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 MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN, 
 
 (A SENATOR FROM MAINE,) 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 41ST CONQRESS, SD SESSION, 
 
 DECEMBER 14, 1869. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY OEUEE OF CONGRESS. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 
 
 1870. 
 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 CALIFORNIA. 
 

WILLIAM PITT FESSEKDEN. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 
 
 PRAYER BY THE CHAPLAIN, REV. J. P. NEWMAN, D.D. 
 
 Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all genera 
 tions. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever 
 Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from ever 
 lasting to everlasting, Thou art God. Older than the earth, 
 older than the stars, older than the angels, Thou art God 
 eternal and blessed forevermore. But upon all things earthly 
 is impressed vanity, and we deplore the sin which has 
 doomed us to sorrow and to death. Empires pass away, 
 and humanity, generation after generation, is carried to the 
 charnel-house of departed ages. But we return Thee hearty 
 thanks, gracious God, that, notwithstanding this general 
 doom, the noble and the immortal part of man shall sur 
 vive the tomb. We return Thee thanks for all that was 
 great in intellect and noble in heart and philanthropic in 
 life, for all that was patriotic and loyal in the public services, 
 of him whose memory shall be commemorated to-day. And 
 grant that by this dispensation of Thy providence these 
 Senators may grow wise; that they may so live and so die 
 that their lives shall be their eulogy; that in their death 
 the people shall rise up and call them blessed; and that 
 God may pronounce His benediction upon their eternity. 
 Regard in Thy tender mercy those who were near and dear to 
 the departed. May they be infolded in the arms of Thine affec 
 tion and protection. Command Thy blessing upon Thy servant, 
 
REMARKS OF ME. MOERILL ON 
 
 the President of this Bepublic ; upon Thy servant who pre 
 sides here; upon these Senators; upon all that are in authority; 
 and upon the whole nation ; for Jesus sake. Ainen. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. MORRILL, OF MAINE. 
 
 Mr. President: One who at your adjournment in April had 
 in this Chamber become a familiar presence, a pervading 
 influence, comes not again at your reassembling in Decem 
 ber. The dull toll of far-off bells, the visible emblems of 
 mourning, public and private, have spoken of bereavement, 
 and touch our hearts with deepest sensibility. 
 
 These swiftly-repeating vicissitudes in the personal desti 
 nies of those associated here; a consciousness of the num 
 bers of the wise, the patriotic, the trusted, who of late have 
 departed hence who come no more to these councils op 
 press as with the weight of a common misfortune; and now 
 a new absence at the roll-call to earthly duty inflicts a fresh 
 pang of regret. A great public sorrow afflicts the people of 
 my State a sense of bereavement the nation. In especial 
 sympathy with the common misfortune the Senate pauses to 
 pay its tribute of respect to its eminent dead, the marked 
 lineaments of whose form and character are vivid still in 
 the memory, who so lately stood here in his high office, in 
 the prominence of native gifts and of a rich and varied 
 experience, challenging the respect, the confidence, and the 
 admiration of his countrymen. 
 
 On the 8th day of September last, after a career pre-emi 
 nent in professional and public life, beginning with his earliest 
 manhood, and having been constantly associated with the 
 courts, and officially in the public councils of the State and 
 nation, at the zenith of his fame and in the full possession 
 of his intellectual faculties, William Pitt Fesscnden was called 
 away from the scenes of earth. 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 The public career of Mr. Fessendeu was not in any sense 
 problematical; and in this presence, a witness to so consid 
 erable a portion of it, and in its just prominence, so inti 
 mately associated with the great events of our more recent 
 history, analysis of it would seem to be quite needless; 
 while properly to other hands and other occasions it may 
 be left adequately to portray those marked elements of his 
 character from which sprang his public eminence. 
 
 His years of activity were divided between public and pro 
 fessional life, to the latter of which in early years he consecra 
 ted himself with singular fidelity, his passionate fondness for it 
 remaining long after the exigencies of the public service had 
 severed all practical connection with it. While the former was 
 not wholly uninterrupted and exclusive, it was sufficiently con 
 tinuous and devoted for contact, connection, and familiarity 
 with the politics and public events of the day. 
 
 Entering the legislature of his State at twenty-six, he was 
 returned at short intervals, was early a member of Congress, 
 again in the legislature, then advancing to this body, then, 
 briefly, minister of state, and finally again in the Senate, 
 where it may not unfitly be said his service was continuous 
 from its first beginning to its final close. 
 
 His early advent into the legislature of his State was notice 
 able for the concession of the party in power to his eloquence 
 and acquirements, of positions of distinction and influence 
 which by usage belonged to political friends, to riper years, 
 and larger experience. 
 
 On his entrance into the national House of Eepresentatives, 
 himself among the youngest of its members, he at once partici 
 pated in the important debates of that body, attracting notice 
 as a graceful orator and skillful debater, and for the compre 
 hension and maturity of his opinions. 
 
 His pre-eminent public career dates, strictly, from his en 
 trance into this body in 1854. as from this time he gave himself 
 exclusively to his public duties. 
 
REMARKS OF MR. MORRILL ON 
 
 Simultaneously with his advent to the Senate arose in Con 
 gress that class of public questions which w r ere calculated to 
 test the temper of his affections, the tenacity of his opinions, 
 and the steadiness of his purpose. Kansas-Nebraska, the 
 stalking-horse of slavery, which under an affectation of de 
 fending the Constitution was to conceal the guilty purpose of 
 subversion of democratic republican institutions, afforded an 
 opportunity for the exhibition of those powers of analysis, 
 logic, and invective which have rarely been surpassed in any 
 legislative body. Here was audacious menace, significant hint 
 to overt treason which was to follow ; here were the first mut- 
 terings of the storm that was to burst upon the nation amid 
 the convulsions of civil war. This audacious spirit of bad faith, 
 usurpation, and oppression, leading an assault upon popular 
 rights, could not fail to provoke the intensest hostility in one, 
 the very elements of whose being made him intolerant of every 
 species of infidelity, violence, and cruelty. 
 
 The effect here of his memorable speech on that occasion 
 was electric, and contributed, it may not be doubted, to swell 
 the tide of popular indignation and resolution of the great 
 national uprising of 1856, followed in after years by memorable 
 deeds in arms. 
 
 Not aggressive in spirit, not an advanced radical reformer 
 even, whatever may be said of his constitutional conservatism, 
 he was, by the native simplicity of his tastes, his education 
 and habits of life, and better still, by his enlightened sense of 
 justice and hatred of wrong, always the able and fearless advo 
 cate of civil and religious liberty. Eepublican institutions had 
 no truer conservator and oppression no more determined and 
 uncompromising opponent than William Pitt Fessenden. 
 
 From this time forward to the close his views were given 
 upon most questions of importance, and his influence upon the 
 legislation and policy of the country during its eventful strug 
 gle of civil war was conspicuous. Internal revenue, the cur 
 rency, the banking system, and finally reconstruction, all 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 received the touch of his hand and the influence of his 
 genius. 
 
 In sentiment Mr. Fessenden was thoroughly anti-slavery. 
 It was his inheritance, and through life he was faithful to it. 
 In all the attempts of slavery for recognition and protection 
 his opposition was inflexible. When to be anti-slavery was to 
 be anti- American, he was anti-slavery; when his party would 
 compromise, he dissented 5 when repeal was demanded in its 
 interest, he protested; when, later, on the eve of rebellion, 
 conference and concession were proposed, he would have no 
 participation in it, and would yield no assent; and when war 
 came for separation and independent slave power, he saw in it 
 the nation s opportunity ; and that initial measure for universal 
 emancipation abolition of slavery in the national capital 
 had his approval and support. The abolition of slavery here 
 he declared was a "measure that had ever been dear to his 
 heart;" and later, on a kindred question, he said: "I tell the 
 President from my place here as Senator, and I tell the gen 
 erals of the army, that they must reverse their practice of re 
 turning fugitive slaves who come within our lines." 
 
 The lineaments of Mr. Fessenden s character were marked 
 and clear. He was endowed with an acute understanding, 
 lively sensibility, and intense personality and self-reliance. 
 Penetration and insight eminently characterized his genius. 
 He was through with his preparatory course, had graduated 
 from college, studied his profession and entered upon its prac 
 tice, and had gained distinction in the departments of law and 
 legislation at an age when most minds are just beginning to 
 contemplate their intricacies and ascend their rugged steeps. 
 
 There was next to nothing in his life, public or private, 
 which was factitious or artificial. His professional success 
 and his influence in State and national legislation were by no 
 accident, nor by the employment of adventitious supports, but 
 by the inherent energy and force of his mental constitution. 
 He was eminent in his profession, as in him were combined 
 
8 
 
 REMARKS OF ME. MORE ILL ON 
 
 those intellectual faculties and mental habits which go to 
 make the lawyer, the statesman, and the public administrator. 
 Had he possessed more sentiment and imagination and greater 
 enthusiasm for the ideal, it would doubtless have increased his 
 popularity, while it may be questioned if his reliability as a 
 citizen, his distinction as a lawyer, or his eminence as legis 
 lator, would have been greater. 
 
 In him the intensely practical ever so asserted its prepond 
 erance over the ideal in action as to present to superficial 
 observance a lack of the finer sensibilities. He did nothing 
 from impulse, and on the most exciting occasions could be cool 
 and free from irrepressible restlessness; but it was the calm of 
 high resolve, persistent and tenacious, in its triumph over 
 passion and sentiment. He was nevertheless susceptible to 
 the gentler influences; a most genial companion, gentle, ten 
 der, and affectionate in his family, and had delight in the 
 elegant arts sculpture, painting, and poetry. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden was not a theorist; the visions of abstract 
 speculation did not inspire him with confidence. He saw 
 passing events as it were in the retrospect, and was little 
 affected by the factitious circumstances and excitements of the 
 moment. He was not especially deferential to the authority of 
 precedent or tradition, nor readily attracted by novelties or 
 specious pretenses of reform, and fearlessly applied to all 
 propositions for his action or assent the rigor of his accus 
 tomed methods of induction and analysis. 
 
 His character rested on a granite basis, and sustained the 
 structure of a lofty public virtue and private integrity, while 
 an inflexible personal independence kept guard over the intel 
 lect and conscience, and challenged the advance alike of friend 
 and foe to this seat of his power and secret of his success. It 
 would have been impossible for him, like his great namesake, 
 the premier of George III r to recover office, to acquire or retain 
 place or power, by a concession of his principles or of a point 
 of honor. No public man ever more heroically followed the 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEiSr. 9 
 
 leadership of his reason and judgment, and with a loftier dis 
 dain of inferior guidance. 
 
 His mind and method were of the judicial order. He did 
 not defer to the decision of the popular judgment as the sum 
 of political wisdom and the inevitable law of duty. His own 
 and not the public sense was his rule of action as a Senator. 
 He paid little court to the people, and practiced no artifices 
 and employed no gratuities to enlist them in his interests or 
 purposes. And he did not sway the masses so much by the 
 sublimity of his sentiments as he inspired confidence and 
 admiration by the dignity of his manners, the clearness of 
 his understanding, and the purity of his life. 
 
 That he possessed ambition was doubtless true, while 
 equally true it was that he was free from all suspicion that 
 his ambition had overcome his judgment or betrayed his 
 public virtue. He had little ambition for mere power, and 
 less use for it. Patronage he did not covet or employ 
 as a support; nor had the greed of gain, nor the desire of 
 accumulation, power over him as a man, a citizen, or public 
 servant. 
 
 If excellence in oratory is to be determined by its instant 
 effect, Mr. Fesseuden was in this entitled to high rank. His 
 style was clear and close; his reasoning concise; his language 
 simple and natural; his sarcasm keen and pungent. His 
 speeches were calculated and designed for present effect, and 
 never seem to have been elaborated with a view to their 
 appearance in print. Taken by no sudden impulse, poised in 
 debate on his intellect and reason, he was never vehement, 
 rarely yielding to strong emotions, and only when pressed 
 by antagonism strongly assailing his convictions or impinging 
 his personal independence. On such occasions he exhibited 
 the amplitude of his powers and the intensity of his nature. 
 
