed]
He was a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1832 and was its leading debater. He refused nominations to Congress in 1831 and in 1838, and served in the Maine legislature again in 1840, becoming chairman of the house committee to revise the statutes of the state.
He was elected for one term in the
Service in U.S. Senate and Cabinet
Fessenden's strong anti-slavery principles caused his election to the U.S. Senate in 1854, with the support of Whigs and Anti-Slavery Democrats.[6]
Upon taking office, he immediately began speaking against the
In 1861, he was a member of the
President Abraham Lincoln appointed Fessenden United States Secretary of the Treasury upon Salmon P. Chase's resignation. It was described as the darkest hour of national finances in the United States.[according to whom?] Chase had just withdrawn a loan from the market for want of acceptable bids, and the capacity of the country to lend seemed exhausted. The currency had been enormously inflated: the paper dollar was worth only 34 cents; gold was at $280/ounce. Fessenden at first refused the office, but at last, accepted in obedience to the universal public pressure. When his acceptance became known, gold fell to $225/ounce. He declared that no more currency should be issued, and, making an appeal to the people, he prepared and put upon the market the seven-thirty loan, which proved a triumphant success, and raised $400,000,000.[6] This loan was in the form of bonds bearing interest at the rate of 7.30%, which were issued in denominations as low as $50 so that people of moderate means could take them. He also framed and recommended the measures, adopted by congress, which permitted the subsequent consolidation and funding of the government loans into the 4% and 4.5% bonds.[citation needed]
Fessenden began his service as Secretary of the Treasury on July 5, 1864. The financial situation becoming favorable on the raising of another large loan, in accordance with his expressed intention, he resigned the secretaryship, leaving on March 3, 1865, to return to the Senate, to which he had now for the third time been elected, and where he would serve for the rest of his life.[citation needed]
From 1865 to 1867, he headed the
During President
He served as chairman of the
In 1867, Radical Republican senator Charles Sumner introduced legislation that would expand Reconstruction efforts that included the provision of homesteads to freedmen. Fessenden lamented in opposition: "That is more than we do for white men," to which Sumner retorted: "White men have never been in slavery."[12]
During the 1868 United States presidential election, Fessenden joined the other six pro-Johnson Republican senators in campaigning for Ulysses S. Grant,[3] who defeated Democratic nominee Horatio Seymour.[13]
For several years, he was a regent of the
Fessenden died on September 8, 1869, while serving in the U.S. Senate. He was interred at the Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine. On December 14, 1869, George Henry Williams addressed the U.S. Senate to deliver a tribute to his friend and fellow Senator.[14]
Personal life
Two of his brothers, Samuel Clement Fessenden and Thomas Amory Deblois Fessenden, were also Congressmen.
Fessenden married Ellen M. Deering in 1832, and she died in 1857. They had three sons who served in the American Civil War: Samuel Fessenden, who was killed at the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Brigadier-General James Deering Fessenden, and the Major-General Francis Fessenden, the latter of whom wrote a two-volume biography of his father, The Life and Services of William Pitt Fessenden, which was published in 1907. A fourth son, William Howard Fessenden, stayed in Maine to take care of the law practice his father had established. Their fifth child was Mary Elizabeth Deering Fessenden who died in childhood.
Actress Beverly Garland is his great-great-granddaughter who dropped her real name Fessenden and went by her married name Garland.
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In popular culture
- In the 2012 film Lincoln, Fessenden is played by actor Walt Smith.
See also
- Economic history of the United States Civil War
- List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)
- Liberal Republican Party
Notes
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (July 2020) |
- ^ a b Foner, Eric (1988). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877, pp. 239–41. New York: Harper & Row.
- ^ Landis (2008)
- ^ a b Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, p. 336.
- ^ The Origins of the Street Names of the City of Portland, Maine as of 1995 – Norm and Althea Green, Portland Public Library (1995)
- ISBN 0-88448-069-0.
- ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911.
- ^ "The Trial of Andrew Johnson, 1868".
- ^ "Senate Journal. 40th Cong., 2nd sess., 16 / 26 May 1868, 943–51". A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
- ^ David O. Stewart, Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (2009), pp. 240–249, 284–299.
- ^ Stewart, David O. (December 15, 2019). Edmund G. Ross Was a Profile in Impeachment Corruption, not Courage. History News Network. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875".
- ^ Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, p. 308.
- ^ "Statistics: 1868". UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
- ^ Williams, George H. (1895). Occasional Addresses. Portland, Oregon: F.W. Baltes and Company. pp. 21–28.
Further reading
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 293., the source for much of this article.
- Bordewich, Fergus M. How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America (2020)
- Cook, Robert J. "Stiffening Abe: William Pitt Fessenden and the Role of the Broker Politician in the Civil War Congress." American Nineteenth Century History 8.2 (2007): 145–167.
- Cook, Robert J. "'The Grave of All My Comforts': William Pitt Fessenden as Secretary of the Treasury, 1864–65." Civil War History 41.3 (1995): 208–226.
- Cook, Robert J. Civil War Senator: William Pitt Fessenden and the Fight to Save the American Republic (Louisiana State University Press; 2011) 344 pages; a standard scholarly biography
- Fessenden, Francis. Life and Public Services of William Pitt Fessenden: United States Senator from Maine 1854-1864; Secretary of the Treasury 1864-1865; United States Senator from Maine 1865-1869 (1907) online.
- Jellison, Charles. Fessenden of Maine, Civil War Senator (1962), a standard scholarly biography
- Landis, Michael Todd. "'A Champion Had Come': William Pitt Fessenden and the Republican Party, 1854–60," American Nineteenth Century History, Sept 2008, Vol. 9 Issue 3, pp. 269–285
- Richardson, Heather Cox. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War (1997)
External links
- United States Congress. "William P. Fessenden (id: F000099)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
External links
- United States Congress. "William P. Fessenden (id: F000099)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Includes Guide to Research Collections where his papers are located.
- Biography at Lincoln's White House