William Pitt Fessenden was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire. He
graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in 1823. He studied law for four years
and was admitted to the Maine bar in 1827. He moved to Portland, Maine, in 1829. He
served several terms as a state legislator and a Congressman, representing the Whig party
in a Democratic State. He became a Senator in 1854 and served until 1864 when President
Abraham Lincoln asked him to succeed Salmon P. Chase as Secretary of the Treasury. In
March 1865, a month before Lincolns assassination, he resigned and was succeeded by
Hugh McCulloch.
Fessenden returned to the Senate, serving from 1865 to 1869, and voted against the
impeachment of Andrew Johnson. As a conservative Republican, he strongly disagreed with
many of the economic and political policies of Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio who, as
acting Vice President, would have become President if Johnson had been removed from
office; moreover, Fessenden had been a political rival of Wades for the position as
President pro tem of the Senate, that Wade acquired. Therefore, he probably voted
against impeaching Andrew Johnson both for reasons of principle and personal dislike of
his potential successor. He died the next year in Portland, Maine.
John Adler, HarpWeek Publisher
Source: Century Cyclopedia of Names |
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William Pitt Fessenden
(16 October 1806 8 September 1869)
Source: History of Congress, 1867-69, Vol. I
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