 Skepticism and infidelity were foreign to his mental consti 
 tution. Thoughtful and sincere, with characteristic independ 
 ence of creeds and traditions, his was a nature to feel the 
 
HEMARKS OF ME. STJMNER ON 
 
 religious sentiment strongest as it dwells apart in the silence of 
 the soul. In his recent touching eulogy here of his cherished 
 friend, with whom he had long. been associated, are to be 
 found utterances of his profound faith in God and of the 
 Christian s hope of endless and more exalted life. 
 
 Among the distinguished characters who shall illustrate the 
 annals of our times history will assign William Pitt Fessenden 
 a conspicuous place. Through all his public life and services 
 there shines the luster of a gifted and noble manhood, of a 
 tried patriotism, and of disinterested devotion to worthy ends 
 and aims. A steady leader, a safe counselor, a pure and con 
 siderate patriot, an eminent statesman, a true man and friend, 
 has gone to his reward. 
 
 Mr. President, I submit the following resolutions: 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate receive with deep regret the announcement of 
 the death of William Pitt Fesseuden, late a member of this body. 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the Senate will manifest their respect for 
 the memory of the deceased by wearing the usual badge of mourning. 
 
 Resolved, That these proceedings be communicated to the House of Rep 
 resentatives. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. SUMNER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Mr. President : A seat in this Chamber is vacant. But this 
 is a very inadequate expression for the present occasion. Much 
 more than a seat is vacant. There is a void difficult to measure, 
 as it will be difficult to fill. Always eminent from the begin 
 ning, Mr. Fesseuden during these latter years became so large 
 a part of the Senate, that without him it seems to be a different 
 body. His guiding judgment, his ready power, his presence so 
 conspicuous in debate, are gone, taking away from this Cham 
 ber that identity which it received so considerably from him. 
 
 Of all the present Senate one only besides myself witnessed 
 his entry into this Chamber. I can not forget it. He came in 
 the midst of that terrible debate on the Kansas and Nebraska 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 bill by which the country was convulsed to its center, and his 
 arrival had the effect of a re-enforcement on a field of battle. 
 Those who stood for Freedom then were few in numbers not 
 more than fourteen, while thirty-seven Senators in solid column 
 voted to break the faith originally plighted to Freedom and to 
 overturn a time-honored landmark, opening that vast Mesopo- 
 tamian region to tbe curse of Slavery. Those anxious days 
 are with difficulty comprehended by a Senate where Freedom 
 rules. One more in our small number was a sensible addition. 
 We were no longer fourteen, but fifteen. His reputation at the 
 bar, and his fame in the other House gave assurance which 
 was promptly sustained. He did not wait, but at once entered 
 into the debate with all those resources which afterwards 
 became so famous.- The scene that ensued exhibited his readi 
 ness and courage. While saying that the people of the North 
 were fatigued with the threat of disunion -that they consid 
 ered it as " mere noise and nothing else," he was interrupted 
 by Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, always ready to speak for 
 Slavery, exclaiming, " If such sentiments as yours prevail I 
 want a dissolution right away" a characteristic intrusion 
 doubly out of order to which the new-comer rejoined, " Do 
 not delay it on my account; do not delay it on account of any 
 body at the North." The effect was electric; but this incident 
 was not alone. Douglas, Cass, and Butler interrupted only 
 to be worsted by one who had just ridden into the lists. The 
 feelings of the other side were expressed by the Senator from 
 South Carolina, who after one of the flashes of debate which 
 he had provoked exclaimed : " Very well, go on ; I have no 
 hope of you." All this will be found in the Globe, precisely 
 as I give it, but the Globe could not picture the exciting 
 scene the Senator from Maine erect, firm, immovable as a 
 jutting promontory against which the waves of ocean tossed 
 and broke in dissolving spray. There he stood. Not a Sena 
 tor, loving Freedom, who did not feel on that day that a 
 champion had come. 
 
12 REMAKES OF Mil. SUMNER ON 
 
 This scene so brilliant in character, illustrates Mr. Fessen- 
 den s long career in the Senate. All present were moved, 
 while those at a distance were less affected. His speech, 
 which was argumentative, direct, and pungent, exerted more 
 influence on those who heard it than on those who only read 
 it, vindicating his place as debater rather than orator. This 
 place he held to the end without a superior without a peer. 
 Nobody could match him in immediate and incisive reply. 
 His words were swift, and sharp as a cimeter, or, borrowing 
 an illustration from an opposite quarter, he "shot flying" and 
 with unerring aim. But while this great talent secured for 
 him always the first honors of debate, it was les.i important 
 with the country, which, except in rare instances, is more im 
 pressed by ideas and by those forms in which truth is manifest. 
 
 The Senate has changed much from its original character, 
 when, shortly after the formation of the National Government, 
 a Nova Scotia paper, in a passage copied by one of our own 
 journals, while declaring that the habits of the people here 
 are very favorable to oratory, could say, "There is but one 
 assembly in the whole range of the Federal Union in 
 which oratory is deemed unnecessary, and, I believe, even 
 absurd and obtrusive, to wit, the Senate, or upper house of 
 Congress. They are merely a deliberative meeting, in which 
 every man delivers his concise opinion, one leg over the other, 
 as they did in the first Congress, when an harangue was a 
 great rarity." [United States Gazette, Philadelphia, December 
 31, 1789.] Speech was, then, for business and immediate 
 effect in the Chamber. Since then the transformation has 
 proceeded speech becoming constantly more important until 
 now, without neglect of business, the Senate has become a 
 center from which to address the country. A seat here is a 
 lofty pulpit with a mighty sounding-board, and the whole 
 wide- spread people is the congregation. 
 
 As Mr. Fessenden rarely spoke except for business, what he 
 said was restrained in its influence, but it was most effective 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. ]_3 
 
 in this Chamber. Here was his empire arid his undisputed 
 throne. Of perfect integrity and austerest virtue, he was 
 inaccessible to those temptations which in various forms beset 
 the avenues of public life. Most faithfully and constantly did 
 he watch the interests intrusted to him. Here he was a model. 
 Holding the position of chairman of the Finance Committee, 
 while it yet had those double duties which are now divided 
 between two important committees, he became the guardian 
 of the national treasury, both in its receipts and its expendi 
 tures, so that nothing was added to it or taken from it without 
 his knowledge, and how truly he discharged this immense 
 trust all will attest. Nothing could leave the Treasury with 
 out showing a passport. This service was the more momentous 
 from the magnitude of the transactions involved, for it was 
 during the whole period of the war, when appropriations 
 responded to loans and taxes all being on a scale beyond 
 precedent in the world s history. On these questions, some 
 times so sensitive and difficult and always so grave, his 
 influence was beyond that of any other Senator and constantly 
 swayed the Senate. All that our best generals were in arms 
 he was in the financial field. 
 
 Absorbed in his great duties and confined too much by the 
 training of a profession which too often makes its follower 
 slave where he is not master, he forgot sometimes that cham 
 pionship which shone so brightly when he first entered the 
 Senate. Ill -health came with its disturbing influence, and, 
 without any of the nature of Hamlet, his conduct at times 
 suggested those words by which Hamlet pictures the short 
 comings of life. Too often, in his case, "the native hue of 
 resolution was sicklied o er with the pale cast of thought," and, 
 perhaps, I might follow the words of Shakespeare further, and 
 picture "enterprises of great pith and moment, which, with 
 this regard, their current turned awry and lost the name of 
 action." 
 
 Men are tempted by the talent which they possess, and he 
 
14 REMARKS OF MR. TEUMBULL ON 
 
 could not resist the impulse to employ, sometimes out of place, 
 those extraordinary powers which he commanded so easily. 
 More penetrating than grasping, he easily pierced the argu 
 ment of his opponent, and, once engaged, he yielded to the 
 excitement of the moment and the joy of conflict. His words 
 warmed, as the Olympic wheel caught fire in the swiftness of 
 the race. If, on these occasions, there were sparkles which 
 fell where they should not have fallen, they cannot be remem 
 bered now. Were he still among us, face to face, it were 
 better to say, in the words 01 that earliest recorded recon 
 ciliation : 
 
 "Let us no more contend nor blame 
 Each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive 
 In offices of love how we may lighten 
 Each other s burden in our share of woe." 
 
 Error and frailty checker the life of man. If this were not 
 so earth would be heaven, for what could add to the happiness 
 of life free from error or frailty ? The Senator we mourn was 
 human ; but the error and frailty which belonged to him often 
 took their color from, virtue itself. On these he needs no 
 silence, even if the grave which is now closing over him did 
 not refuse its echoes except to what is good. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. TRUMBULL, OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 Mr. President : While these last rites are taking place, even 
 though unsolicited, my feelings would not have allowed the 
 occasion to pass away without laying upon the grave of our 
 departed brother some token of my affection and regard ; and 
 though the flowers I bring are gathered by the wayside, they 
 represent a love and a respect no less sincere than those which 
 have been more skillfully selected and arranged for the occa 
 sion. Others have spoken, and truly, of the loss which the 
 Senate and the nation have sustained in the death of Mr. 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEX. 15 
 
 Fessenden. His clear intellect, quick perception, and incisive 
 manner of speaking gave him great power in a legislative 
 body, and when added, to these are purity of character, spot 
 less integrity, a high sense of honor, together with love of 
 country and of liberty, you have the useful and accomplished 
 statesman, and such was Mr. Fessenden. As a debater, en 
 gaged in the current business of legislation, the Senate has 
 not had his equal in my time. No man could detect a soph 
 istry or perceive a scheme or a job quicker than he, and none 
 possessed the power to expose it more effectually. He was a 
 practical, matter-of-fact man; in other words, a business man, 
 utterly abhorring all show, pretension, and humbug. He was 
 laborious, careful, and painstaking; punctual and attentive to 
 business, understood well the meaning of words, and was pre 
 cise in their use. 
 
 Being a practical man he seldom if ever made what are 
 called set speeches or orations. He never spoke except to the 
 question before the Senate ; and in controversies, whether with 
 political adversaries or in regard to current business, he had 
 no superior in the body. I well recollect the estimate put 
 upon Mr. Fessenden as a well-informed ready debater when I 
 first came to the Senate. At that time it consisted of sixty- 
 two members, of whom only fifteen were republicans. It was 
 a time of high party excitement. The majority were domineer 
 ing and often offensive to members of the minority. They con 
 trolled the business of the Senate and could take their own 
 
 
 time to assail minority Senators or the views they entertained, 
 
 and it was not uncommon for members of the dominant party 
 to go out of their way to seek controversies with and assail 
 certain Senators in the minority less practiced in debate than 
 themselves, and over whom they supposed they could obtain 
 some advantage; but they never sought controversies with 
 Mr. Fessenden, and when a debate did incidentally spring up 
 between him and some political opponent, I have not forgotten 
 how pleased and gratified his political associates were that the 
 
REMARKS OF Mil. TRUMBULL ON 
 
 discussion was iii the hands of one so competent to maintain it 
 on their part. 
 
