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William Pitt Fessenden

William P. Fessenden
Hon. William P. Fessenden, Maine - NARA - 529980.jpg
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
United States Senator
from Maine
In office
February 10, 1854 – July 1, 1864
Preceded by James W. Bradbury
Succeeded by Nathan A. Farwell
In office
March 4, 1865 – September 8, 1869
Preceded by Nathan A. Farwell
Succeeded by Lot M. Morrill
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
Member of the Maine House of Representatives
In office
1832
1838
1845–1846
Personal details
Born William Pitt Fessenden
(1806-10-16)October 16, 1806
Boscawen, New Hampshire, US
Died September 8, 1869(1869-09-08) (aged 62)
Portland, Maine, US
Resting place Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine, US
Political party Whig, Opposition, Republican
Spouse(s) Ellen Maria Deering Fessenden
Children Samuel Fessenden
James D. Fessenden
Francis Fessenden
William Howard Fessenden
Alma mater Bowdoin College (1823)
Profession Politician, Lawyer
Religion Anglicanism later from Episcoplianism
Signature

William Pitt Fessenden (October 16, 1806 – September 8, 1869) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. Fessenden was a Whig (later a Republican) and member of the Fessenden political family. He served in the United States House of Representatives and Senate before becoming Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.

A lawyer, he was a leading antislavery Whig in Maine; in Congress, he fought the Slave Power (the plantation owners who controlled southern states). He built an antislavery coalition in the state legislature that elected him to the U.S. Senate; it became Maine's Republican organization. In the Senate, Fessenden played a central role in the debates on Kansas, denouncing the expansion of slavery. He led Radical Republicans in attacking Democrats Stephen Douglas, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. Fessenden's speeches were read widely, influencing Republicans such as Abraham Lincoln and building support for Lincoln's 1860 Republican presidential nomination. During the war, Senator Fessenden helped shape the Union's taxation and financial policies. He moderated his earlier radicalism, and supported Lincoln against the Radicals, becoming Lincoln's Treasury Secretary. After the war, Fessenden was back in the Senate, as chair of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, which established terms for resuming congressional representation for the southern states, and which drafted the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Later, Fessenden provided critical support that prevented Senate conviction of President Andrew Johnson, who had been impeached by the House. He was the first Republican Senator to ring out "...not guilty" followed by six other Republican Senators resulting in the acquittal of President Johnson.


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