 No political friend ever feared the result of a discussion of 
 any kind in which Mr. Fessenden was engaged. The period 
 of his public services embraces the most important events 
 which have occurred in our nation s history, and he was a 
 prominent actor in them all. Either as the head of the Finance 
 Committee of this body, or as Secretary of the Treasury, he 
 took a principal part in originating, maturing, and giving prac 
 tical effect to that financial policy which furnished the sinews 
 by which the great rebellion was crushed. The war over, he 
 took a leading part in the difficult work of restoring order to a 
 country torn asunder by four years of remorseless civil war, 
 and was especially conspicuous in those measures which we all 
 trust are soon to bring into harmonious relations all the States 
 of the Union. As a public officer and a Senator he was scru 
 pulously careful of the interests and the honor of the Govern 
 ment. So zealous was he in this respect, and so little patience 
 had he with any attempt to take advantage of the Govern 
 ment, or with demagogism or shams of any kind, that some 
 attributed to him an austerity and irritability which did not 
 belong to him as a man. It was only as an official that he 
 sometimes seemed hard and austere. As an individual in the 
 private walks of life he was full of sympathy and kindness 
 and charity. When the sad tidings of his death flashed across 
 the land, its public men and we who were his associates were 
 not the only ones who felt the shock, but it fell with still 
 heavier force on many an obscure and lowly one who had 
 enjoyed his favor and been the recipient of his unostentatious 
 bounty. In the discharge of public duty he stood erect, un 
 moved alike by threats of vengeance or promises of favor. 
 In private life he was kind and gentle and obliging. 
 
 But I did not rise so much to speak of the great abilities and 
 noble traits of character which have made Mr. Fessendeu s 
 death to be felt as a national calamity, as of the personal loss 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 17 
 
 which I myself feel at his departure. Only three others are 
 now left who were here when I came to the Senate, and there 
 is but one who came with me. There has been no one here 
 since I came to whom I oftener went for counsel and whose 
 opinions I have been accustomed more to respect than those of 
 our departed friend. There were occasions during our fourteen 
 years service together when we differed about minor matters 
 and had controversies for the time unpleasant, but I never lost 
 my respect for him nor do I believe he ever did his for me. 
 He was my friend, more closely perhaps the last year or two 
 than ever before. Like other Senators, I shall miss him in the 
 daily transactions of this chamber, and perhaps more than any 
 other shall miss him as the one person from whom I most fre 
 quently sought advice. I am not one of those, however, who 
 believe that constitutional liberty, our free institutions, or the 
 progress of the age depend upon any one individual. When 
 the great and good Lincoln was stricken down I did not believe 
 that the Government would fail or liberty perish. Though his 
 loss may have subjected the country to many trials it would not 
 otherwise have had, still our Government stands and liberty 
 survives. 
 
 Another has taken Mr. Fesseuden s place; others will soon 
 occupy ours, to discharge their duties better perhaps than we 
 have done, and he among us to-day will be fortunate indeed, if 
 when his work on earth is done he shall leave behind him a life 
 so pure and useful, a reputation so unsullied, a patriotism so 
 ardent, and a statesmanship so conspicuous as William Pitt 
 Fesseuden. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. ANTHONY, OF RHODE IS^AN> , ^ 
 
 Mr. President : It is not with the expectation of 
 tiring to what has been said, but rather for the gratification of 
 my own feelings, that I rise to add one more tribute to the 
 
 
 
 
18 KEMAKKSOFMK. ANTHOKYON 
 
 worth of our friend, whose face we shall not again see with 
 mortal eyes. His history has been recited by those who knew 
 him from his youth, his character has been depicted by those 
 who loved him. Much of that history passed under our own 
 observation; and all of that character was appreciated and 
 admired by those who were associated with him in this body, 
 and who, by general consent, accorded to him a place second to 
 that of no man in it. 
 
 In rendering my cordial assent to all that has been spoken in 
 praise of Mr. Fessenden I only repeat of him dead what I 
 have said of him living. It is the general fortune of eminent 
 public men to be greatly slandered in life and to be unduly 
 eulogized in death. If Mr. Fessenden did not altogether 
 escape the former, history will admit that even the high praise 
 that has been pronounced upon him to-day, is not exaggerated, 
 is not the outpouring of personal friendship, which seeks relief 
 from its sorrow in the extravagance of eulogy, but the deliber 
 ate judgment which those who were long associated with him 
 had formed of his character. That judgment which is ex 
 pressed in words after his death, was expressed in acts during 
 his life. The great weight which his counsels carried in this 
 chamber, the uniform respect paid to his opinions, and the con 
 spicuous positions assigned to him, all attest the estimation in 
 which he was held. And this estimation was undoubtedly 
 founded on real merit, for Mr. Fessenden had not the arts of 
 popularity, and perhaps held in too light esteem those appli 
 ances of suavity which often cover pretension and superficial- 
 ness, but by which real merit does not sometimes disdain to 
 strengthen itself. Hence he relied upon facts fairly presented 
 and upon arguments logically adduced, for the success of a 
 measure, and, when these failed, he did not resort to personal 
 solicitations or individual persuasions. And as he did not 
 make such appeals himself, so he did not yield to them when 
 they came from others. I might recall to you some remarkable 
 instances in which he argued for the convictions of his judg- 
 
"WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 ment, against all the force of personal solicitations, backed by 
 his own sympathies. This temper of mind, this intellectual 
 conscientiousness gave him, with superficial observers, the 
 reputation of indifference to public opinion. 
 
 But this reputation was not deserved. On the contrary, I 
 think that he was sensitive to public opinion, and honest praise 
 or censure affected him, perhaps, the more because he would 
 not purchase the one or conciliate the other by concessions that 
 are generally regarded as venial. For that public opinion which 
 is manufactured to order he had great contempt, and flattery 
 did not impose upon him ; even to honest but transient public 
 opinion, founded on limited observation and shallow reasoning, 
 Mr. Fessenden, I have sometimes thought, did not give the con 
 sideration that was due; for this is not to be overlooked, in 
 shaping legislation; and under free institutions, where political 
 parties are a necessity, statesmen cannot safely forget that they 
 are also politicians, and that, working through the instrument 
 ality of party, something must be conceded to the strength 
 ening of that party which they hold to be identified with the 
 best interests of the country; but genuine public opinion, the 
 sentiment of thinking men, the deliberate judgment of the 
 country, Mr. Fessenden held in profound respect; and although 
 even to that he would not sacrifice his conscientious convic 
 tions, he differed from it cautiously and reluctantly. 
 
 By some, who knew him slightly, Mr. Fessenden was regarded 
 as a haughty man. This he was not, in any offensive sense of 
 the word. He was grave and reserved; uncommonly quick of 
 apprehension, he was impatient of the sometimes slower pro 
 cesses of other minds, and he carried his intolerance of pre 
 tense and sham to a fault to a fault, because he sometimes 
 confounded these with what were only the harmless peculiari 
 ties or even the deliberate judgments of others; but whatever 
 he might claim for the conclusions to which he had brought his 
 mind, he assumed no superiority for himself in reaching them. 
 A truer, kinder heart beats in no living breast than that which 
 
20 REMARKS OF MB. ANTHONY ON 
 
 now lies cold and pulseless. The universal affection in which 
 he was held by those who sustained to him the relations of de 
 pendence and subordination is the best proof of this. 
 
 It is not given to men to achieve perfection ; else this would 
 not be a state of discipline; but of those elements which go 
 towards it few possess so many as did Mr. Fesseuden, conspic 
 uous less for the fleeting graces that adorn a character than for 
 the solid virtues that dignify and ennoble it; with small por 
 tion of the manner which the great and the little may alike put 
 on, with much of the qualities that only the great and the good 
 possess. 
 
 He will long be held in grateful and affectionate remem 
 brance for his masculine and vigorous intellect, for his pure 
 and honest statesmanship, for his careful and exact acquire 
 ment, for the independence which nothing could shake, for the 
 integrity which nothing could corrupt ; and underlying all, for 
 that sound common sense, that intellectual as well as moral 
 rectitude, upon which, as upon a basis of enduring granite, 
 rose the beautiful superstructure of his character. 
 
 How often, Mr. President, during the troublous and perilous 
 times during which you and I have been associated in the pub 
 lic councils, how often when clouds settled darkest upon us and 
 dangers gathered thickest around us, have we felt to invoke 
 the spirits of the mighty dead and to call upon the fathers of 
 the republic, that they w r ould absent them " from felicity awhile," 
 and leaving the mansions of eternal rest, mingle once more in 
 the contests of earthly affairs, and teach us how to preserve 
 the institutions which their wisdom and patriotism had estab 
 lished. And when, turning from the unanswering dead to the 
 living present, we have looked to those who were wisest in 
 council, firmest in purpose, and purest in heart, never did we fail 
 to recognize among them him whom we now lament. And it 
 seems to us that he is taken from us at a time when he is most 
 needed, when the questions are impending that he best could 
 grapple, when the problems are presented that he best could 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 21 
 
 solve. We look around for those who shall fill his place. But 
 there is One who doeth all things well. In the order of His 
 providence it is not permitted for any place long to remain va 
 cant ; whomever He takes away, He raises up others to fill the 
 void that is left. So it was with Douglas ; so it was with Colla- 
 rner; so it was with Foot; so it was with Lincoln. So it will be 
 with Fessenden. Aiid so, Mr. President long distant be the 
 day will it be with you and with others, our wisest and our 
 best. Men die, but their words are left on record, their works 
 remain, their example survives. He who has made a record 
 like that which we are now reviewing, he who has achieved a 
 character like that which we now hold up to the youth of Amer 
 ica, may well say, when the supreme hour arrives 
 
 " Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mci 
 Vitabit Libitinam." 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. WILLIAMS, OF OREGON. 
 
 Mr. President: William Pitt Fessenden, though not without 
 his faults, was in many respects a model Senator and states 
 man. Education and experience had cultivated and matured 
 his mental faculties, and to the consideration of every public 
 question upon which he was called to act he brought a careful, 
 enlightened, and independent judgment. Official association 
 of more than ordinary intimacy enabled me to observe and 
 appreciate those qualities of his character which too often dis 
 tinguish the ideal from the actual Senator. Of these the most 
 striking, that which gave tone and complexion to the others, 
 was his utter repugnance to every form of indirection and de 
 ceit, and his profound contempt for all the arts and appliances 
 of the demagogue. Conscious of the rectitude of his own pur 
 poses, and confident in the correctness of his own views, pop 
 ular clamor was to him as the breath of an idle wind, and 
 
22 REMARKS OP MR. WILLIAMS OK 
 
 to argue that a proposed policy which he believed to be 
 wrong would please the people, was to employ the weakest of 
 means to influence his sturdy judgment. Nothing seemed to 
 disturb him more than an effort to carry through the Senate 
 for partisan ends some measure which he conceived to be un 
 reasonable or unjust; and I have seen him writhe with pain at 
 the delivery of speeches here whose fallacies and false conclu 
 sions, though obvious to him, were plausible enough to impose 
 upon the ignorant or mislead the unreflecting populace. Deep 
 down in his nature was implanted an instinctive resistance to 
 the smiles of flattery as well as the frowns of disfavor, and by 
 either he was as immovable as the mountain cliff whose 
 rugged brow encounters the sunshine and the storm with 
 equal indifference. 
 
 Arising from one s intercourse with some men of irreproach 
 able character, there is a doubt as to the solidity of their 
 moral structure, a fear that in some unhappy moment tempt 
 ation may overpower them; but no such doubts or fears 
 obtruded themselves into the company of Mr. Fessenden. 
 Perfect faith in his integrity not only possessed all those 
 who approached him, but from his presence there proceeded 
 the perfect assurance that he was as much beyond the reach of 
 corruption as the polished steel is beyond the reach of that 
 rust which fastens itself upon the softer and baser metals. 
 While calumny with its thousand tongues discussed the pro 
 ceedings in this body upon the trial of the late President, there 
 was none so wicked or malicious as to whisper that Mr. Fes- 
 senden s motives upon that occasion were subject to sordid 
 influences. Many questioned the legality and correctness of 
 his opinion ; many were deeply pained at his vote ; but there 
 was that in his solid and noble character that made it impos 
 sible to suppose that his convictions were not as pure in origin 
 as they were fearless in expression. Some men whose public 
 and official acts admit of no question allow themselves to be 
 drawn into various irregularities and impurities of private life; 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSEXDEN. 
 
 but he was as free from dissipation and all its affiliated vices 
 as lie was free from contact with any scheme of plundering or 
 fraudulent legislation. Much is said about the corruption of 
 Congress, a thousand times more than is true ; but be that as 
 it may, it will be a great consolation to the family and friends 
 of the departed Senator that through all the seductions and 
 temptations of a long and varied political life, he came down 
 to his grave full of years and full of honors, a pure and honest 
 man. 
 
 Intellectually, Mr. Fessenden was among the foremost men 
 of the country. Putting aside the discussion upon the slavery 
 question, in which the pre-eminence without dispute belongs to 
 another, he towered in mind among those around him like 
 Saul in form among his countrymen. While admitting his 
 title to this distinction, candor compels me to say that upon 
 any novel and exciting question where the road to success 
 seemed to lie through the chances of recklessness and temerity, 
 he did not possess the requisite qualifications for a great par 
 liamentary leader. He believed that caution was the parent 
 of safety. He was so careful not to do wrong that sometimes 
 he seemed afraid to do right. All that there was akin to cow 
 ardice in the nature of Mr. Fesseuden is indicated by Shake 
 speare, when he says that 
 
 " Conscience makes cowards of us all." 
 
 Prudence is not unfrequently mistaken for timidity, and it is 
 hard to tell where one ends and the other begins 5 but that the 
 deceased should be described as a prudent rather than a timid 
 man, is evidenced by the fact that as to any untried experi 
 ment in legislation, while he thought little of himself, he was 
 much concerned about its effect upon the safety and happiness 
 of the people or the honor and peace of the country. One 
 feature of the senatorial career of Mr. Fessenden deserves 
 especial mention, and that is, he never indulged in anything 
 of a sensational nature. He had no taste for legislative pyro- 
 
24 KEMAEKS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON 
 
 technics. He had no ambition to do something simply to 
 attract attention or to excite comment. All that he said and 
 did was statesman-like and business-like, and looked to some 
 useful result. I may add, too, that he did not pretend to 
 know everything or discuss every question before the Senate. 
 Familiar and thoroughly conversant with most of the leading 
 subjects of debate, particularly those relating to finance, he 
 spoke as to them only when there was a manifest propriety in 
 his speaking. There was no parade, pomposity, or tinsel about 
 his speeches. French was his aversion, and in my hearing he 
 never made a Latin or poetical quotation. Greece and Rome 
 he left with his college exercises in the classic shades of Bow- 
 doin. Plain, simple, and unaffected in manner and habit, so 
 he was in speech, and his style was as pure and transparent 
 as the water of a New England brook. When Mr. Fessenden 
 arose to address the Senate, it will not be irreverent to say 
 that, so far as the subject under discussion was concerned, he 
 was generally able to say, "Let there be light, and there was 
 light." Clearness of expression more than anything else distin 
 guished his speeches, so that the ideas presented, instead of 
 the words in which they were clothed, filled the mind of the 
 hearer. One of the justices of the Supreme Court told me 
 that many years ago he was associated with Mr. Fessenden in 
 the trial of a cause. According to agreement the judge was 
 to argue the law, for which he made elaborate preparation, 
 and the late Senator was to state the facts. Mr. Fessenden 
 made his statement, aft.er which the court said that nothing- 
 further was necessary on that side of the case. So clear, con 
 densed, and convincing was his presentation of the facts that 
 no room was left for argument. As a debater our departed 
 friend had few equals. Logic, sarcasm, and ridicule were 
 employed as circumstances seemed to require. He analyzed 
 and dissipated an adverse argument. Clearness, vigor, and 
 acuteness characterized his discourses. Saladin s sword was 
 not sharper than his intellect. To describe him in the prornis- 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 25 
 
 cuous debates of this body I would borrow the language of 
 
 Tennyson : 
 
 "When 0110 would aim an arrow fair, 
 But scud it slackly from the string, 
 And one would pierce an outer ring, 
 And one an inner, here and there, 
 And last the master bowman, he 
 Would cleave the mark." 
 
 Common sense and a practical view of things were the 
 noticeable features of Mr. Fessenden s statesmanship. Poets, 
 orators, and philosophers may rise to eminence by the display 
 of a brilliant or eccentric genius, but no man can be a wise and 
 safe statesman without a large endowment of common sense, 
 or, in other words, of that clearness and comprehension of 
 mind which enables him to form correct judgments. Theories 
 and abstractions have been and are the bane of the Republic, 
 and the less a man charged with public affairs has to do with 
 them the better for the country. Eight and wrong, as applied 
 to political affairs, are oftentimes relative and not absolute 
 terms. To-day a policy may be right and the circumstances of 
 the people to be affected by it may wholly change, and then it 
 may be wrong. So thought Mr. Fessenden. Free from all 
 Utopian ideas, he acted upon men and things as he found them, 
 not as they might or ought to be; and his action carefully 
 looked to the interests and welfare of all concerned. Some 
 have said, with more or less truth, that he was conservative. 
 No doubt he had some reverence for time-honored things. He 
 loved, like many lawyers, to walk in the ancient ways; he had 
 no pleasure in the work of destruction; he believed in letting 
 well enough alone ; but after all, the records of Congress will 
 show that he was a friend to all those great modern reforms in 
 government that have redeemed and purified the Eepublic. 
 
 There was a grace of modesty about the deportment of Mr. 
 Fessenden. He had none of the "I am Sir Oracle" way about 
 him. Nor had he any of that offensive dogmatism which age 
 sometimes arrogates to itself, though he was frequently emphatic 
 and severe in the statement of his views. He had no ambition 
 
 A R 
 
 .srry 
 >/i\f 
 
26 EEMARKS OP ME. WILLIAMS ON 
 
 to appear to be more than lie was. Among those who depend 
 upon newspapers for information he did not pass current at his 
 real value. Keenly alive to any breath upon the purity of his 
 character, he took no pains to cultivate notoriety. His reputa 
 tion was the product of no hot-bed appliances, but slowly and 
 noiselessly it grew strong and high, like the tall pines of his 
 native State, whose heads revel proudly in the highest winds of 
 heaven. No little was said in the lifetime of our friend about 
 the infirmity of his temper. That he was irritable at times is 
 true. That lie suffered much from physical debility is also true. 
 He was a nervous and high-strung man. He was compelled to 
 struggle for self-control. Charity, however, and a conscious 
 ness of our own imperfections should draw a veil over this 
 slight defect in one otherwise so good ; and whatever his foibles 
 were in this respect it can only be said of him "he but stum 
 bled in the path we have in weakness trod." To show more 
 of this let me state that I was a member of two committees of 
 which he was chairman, and once only did his anger break out 
 in hasty words toward me. Believing "that a friend should 
 bear his friend s infirmities," I did not notice the matter; but 
 in a few moments he came and in the kindest and most apolo 
 getic manner expressed his deep regret at the unpleasant 
 occurrence. While I knew the deceased he displayed little 
 fondness for society. He rather shrank from the fashionable 
 gatherings and gayeties of the capital. He was not so easy 
 of approach as some less agreeable to meet. There was a dig 
 nity in his bearing that repressed familiarity. His intimate 
 associates were few, but to these he seemed strongly attached. 
 Fawning and flattery were foreign to his nature. Those who 
 conceived a dislike for him found their own reasons for a 
 change of feeling. With much of truth it may be said of him 
 that he was 
 
 " Lofty and sour to those who loved him not, 
 But, to those men that sought him, sweet as summer." 
 
 When the last session of Congress adjourned, in the seats 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 27 
 
 nearest to mine sat two distinguished Senators, now gone. 
 One is dead, and the other is in foreign lands seeking for 
 health. Similar in many respects, they were the devoted 
 friends of each other and friends of mine. While I am paying 
 this humble tribute to the memory of the one whom death has 
 taken, I would not forget the other and older friend stricken 
 and away. Unhappily for the country his public life is ended, 
 and the State that he so long represented here will be fortu 
 nate indeed if it finds another equal in intelligence, integrity, 
 and power to occupy his place in this body. When the sun of 
 a bright day declines below the horizon, a softened radiance 
 lingers among the shadows of approaching night, and so it is 
 when a good man goes down from a high position in the world 
 to his resting-place in the grave. Streaming behind him is the 
 effulgence of an exalted character to illumine the way for 
 others and to lighten and soothe the sorrows of bereavement. 
 Where the departed statesman lived and died the bells 
 have tolled their farewell peals; the pall, the hearse, and the 
 funeral procession have passed and gone. "Ashes to ashes 
 and dust to dust" have been spoken, and to her maternal 
 bosom the earth has folded his mortal remains ; and now we, 
 his fellow Senators, have met in this Chamber, where his per 
 son and voice were once so familiar, to celebrate the closing 
 scenes. This is the last of ceremony. Bowing our heads to 
 the will of Providence, and striving to shun his few faults and 
 emulate his many virtues, to the affection of those who loved 
 him, to the gratitude of a country he served long and well, 
 and to the safe-keeping of impartial history, with faith and 
 pride we commit the memory and fame of William Pitt Fes- 
 senden. 
 
 EEMAEKS BY ME. MOEEILL, OF VEEMONT. 
 
 Mr. President: In this body, so comparatively few in num 
 bers, the sudden death of any member is sure to be felt, but 
 
28 REMARKS OF MR. MORRILL ON 
 
 when one of the ripest and most experienced of its members is 
 taken away, to return no more forever, each one of us counts 
 the nation s loss as his own personal bereavement. The golden 
 counsel, the enlightened guidance, commended by long years 
 of daily association and by numberless acts of brotherly kind 
 ness, henceforth is to live only in our memory and speak only 
 in the records of the past. Our country has lost in the death 
 of Mr. Fessenden one of its wisest statesmen; and after fifteen 
 years of cordial intercourse and most friendly relations, public 
 and private, my heart would reproach me if I failed to avow 
 that I have lost a trusted friend, or refrained from attempting 
 a brief tribute to his memory. The measures with which I 
 had most to do in the other House brought me early and con 
 stantly into close relations with the late Senator, then on the 
 Committee on Finance, where he succeeded Mr. Hunter, a very 
 able and painstaking legislator; and having also boarded 
 with him for several sessions of Congress at the same table, I 
 came to know, and, therefore, although not always in entire 
 sympathy with his views, to appreciate him highly. But I 
 shall barely sketch two or three points, without attempting 
 any complete analysis, of his life and character. 
 
 That he had large capacity and a sagacious judgment the 
 whole country gratefully acknowledges, and as a public ser 
 vant no purer nor more incorruptible man, as I am persuaded, 
 ever came within the walls of the Capitol. No unlawful gain 
 swelled his estate or swayed his opinions. In the rage of 
 fiercest political conflicts no breath of suspicion has ever 
 assailed his integrity or dimmed the brightness of his honor. 
 Neither gain nor personal aggrandizement had any power to 
 bend his lofty independence. It is not to be believed that he 
 could have been induced to vary his political principles a 
 hair s breadth, or to abandon any cherished opinion, for even 
 the highest pinnacle of ambition our Government affords a 
 temptation which sometimes proves fatal to the successful career 
 of public men ; and for those who trimmed or accommodated 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEX. 29 
 
 their position to win the stand-point of popular availability 
 he could not conceal profound disgust. 
 
 It seemed to have been his sole ambition to be an American 
 Senator, not inferior in dignity and virtue to the best Roman 
 model, and few have so eminently and so usefully adorned the 
 station or have met "the inevitable hour" with a more spotless 
 reputation. 
 
 Barely do we behold a man of such positive traits of charac 
 ter, moving always with such courageous and independent 
 action, who was at the same time so thoroughly modest, as the 
 late Senator Fessenden. While it must be admitted that as a 
 debater he had no superior in the Senate, his appearance in 
 debate was never heralded in advance by any note of prepara 
 tion, nor was he eager to discover and appropriate the silent 
 but unmistakable approval which usually follows successful 
 argument in the Senate. He was not a petty skirmisher, but 
 gave his views from a broad and comprehensive stand-point. 
 From long holding a leading position here, he was a frequent, 
 though not an obtrusive speaker, neither courting iior shun 
 ning debate, and never seemed to feel that it was necessary to 
 his reputation for him to mingle in every question that came 
 up for discussion ; for he conceded to others the power of say 
 ing all that was necessary to be said, and when that had been 
 said he was even irritated by a further consumption of time in 
 any quarter. He made no speeches for distribution or for his 
 State, except so far as his State was an integral part of the 
 nation. His great aim was to forward the business immedi 
 ately before the Senate, especially such business as he had in 
 charge, not often by a long and what is termed an exhaustive 
 speech upon all the collateral relations of the subject, but he 
 addressed himself mainly and with much energy to the point 
 where he thought, after all, the whole question hinged, and 
 the admirable swiftness and lucidity with which he did this 
 work evinced that the minor points were not concealed from 
 his view, though below his ambition to present. Yet when it 
 
30 REMARKS OF MB. MORRILL ON 
 
 became his duty, from his position in the Senate or from his 
 place on committees, to lead or close a debate upon any im 
 portant question, then he showed his general mastery of affairs, 
 and proved himself competent to handle the gravest issues, 
 whether involving constitutional topics, finance, economy, 
 peace, or war ; and all that he needed, whether springing from 
 a fresh glimpse of the subject or drawn from the storehouse of 
 his memory, appeared instantly ready for his use. 
 
 Studious of facts, guilty of no nonsense, reverent to the 
 highest principles of liberty and republican policy, cogent and 
 severely logical in argument, his speeches were always a 
 marked feature in any debate; and if he encountered any op 
 position that might seem to check his career, there was often a 
 sharpness and point in his rejoinders that caused him to be 
 dreaded, as for any scores so received he could not contentedly 
 long sit in arrears. Holding the formidable power of sarcasm 
 within his compressed lips, it would sometimes escape in 
 sport quite as often in bitter earnest. This pungency in 
 debate involved him in conflicts, not infrequently with his 
 dearest friends, but they forgave him as he forgave them, and 
 he never withheld a generous tribute to the real merits of even 
 those with w r hom he was least in accord, being fastidiously 
 observant not to forego praise in such directions, lest perhaps 
 he should be guilty of injustice. 
 
 When he spoke, with nerves as firm and elastic as a Damas 
 cus blade, he bore himself proudly and with graceful ease, al 
 ways choosing language the most simple, chaste, and fluent to 
 express his meaning ; and few beholding his imperial bearing 
 would have suspected his sensitive and retiring nature, or that 
 something of nervous soreness and prostration followed his 
 every effort. He sought no felicity of phraseology, except a 
 direct and plump expression of his meaning. For grandilo 
 quent oratory he had no taste, but of that manly, unaffected 
 speech which is thoroughly in earnest to force conviction upon 
 the hearers he was a consummate master. There was equal 
 
"WILLIAM PITT FESSEXDEX. 
 
 energy in his thought and manner of delivery, but it is not 
 likely that he ever sought eloquence of any description, or if 
 he did he must have sought the kind so well described by 
 Boliugbroke when he said : 
 
 " Eloquence must flow like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, 
 and not spout forth a little frothy stream on some gaudy day and remain 
 dry for the rest of the year." 
 
 Those who were invited to his home found him hospitable, 
 cordial, and wonderfully fascinating in manner and conversa 
 tion, as he was a brilliant talker, often speaking with humor, 
 and far more ready to unload his memory and display his 
 learning, love of poetry, anecdote, and literary resources at 
 his own fireside than in any more public theater. He made 
 friends and watched their history and welfare with tenderest 
 care, not for the selfish purpose of subordinating them to his 
 private advantage, but because he found an appropriate place 
 for them in his heart, and there they dwelt forever, in no 
 peril of being displaced by other new-found tenants. Fitted 
 to shine in society, he yet generally avoided it, to the deep 
 regret of those who knew him best and loved him most, as 
 they felt that lie would have been more widely beloved had he 
 been less of a recluse. 
 
 The circumstances under which Mr. Fessenden was called to 
 the Treasury Department, upon the resignation of Secretary 
 Chase r will not soon be forgotten. Large sums of money were 
 required at once 5 the postponed requisitions lying in wait 
 were enormous, and the credit of the country seemed to be 
 sinking beneath the heavy load. The premium on gold was 
 doubled, and Government paper became almost valueless. 
 General distrust pervaded all financial circles. Nothing but 
 victories in the field promised any support or consolation to 
 the country, and these victories were slowly and hardly to be 
 won from those whose considerable successes had whetted the 
 appetite for more. President Lincoln tendered the office to 
 Senator Fessenden, who hesitated long, fearing, as the diffi- 
 
REMARKS OF MR. MORRILL ON 
 
 culties surrounding the office were so much more formidable 
 than was generally supposed, that he should fail to meet the 
 full expectations of the people, while he was conscious that 
 personally he had everything to lose and nothing to gain by 
 leaving the Senate ; yet the urgency of his associates here on 
 both sides of the Chamber, and the hardly less potential voice 
 of the press throughout the country, seldom summoning small 
 men for great vacancies, at length secured his acceptance of 
 the position. The public had confidence in the man and his 
 sterling integrity, and it was this confidence which enabled 
 him to carry the Treasury safely through one of the most 
 gloomy periods in the history of the late rebellion. He 
 appealed to the people for a loan, and they responded with 
 unprecedented liberality. He nursed the national banks and 
 ceased to inundate the country with legal-tender currency. 
 The premium on gold receded. Public credit was re-estab 
 lished. The Secretary had justified the confidence of the 
 public ; but only intending to hold the position temporarily, in 
 less than a year he tendered his resignation in order to accept 
 his place in the Senate, to which Maine, with becoming 
 State pride in one of her most distinguished sons, had again 
 promptly returned him. 
 
 The administration of the Treasury Department was too 
 brief to afford any opportunity for the display of new and 
 original financial plans, and the Secretary, if he had any such 
 plans, which may be questioned, did not aim at brilliant 
 theories when practical wisdom, economy, and integrity w r ould 
 through daily use serve the country better. 
 
 The acceptance by Senator Fessenden of the Treasury 
 Department was based upon a principle deeply imbedded in 
 his nature. He felt that he was called from a station where 
 his usefulness had been unquestioned to a new and untried 
 field to which he had never had any aspirations, and where 
 even great ability and the utmost devotion might not com 
 mand success; but his principle was that "even his name 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 33 
 
 among men should be of little account when weighed in 
 the balance against the welfare of the people," and his 
 administration in a critical emergency proved wise and 
 safe, fully deserving a liberal recognition now as it is sure to 
 receive hereafter. 
 
 The most conspicuous instance of Mr. Fessenden s obstinate 
 adherence to the principle already referred to was on the late 
 impeachment trial, and was elaborately enunciated two years 
 earlier in his fine eulogy upon the death of Senator Foot, 
 whom he loved tenderly, and tenderly lamented, where, after 
 referring to all that a faithful Senator will have to encounter, 
 he said : 
 
 " All this, if he would retain his integrity, he must learn to bear un 
 moved and walk steadily onward in the path of public duty, sustained 
 only by the reflection that time may do him justice, or if not, that his 
 individual hopes and aspirations and even his name among men should 
 be of little account to him when weighed in the balance against the 
 welfare of the people, of whose destiny he is the constituted guardian 
 and defender." 
 
 Two years after these words were uttered he practically 
 showed his willingness to brave popular opinion, and, if need 
 be, to sacrifice himself, by voting for the acquittal of the 
 President. That he shocked the public judgment of his State, 
 or of the great party to which he belonged, (and he could 
 belong to no other,) is undeniable : but, however mistaken his 
 views were thought to have been by those of us who reached 
 other and different conclusions upon the same evidence, I am. 
 not aware that the integrity of his motives was ever impugned 
 by any of his peers. He probably would never have asked 
 forgiveness for this act, but time gently wears away some of 
 the asperities of political life, and his people, having little else 
 to forgive, would in this case most likely have granted him 
 absolution. 
 
 He was the natural and courageous enemy of all political 
 quacks and quackery. With Addison he might have said : 
 
 " Believe who will the solemn sham, not I." 
 
34 REMARKS Or MR. MO R RILL ON 
 
 No measure not resting on the solid foundations of reason 
 and public policy obtained his support. He snuffed pretenders 
 and pretenses afar off and drove them ignominiously from 
 his presence. Even though a friend got inflated with a 
 bubble, the bubble was none the less sure by him to be 
 remorselessly pricked. He espoused no cause until his judg 
 ment was convinced, and this he guarded with scrupulous care 
 against all false weights. Intensely New England in thought, 
 as well as in form and feature, yet his whole record might in 
 vain be searched for a sectional vote or a sentiment which 
 might not fairly belong to any liberal-minded statesman. 
 
 It is well known that the late rebellion was the sequence of a 
 conspiracy gotten up in this Capitol, based upon the idea that 
 the North would not fight and that peaceable secession was 
 practically safe and easy. But one of the conspirators, then 
 serving in the Senate with Mr. Fesscnden, did not conceal his 
 opinion from his midnight associates that the straight and 
 slender Senator from Maine was as much to be feared as any 
 other man in the Senate. Mr. Fessenden was slow to believe 
 that the Government would be forced to resort to the rigors of 
 actual war ; he could not think the South would dare to bray 
 the institution of slavery in such a mortar; but, when the time 
 came, his resolution and courage fully justified the apprehen 
 sion of the incipient rebel. Though the capital of our country 
 trembled from the shock, he was neither confused nor terrified. 
 
 No legislator labored more zealously or more efficiently for 
 the preservation of his country, and at the close of the war his 
 "report from the committee of fifteen on reconstruction" will 
 long rank as a masterly production and find its place among 
 the ablest State papers of the nation. 
 
 If he had his faults it will be fortunate for those of us who 
 may be charged with less, and let us then bear willing testi 
 mony to those pre-eminent gifts and traits of character the 
 memory of which must now swell the common fame of our 
 country and be handed down as a legacy to posterity. The 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 35 
 
 praise of to-day will not be inconsiderately bestowed, because 
 it justly belongs to exalted merit and worth. 
 
 We miss a true friend, a manly foe, a wise and useful 
 legislator. We miss an American Senator who was warm in 
 his affections for his country and always zealous of its honor. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. CATTELL, OF NEW JERSEY. 
 
 Mr. President : If I were to take counsel of my judgment 
 rather than of my feelings, I am sure I should remain a silent 
 listener throughout these mournful ceremonies, for I cannot 
 hope to add anything to the eloquent and impressive words 
 which have fallen from the lips of those who have preceded 
 me, nor will any words of mine add to the justly high estimate 
 which the people of this country have formed of the talents, 
 patriotism, and eminent services of the distinguished states 
 man whose loss we mourn. 
 
 But I should do violence to the promptings of my heart if I 
 failed on this occasion to offer my tribute of respect and 
 affection to the memory of my departed friend. 
 
 It is no part of my purpose to attempt any delineation of 
 the character of Mr. Fessenden, or to speak of the eminent 
 services he has rendered to the country on this floor and else 
 where, in the most critical period of our nation s history. His 
 colleague and others have fitly spoken of his public career, 
 and it may safely be left for the pen of the historian to com 
 plete the record. My purpose is a more simple and grateful 
 one. I bring from the garden of the heart a few fresh, modest 
 flowers, dripping with the dew of affection, to cast upon the 
 grave of the friend I loved. 
 
 Mr. Fessendeu was my friend. When three years ago I came 
 to this chamber, fresh from the busy walks of a stirring com 
 mercial life which afforded little time for the careful study of 
 public affairs, a stranger to most of the members of the body, 
 unfamiliar with the forms of legislation, deeply impressed with 
 
36 EEMAKKS OF MK. CATTELL ON 
 
 the responsibilities of my new position, and distrustful of my 
 ability to do justice to my State, he took me by the hand, 
 addressed to me generous words of encouragement, gave me 
 his confidence, and honored me with his friendship, and with 
 all the kindness, delicacy, and affection of an elder brother, he 
 continued to the end to be my constant counselor and steadfast 
 friend. 
 
 At the very outset of my senatorial career he was kind 
 enough to express a wish to have me placed on the Finance 
 Committee, of which he was then chairman ; a position which 
 as a new member I had no right to expect, but a compliment I 
 fully appreciated. For more than two years it has been my 
 privilege to occupy a seat by his side in this chamber, kindly 
 invited thereto by himself. I had therefore the advantage of 
 enjoying to a large extent his brilliant and instructive conver 
 sation on subjects of public interest, and also ample oppor 
 tunity to study the characteristics of his mind and heart in 
 the unrestricted social intercourse which such proximity natur 
 ally begets between friends. 
 
 Mr. President, William P. Fessenden was an honest man; 
 and, sir, 
 
 . "An honest man s the noblest work of God." 
 
 He was the truest man to his convictions I have ever known. 
 He had that combination of qualities which alone can make a 
 great statesman a clear head and a pure heart coupled with a 
 firm will and a determined spirit. Moreover, I can bear testi 
 mony that he was a man of the finest sensibilities, the most 
 tender-hearted and affectionate of men. I speak of this be 
 cause I fear in some quarters he was not in this respect fully 
 understood. In the heat and fervor of current off-hand debate, 
 wherein I think he was without a rival in this chamber, his 
 keen, sharp, incisive style and earnest manner would some 
 times wound an opponent; but he bore malice toward none, 
 and I think if may be truthfully said of him, as he said of the 
 lamented Senator Foot, "Impulsive and ardent in tempera- 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 37 
 
 ment, he was generous and forgiving. If injury excited him 
 to anger, it was a generous anger which could hardly outlive 
 the occasion and perished of itself if left alone." 
 
 But I forbear. I rose only to speak of him as my friend. I 
 was on the far-off shores of the Pacific when the telegraph 
 brought to that distant point the account of Mr. Fessenden s 
 extreme illness. In common with other members of this body 
 then in California, I watched with intense anxiety the daily 
 bulletin from his home by the shores of the Atlantic; and if 
 ever there went up to Heaven from my heart of hearts an 
 earnest ejaculation, it was that God would spare his life. 
 
 But it was otherwise ordered. The bolt has fallen; and 
 while we sorrow for the loss of the patriot, statesman, and 
 friend, it becomes us to bow submissively to the will of Him 
 " who doeth all things well." Mr. President, there are others 
 here who have known Mr. Fessenden longer than I have, who 
 have shared with him for long years the duties and responsi 
 bilities of public life; others who respected him in his life, 
 enjoyed his friendship, and now lament his death. But no one 
 in this chamber I am sure will more deeply i eel the void cre 
 ated by his death, or miss his companionship more, than I. My 
 heart sinks within me at the thought that I shall no more hear 
 his kindly morning salutation, no more look into his classic 
 face, no more feel the warm pressure of his hand. All this is 
 gone, and gone forever; but I shall hold in perpetual and 
 grateful remembrance the pleasant memories of our friendly 
 relations on earth. It only remains for me to say, farewell, 
 kind friend, farewell. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. PATTERSON, OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 Mr. President: We have not rested to-day from the ordinary 
 routine of legislation to exhibit a simulated sorrow or to enact 
 an empty pageant at the grave of our fallen associate. The 
 Senate is oppressed with an abiding sense of its bereavement, 
 
38 REMARKS OF MR. PATTERSON ON 
 
 and with the painful thought that one of the wisest of its coun 
 cilors will never again return to participate in its delib 
 erations. 
 
 We all respected, and those who knew him intimately loved, 
 William Pitt Fessenden. He was sometimes tempted into 
 sharp controversies in the arena of debate, for his convictions 
 were profound, his emotional nature quick, and a sarcasm 
 sharper than a Damascus blade was ready at his command. 
 It is natural and pardonable that a trained master in the art of 
 advocacy and defense should enter the lists and fight valiantly 
 when either an old friend or a cherished measure is attacked. 
 
 " We have seen the intellectual race 
 Of giants stand like Titans face to face ; 
 Athos and Ida with a dashing sea 
 Of eloquence between, which flowed all free, 
 As the deep billows of the ^Egean roar 
 Betwixt the Hellenic and the Phrygian shore." 
 
 The wounds he inflicted were given without malice, though 
 they were sometimes deep and painful; but his antagonists 
 were noble, and their animosities are now all buried in 
 his grave. He was not a politician, but an incorruptible 
 statesman, and our bereavement is therefore a national 
 loss. 
 
 Baptized into the name of England s greatest minister, he 
 seems to have been dedicated from the cradle to public affairs. 
 He was born at Boscawen, New Hampshire, on the IGth of 
 October, 1806, within a few miles of the birth-place of Mr. 
 Webster, the life-long friend of his father. Once I heard Mr. 
 Fessenden speak modestly but gratefully of the kindly and fos 
 tering interest which the great statesman bestowed upon him 
 self as a child and during the opening years of his manhood. 
 In the same conversation he referred with regret to the vote 
 which he had felt compelled to give in the presidential conven 
 tion of 1852. Mr. Webster, when told that the friend who 
 had so early enjoyed his affectionate regards had opened 
 the balloting by casting the vote of Maine for General 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSEXDEN. 39 
 
 Scott rather than himself, after a painful pause, replied, refer 
 ring to the sentiments of his father, " Well, William Pitt Fes- 
 senden has come to his inheritance earlier than I anticipated." 
 This implied an act of ingratitude, and was carried by Mr. 
 Fessenden in sorrow, not in anger, to the grave, as his vote 
 had violated his personal feelings to express the will of his 
 State. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden had an exquisitely sensitive nature, which 
 vibrated to the slightest touch; and his affection, especially 
 his love of kindred and friends, was as deep and tender as a 
 woman s. The endearing terms of respect and love in which 
 he was wont to speak of his father in the closing years of his 
 life were touching and beautiful in the extreme ; and we who 
 were present shall never forget the moistened eye, the quiver 
 ing lip, and the stifled utterance with which he spoke of his 
 sons, living and dead, on the solitary occasion when he rose 
 here in his own defense against what he deemed an unjust im 
 putation of an undue exertion of influence in their behalf. 
 
 He had little taste, I apprehend, for general society. 
 Formal dinner-parties and the empty show and platitudes of 
 fashionable life he did not relish; but an evening among his 
 friends was a medicine to his public cares and a pleasure to 
 his heart which he gladly welcomed. He did not covet a wide 
 circle of intimates, but followed the precept of Polonius: 
 
 " The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel." 
 
 He was charitable and considerate toward his friends, and 
 never humiliated or cast off even the humblest by patronizing 
 or domineering. 
 
 I doubt not his social habits were modified somewhat by the 
 studious character of his early professional life and the precari 
 ous health of his later years. He had learned to husband the 
 time and strength which too many give to pleasure for the dis 
 charge of high and grave public trusts. 
 
 The remarkable intellectual gifts of this distinguished man 
 
40 REMARKS OF ME. PAT TEE SON ON 
 
 were an inheritance from both his parents, who were persons 
 of unusual mental vigor ; but they had been strengthened by 
 long and close application. I once expressed to him my sur 
 prise that he so rarely supported bis speeches by reference to 
 legal authorities. His reply was that he had been a close stu 
 dent for twenty years, while in the practice of law, and if his 
 matured opinions could not stand upon their own merits, they 
 Avere not worth supporting. 
 
 But his restless mental activity swept beyond the limits of 
 professional study into the fields of history and general litera 
 ture. With a fear bordering upon a morbid dread of pedantry, 
 he ordinarily concealed his literary attainments; but sometimes, 
 in the seclusion of his chamber, he would rehearse a poem with 
 such pathos and tender appreciation of its beauties as to sur 
 prise and entrance the privileged listener. Once upon such an 
 occasion, when asked why he did not oftener draw illustration 
 and ornament from the classic authors, he expressed a feeling 
 approaching contempt for the practice of interlarding forensic 
 efforts at measured intervals with borrowed scraps of poetry. 
 The solid masonry of argument is weakened by an attempt to 
 build into it the cunning workmanship of rhetoric, and orig 
 inal poverty of style can only be enriched by a mental diges 
 tion and appropriation of the best intellectual products of the 
 past. An ignoramus may ape the learning of an Erasmus, and 
 a clown wear the glittering robe of a Sophocles or Milton, but 
 the quick sense of unlettered men even will penetrate their dis 
 guises. Mr. Fessenden s honest hate of all such false pretenses 
 was so intense as to deprive him in a measure, 1 apprehend, of 
 his unquestioned rights as a scholar. 
 
 I leave the task of analyzing his mental constitution and 
 political career to others who knew him longer and will speak 
 more at length, but I cannot refrain from alluding to what 
 seemed to me a marked peculiarity of his mind. While there 
 was nothing petty or technical in its processes, while the grasp 
 of his intellect was large and comprehensive, his most striking 
 
"WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 characteristic was a marvelous power of analysis. He was an 
 accomplished logician, and would have excelled as a metaphy 
 sician. The nature and minutest relations of every question 
 seemed to come to him by an instantaneous intuition. How 
 often we have seen him blast some fine theory by a single word 
 as potent as the spear of Ithuriel ! 
 
 He had a habit of resolving every proposition into its ele 
 ments, and of testing them by the application of first prin 
 ciples ; and such was his command of his faculties that he 
 could enter upon and pursue these mental operations in the 
 whirling eddy of affairs and in the midst of the most boister 
 ous. debate. He had the rare faculty of withdrawing from the 
 outward and objective into the calm retreats of the reason, 
 where he would fabricate, in undisturbed seclusion, the close 
 argument which he would launch forth in an unlooked- 
 for discussion, all fresh and glowing from the burning forge 
 within. 
 
 A stranger might not detect his purpose, but one who knew 
 him well could prognosticate from his expressive face a coming 
 speech with the certainty of assurance. When up, he asked no 
 quarter and resorted to no arts to establish his cause ; never 
 substituted his personal authority for logic, but appealed 
 always to the reason and conscience of the Senate. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden s written efforts exhibited the same grasp of 
 thought and terseness of expression which we find in his spoken 
 addresses, though it is evident he had not the same facility in 
 composition which he possessed in oral speech. The memor 
 able report of the Joint Committee on Becoustruction, written by 
 him, will hereafter be second to no public document relating to 
 that most important period in the history of our national legis 
 lation. It presents the condition of affairs and the questions at 
 issue in a form so clear and compact, and enforces the duty of 
 Congress with arguments so apt and cogent, that it has since 
 had the force of a political creed to the dominant party on the 
 subject of reconstruction. In this, as in every public act with 
 
42 REMARKS OF ME. PATTERSON ON 
 
 which his name is connected, he favors the largest liberty which 
 the conditions of society will allow. His education, his reason, 
 his sympathies, and all the instincts of his noble nature re 
 belled against every form of human oppression. 
 
 He was sometimes conservative, where his political associates 
 demanded reformation, but it was only when convinced that 
 legislation would react against the purity and permanence of 
 the Tiepublic or to the detriment of his countrymen. His large 
 experience and great familiarity with the history of gov 
 ernments sometimes induced hesitation where others less in 
 structed by the experience of the past moved forward upon an 
 unobstructed path amazed and indignant at the scruples of the 
 statesman. Possibly the comprehensiveness of his views and 
 a habit of thoroughly and carefully considering subjects in all 
 their aspects dulled the " native hue of his resolution," and 
 measurably unfitted him to be a leader in revolutionary times. 
 He was never swept off his feet by the force of his indignation 
 against some solitary outrage; never concentrated his gaze 
 so intensely upon some single good as to lose sight of the gen 
 eral welfare of the country in its related interests as an en 
 tirety. 
 
 He seemed equally informed and equally interested in the 
 foreign and domestic affairs of the Government, in its social 
 and political polities, and in its questions of labor and of 
 capital. 
 
 In all the long and eventful period over which his public 
 life extended, though connected intimately with every great 
 measure which passed this body, his integrity and patriotism 
 were never questioned. Bitter and widespread as was the 
 disappointment which attended his vote upon the august trial 
 of the President of the United States, no Senator doubted 
 that William Pitt Fessendeu acted from a sense of duty in 
 view of the facts and the law as they presented themselves 
 to his apprehension. By what mental process he could reach 
 the conclusion he did was then, is now, a mystery to many 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 43 
 
 who had battled by his side in the long agony of the great 
 rebellion and who now cherish his memory with fraternal 
 love. But when we consider with what infinite pain his 
 sensitive and loving nature must have rolled the bitter 
 ness of that defeat upon his life-long supporters and 
 party friends, when we recall the calm and quiet natural 
 ness and self-poise with which he moved in and out before 
 us while intense excitement rolled around this Hall and 
 deep anathemas hung in the air above him, we must acknowl 
 edge that there was no self-seeking, no hollow ambition in 
 that act, but only invincible courage and the manliest 
 political virtue. I do not approve his vote, but am com 
 pelled to commend the spirit of self-renunciation with 
 which it was given. That was of the very essence of the 
 loftiest public morality. 
 
 One who knew him intimately as an associate upon this 
 floor, and himself an invalid in a foreign land, writes these 
 expressive words : 
 
 " He was the highest-toned man I ever knew ; the purest man I ever knew 
 in public life, and the ablest public man of my day." 
 
 It does not fall, sir, within the scope of my purpose to com 
 pare Mr. Fessenden with other Senators who have passed to 
 their great inheritance of fame from this arena of legislation. 
 Some have commanded more wealth and splendor of rhetoric ; 
 others have held the Senate in the spell of a more powerful 
 and fascinating eloquence; but none have given to the public 
 service more intelligence, a purer patriotism, or a loftier public 
 virtue. 
 
 Of the last hours of this distinguished man I know but 
 little. Beared and educated in a neighboring State, New 
 Hampshire claims only the honor of his birth. His public 
 labors and great fame are of the treasures of the whole 
 country; but with pride his native State enrolls his high 
 among the imperishable names which she has given to the 
 Republic and to mankind. 
 
44 REMARKS OF MR. DAVIS ON 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. DAVIS, OF KENTUCKY. 
 
 Mr. President: I first saw William Pitt Fessenden in the 
 summer of 1837. Mr. Webster had been invited by his 
 admirers of Kentucky to visit that State, and one of the 
 friends who accompanied him was the young Fessenden. The 
 great Senator presented him to our people as Iris protege, and 
 as a young man of ability who had already given high promise 
 of future distinction and usefulness to his country; and Mr. 
 Clay and his friends received him with all the consideration 
 and courtesy due to his rising merits and the generous indorse 
 ment of his illustrious friend and patron. The warm greeting 
 of the people of Kentucky and the witching hospitalities of 
 Ashland made a lasting impression upon Mr. Fessenden. 
 
 Mr. W T ebster had been previously made by him his political 
 leader and instructor, and from that visit he fully associated 
 Mr. Clay ; and he proved himself one of the ablest and most 
 faithful of their disciples, firmly held the respect and confi 
 dence of both to the end of their lives, and in his career fully 
 responded to the high estimate and hopes which they so early 
 formed of him. 
 
 I first met Mr. Fessenden in the House of Eepresentatives 
 at the December session of 1841, and there served with him 
 through the Twenty-seventh Congress. A community of polit 
 ical principles and policy, and of admiration and friendship for 
 Mr. Clay, brought Mr. Fessenden and myself into close and 
 frequent contact. We often interchanged views upon political 
 and miscellaneous subjects, and we formed and cherished 
 mutually sentiments of respect and friendship. He was not 
 only a young man of eminent ability and attainments, but he 
 was warm-hearted, frank, sincere, true, honorable, and emi 
 nently conscientious. His health was then good, and he was 
 always bright and genial ; sometimes he showed the lambent 
 play of passion and fire. He was an especial favorite of Mr. 
 Clay, and the Kentucky delegation of both Houses ; they were 
 
AVILLIAMI ITTPESSEKDEN. 45 
 
 proud that the distant Northeast had sent to Congress a friend 
 and follower of their great leader, himself of such rare merit. 
 That leader and all the members of those delegations but 
 three Underwood and Andrews and Davis were borne to 
 their graves before Fessenden. He held firmly the true and 
 high regard of those who went before and of those who 
 follow him. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden brought to the study of our Constitution and 
 system of government a vigorous and discriminatiug intellect, 
 an exalted conscientiousness and moral sense, a pure and 
 fervid patriotism, and great physical and moral courage ; 
 and he learned and comprehended and maintained their truth, 
 principles, and philosophy. He knew and realized that ours 
 was a government of written language, of provisions, of prac 
 tical principles, and not of abstract ideas ; that it was formed 
 by the States, and the people of the States delegating by a 
 written Constitution to a magistracy to be organized and 
 chosen for the United States some enumerated powers of gov 
 ernment, and retaining to themselves all others ; and that the 
 powers thus organized were divided into legislative, executive, 
 and judicial, and each class of them vested in a separate and 
 co-ordinate body of magistracy, intended and framed to be 
 checks upon each other, and each to guard and defend the 
 integrity of the Constitution and the liberties of the people 
 against the other departments and all assailants. He knew 
 that the powers of the Government could not be augmented 
 or altered or amended by arms or war or conquest, but only by 
 the authority and in the mode prescribed by the Constitution 
 itself; that all the powers of Government which the people 
 of the United States intended to imbody and to be exercised 
 by Government they had divided by the Constitution between 
 the Government of the United States and the several States; and 
 that political sovereignty did not appertain to either of those 
 governments, or to all of them, but to the people only. That 
 the powers of the Government conferred upon it by the Con- 
 
40 REMARKS OF MR. DAVIS ON 
 
 stitutiou, and the acts of Congress in conformity to it, were the 
 supreme law of the land ; but all other powers, authority, and 
 laws were of the reserved sovereignty of the people of the 
 several States. Mr. Fesseuden s reading of the Constitution 
 and political philosophy clearly taught him that the Govern 
 ment of the United States is built upon the States and their 
 governments partly, and their continuance is necessary to its 
 existence and operation ; that it might cease to act, be dis 
 solved, or abolished, and they remain completely organized 
 and administered. 
 
 After the insurrection had broken out in such grand and 
 threatening proportions, the absorbing object of Mr. Fcssenden 
 became to be its suppression and the holding of all the States 
 together, fas aut nefas, under the same Government. He was 
 sincerely and strongly attached to the Union of the States for 
 the great and common good which it brought to them all, but 
 its paramount importance to his own State and section made 
 that sentiment with him an intense passion. Their remote 
 position and natural poverty and weakness were such that a 
 disruption of the Union would have been to them one of the 
 greatest calamities j and he firmly resolved that if he could 
 prevent it, they should not be left out in the cold Northeast. 
 He therefore gave his earnest support to all the measures of 
 Mr. Lincoln s administration for the suppression of the rebellion. 
 His excited apprehensions were continually uttering to his soul 
 and sense the strong language of the day : "the life of the 
 nation has been assailed with tremendous forces, and by all 
 law it has every right of defense and self-preservation." Such 
 was the view which Mr. Fessenden took of this mighty na 
 tional throe. 
 
 But with him the war upon the part of the Government and 
 the adhering people of the United States was not and could 
 not become a war of subjugation, of conquest, or of the demo 
 lition of the States whose people had risen in rebellion, but was 
 war only to suppress insurgents and rebels and to uphold and 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 47 
 
 enforce the authority aud laws of the United States; and 
 when those ends were secured, guilty leaders and individuals 
 might be visited with personal punishment for violations of 
 la\v ; but the war could no longer be legitimately continued 
 for any purpose whatever. Mr. Fessenden. voted in the most 
 solemn form for these propositions : 
 
 " That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country 
 by the disxiuionists of the southern States now in revolt against the Con 
 stitution and Government, and in arms around the Capital ; that in 
 this national emergency Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion 
 or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; that the 
 war is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any 
 purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or inter 
 fering with the rights or established institutions) of those States, but to 
 defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve 
 the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States 
 unimpaired ; that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought 
 to cease." 
 
 These noble words breathe the very spirit of our constitu 
 tional form of government, and the deep, truthful, and earnest 
 spirit of Mr. Fessenden, at least, meant all they express. He 
 knew that the Government of the United States had no power 
 under any state of things to abolish a State or its government, 
 or to take any action upon the assumption or hypothesis of such 
 destruction. He understood clearly that it was the duty of the 
 United States Government to uphold, defend, and preserve the 
 States and their governments as parts of its own essential 
 machinery; and if his conservative, constitutional, and enlight 
 ened statesmanship could have prevailed, the storm of civil war 
 would have swept over the country, and as it passed away the 
 governments of the United States and every State would spon 
 taneously, by the vis vitce of our system, have resumed their 
 proper positions and relations; and peace, order, prosperity, and 
 liberty would soon have blessed again the whole land. 
 
 The statesmanship of Mr. Fessenden was more moderate and 
 virtuous, wiser and more patriotic, than that propounded by 
 the Mountain faction of Congress and the country, and which 
 his party slowly accepted. 
 
48 KEMAKKS OF ME. DAVIS ON 
 
 As the contest raged with varying fortune the passions of 
 the people became stirred to their profoundest depths. Men of 
 weak understandings, of violent and wild passions, of attractive 
 but mischievous theories, of selfish and sinister purposes, threw 
 themselves everywhere in the lead and called for the extremest 
 measures. The maddened people listened to them, accepted 
 their leadership, were fascinated by their diabolical counsels; 
 and after that people had put down the rebellion those archi 
 tects of revolution and ruin, still holding the country under their 
 spell, inaugurated their wild work. 
 
 The time had come for passion to give place to reason ; when 
 the voice of reason must be potential to save our constitutional 
 form of government. Mr. Fessenden, and other men entertain 
 ing similar views, vainly sought that hearing, even in the Senate 
 Chamber. The spirits of revolution and ruin here, at first few, 
 continued to grow in numbers and audacity as not only to silence 
 Mr. Fessendeii and his small band of associated conservative 
 Republicans, but ultimately to hitch them on to their triumphal 
 car and to drag them along in their destructive career, even to 
 support the overthrow of our Constitution and form of govern 
 ment by what is called the reconstruction acts of Congress. 
 Mr. Fessenden clearly .saw the abyss before him ; he was to 
 separate from and turn upon his party or take the fatal leap; 
 unfortunately for his own pure and enduring fame, and for his 
 country, he accepted the latter. 
 
 But Mr. Fessenden s conservatism and devotion to the Con 
 stitution led him into many struggles with the excesses of his 
 party and its more reckless leaders. No party man ever dis 
 sented oftener or more essentially from his party or rebuked 
 with more ireful but manly scorn its arrogant leaders who 
 abused its trust in the promotion of their own selfish purposes 
 to the detriment of the country. His separation from them on 
 the impeachment of the late President is a grand testimony in 
 support of his correct comprehension of the Constitution, of 
 his true statesmanship, of his stern sense of duty, his great 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 49 
 
 moral firmness, and his exalted patriotism. The muse of his 
 tory will write this chapter of his life in characters that will 
 never fade; it will be a more imperishable monument than 
 marble or brass, and upon it will be inscribed: "The ablest and 
 purest statesman of New England in his day and generation." 
 
 REMAEKS OF MR. VICKERS, OF MARYLAND. 
 
 Mr. President: I have listened with melancholy interest to 
 the recital of the prominent traits in the character and history 
 of a deceased Senator and to the eloquent eulogies that have 
 been pronounced upon him. Those who knew him best, had 
 served longer with him in public life, and enjoyed more inti 
 mately his social communion, can more fully appreciate his pub 
 lic character and intellectual and moral worth. My acquaint 
 ance with him was recent and limited, and my opportunities 
 less, of forming a correct estimate of his ability and merits; 
 but his long and eminent career in the public service and his 
 conceded talents made a favorable impression upon my mind 
 long before my induction into public life. After my admis 
 sion into this body I marked his course and listened to him in 
 debate with more than ordinary attention. To me he appeared 
 in some sense the Nestor of the Senate. His grave and 
 thoughtful brow and dignified mien produced sentiments of 
 veneration, while his words made a deep impression. More 
 than once I privately appealed to him to speak more audibly, 
 for on my side of the Chamber we desired to distinctly hear 
 and understand him. He told me that his habit was acquired 
 in the old Senate Chamber, where any one could be heard 
 without difficulty. 
 
 I consider it no disparagement to Senators to say that he 
 was one of the most accomplished and logical debaters among 
 us. He was also, what is more rare, a good listener, and did 
 
50 REMARKS OF MR. VICKERS ON 
 
 not often occupy the floor. It was only upon occasions of im 
 portance that be rose to a discussion, and when he finished the 
 debate frequently was virtually ended ; the strong points were 
 seized and analyzed, and when they had passed through the 
 crucible of his understanding the pure metal was easily dis 
 cerned. Although I differed with him on some subjects of 
 national moment, yet when I considered his education, section, 
 habits, and associations, I could not doubt his sincerity or his 
 patriotism. The materials which a life in the nation s service 
 had enabled him to collect he had an aptness and facility in 
 using which gave him great advantage in discussion. His 
 efforts had the appearance of fluency and ease, while his com 
 mand of appropriate expressions impressed the minds of his 
 hearers with his great ability. His style was not ornate or dif 
 fuse, but he possessed the power of concentration and force, as 
 well as of classical taste, that outweighed the metaphorical 
 and beautiful. If true eloquence consists in great will, great 
 courage, great intellect, and the power that controls the judg 
 ment, then he was an orator of the first class; or if to be 
 worth much, speech must begin like a river and flow and 
 widen and deepen until the end. he possessed that attribute 
 also. On some occasions, being warmed by the subject and 
 circumstances, he spoke with an animation and cogency which 
 exhibited his higher powers of argumentative eloquence, 
 though ordinarily Homer s description of the oratory of 
 Ulysses might be partially applied: 
 
 "But when be speaks what elocution flows, 
 Soft as the fleeces of descending snows." 
 
 It may be said of him what was once remarked of a dis 
 tinguished French orator, that he said just what he meant to 
 say, and like an expert navigator he steered his words and 
 his ideas through the shoals which beset him on every side, 
 not only without going to wreck, but without ever running 
 aground. In a word, he was an experienced and wise states- 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 man, an eloquent and methodical debater, with powers of rea 
 soning rarely equaled or excelled. 
 
 On a momentous and memorable occasion he uttered senti 
 ments which, like jewels of brilliancy and value, will be treas 
 ured by the virtuous and the patriotic, and were worthy of 
 the Fathers of the Republic. He said: 
 
 "A desire to be consistent would not excuse a violation of my oath 
 to do impartial justice. lu the words of Lord Eldeu, I take no notice of 
 what is passing out of doors, because I am supposed constitutionally 
 not to he acquainted with it; and I should consider myself undeserving 
 the confidence of that just and intelligent people who imposed upon 
 me this great responsibility, and unworthy of a place among honorable 
 men, if for any fear of public reprobation and for the sake of securing 
 popular favor I should disregard the convictions of my judgment and my 
 conscience." 
 
 These declarations were worthy of a Roman senator in the 
 palmiest days of the Republic; they are eminently worthy 
 of an American Senator and jurist, and indicate the sterling 
 worth and purity of the man. No prouder monument need be 
 erected to his fame. His firmness and decision under the try 
 ing circumstances reminded me of the reply of the noble Duke 
 of Somerset to James II of England, who had told him that 
 he was above the law and would make him fear him: "Your 
 Majesty may be above the law, but I am not, and while I obey 
 the law I fear nothing." 
 
 But he has left us. When I last saw him he was in apparent 
 health, and filled his place and performed his duties with his 
 accustomed fidelity. A few short months brought us the tele 
 graphic information that he was sick, ill, dead! Upon my 
 mind it fell like an electric shock, and I could scarcely realize 
 its sadness and solemnity. The Bible informs us that some 
 "shall die like men and fall like one of the princes." He has 
 verified it, for a great man has fallen, and William Pitt Fes- 
 senden sleeps with his fathers; but his usefulness and reputa 
 tion survive, and the historian will pay an exalted tribute to 
 his memory. Let us be admonished, Senators, that we, too, are 
 frail and mortal and may soon be called to pay the same debt 
 
52 REMARKS OF MR. HAMLTN ON 
 
 of our common nature: that we owe high duties to the state, 
 those of charity and forbearance to each other, and a responsi 
 bility to the great Euler of the Universe for the faithful dis 
 charge of every public and private duty. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. HAMLIN, OF MAINE. 
 
 Mr. President: The truthful and appropriate words which 
 have been spoken by Senators in honor and memory of my 
 deceased colleague have left but little to be added. So full 
 and generous have been their expressions of his distil) guished 
 ability, his services in the councils of the nation, and his high 
 moral worth, that necessity would seem to require no word 
 from me ; but duty and inclination impel me to pay a brief but 
 sincere tribute to his memory and his worth. That he has 
 been thus appreciated by the Senators with whom he served is 
 gratifying to the people of the State he represented, which 
 State he so highly honored, as it had honored him, and doubly 
 gratifying will it be to his family, relatives, and friends who 
 shared most intimately his confidence and friendship, and who 
 most deeply feel and mourn his loss. 
 
 My estimate of my late colleague has been formed by long- 
 years of association with him. I was a student at law in his 
 office, and practiced with him for a time in the same courts. 
 We served together as members of the Legislature of our 
 State, and for many years were together Senators here. The 
 purity of his life challenges and commands our admiration and 
 furnishes an example for all to imitate. 
 
 He was alike eminent in his profession of law and in the 
 Senate, standing in the foremost ranks of each. I do not deem 
 it necessary or even appropriate to attempt a reference in detail, 
 after so much has been said by Senators as to his varied ability 
 or specific public acts; it could be but a repetition, The im 
 press of his mind is indelibly stamped upon the laws and policy 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 of the country. As a parliamentary debater he was without a 
 superior, and in one regard without a peer. 
 
 He lived and acted at the most important period of our 
 country s history, when the events of a century were com 
 pressed into a single year and requiring minds of no ordinary 
 character to deal with and give them direction. It was a time, 
 too, that taught us all more clearly that the duties and 
 victories of civil life are as comprehensive and important as 
 those of arms, and that the distinguished statesman who aids 
 in wisely directing the councils of the nation, should at least 
 be held in as cherished remembrance as he who successfully 
 commands our armies in the field in time of war. Their 
 several duties and responsibilities are unlike, but equally im 
 portant. Indeed, whatever may be the public estimate, in my 
 judgment the eminent statesmen, prominent in legislation, who 
 give form and shape to the laws that govern, and who impress 
 their genius and ability upon them, occupy a position as import 
 ant may I not say of higher importance than he who exe 
 cutes or gives them construction. Such I believe is the 
 position which a dispassionate public judgment, such the posi 
 tion that the historian will assign my late distinguished 
 colleague, who in the inscrutable providence of God has been 
 summoned from this earth, and whose manly form now reposes 
 with the drapery of the grave around it. 
 
 Mr. President, there are events connected with the Senate 
 which the solemnities of the occasion seem to impress upon me 
 with peculiar force, and to which I may appropriately refer. I 
 run my eye over the Senate Chamber to-day, and of all the men 
 which constituted the body upon my entrance into it as a mem 
 ber but a single one but a single one now remains with me. 
 That one is my honored friend, the Senator from Pennsylvania 
 who sits nearest to me, [Mr. Cameron;] and it is no slight com 
 pensation for the annoyance incident to public life to know that 
 intimate and most friendly relations which were then formed in 
 all changes and antagonisms of public life have never for one 
 
54 ADOPTION OF THE RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 moment been disturbed. Could we have been transferred from 
 that time to the present, from the Senate as it then was to the 
 Senate as it now is, how startling would be the change! We 
 would find ourselves in association with those who would be 
 strangers to us. It teaches a moral that all may heed. 
 
 During the period of time referred to, the Seriate has certainly 
 been graced by many of the most eminent and distinguished 
 American Senators. Clay with his clarion voice and fervid 
 eloquence ; Calhoun with his captivating manner and subtle 
 metaphysics; Webster with his words of masterly power; 
 Bcnton with his comprehensive knowledge of the legislation of 
 the country, and an indomitable will ; Douglas with an earnest 
 ness and courage to meet and if possible to overcome all obsta 
 cles in his way ; and Collamer with his plausibility to persuade 
 and his learning and his logic to convince; and Cassand Clay- 
 ton, are certainly some of the Senators whose names stand 
 highest upon the roll of senatorial fame. Their names, and 
 others that might be designated, will be remembered while the 
 Eepublic or its history shall exist ; and to this list is now to be 
 added the name of Fessenden, my late colleague. There it will 
 remain imperishable as one of the great American Senators. 
 
 ADOPTION OF THE RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 The resolutions which had been submitted by Mr. MORRILL, 
 of Maine, were unanimously agreed to. 
 
 On motion of Mr. HAMLIN, of Maine, as a further mark of 
 respect to the memory of the deceased, the Senate adjourned. 
 
PROCEEDINGS 
 
 MR. GEORGE C. GORHAM, the Secretary of the Senate, 
 appeared at the bar and said : I am directed to communicate 
 to the House of Representatives information of the death of 
 Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, late a Senator in Congress from 
 the State of Maine, with the proceedings of the Senate thereon. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The proceedings of the Senate will be read. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 December, 14, 1869. 
 
 Eesohed, That the Senate receive with deep regret the announcement of 
 the death of WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN, late a member of this body. 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the Senate will manifest their respect for 
 the memory of the deceased by wearing the usual badge of mourning. 
 
 llcsohed, That these proceedings be communicated to the House of Eep- 
 resentatives. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. LYNCH, OF MAINE. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: The message just received from the Senate 
 announces that another of the distinguished statesmen of the 
 country has passed away ; and although the sad event occurred 
 many months since, and has been heralded to the country by 
 the pulpit and the press, it is eminently proper that in these 
 halls, where he has exerted such a controlling influence, and at 
 this time when on assembling together we miss his presence 
 from our councils and begin to realize the nation s loss, we 
 should pause from our labors, and, consecrating a day to his 
 memory, pay a tribute to his virtues. 
 
56 REMAKES OF MR. LYNCH ON 
 
 For myself, sir, I have never so fully recognized the loss sus 
 tained by our country, my State and my own immediate con 
 stituents, as since I returned to my labors here ; for although he 
 was my neighbor and my friend, yet it was during the sessions 
 of Congress that I was most closely and intimately connected 
 with him. Indeed, since his election to the Senate, it was in 
 discharge of his public duties here that most of his active life 
 was spent. 
 
 At home he lived quite retired, passing most of his time with 
 his family and in his garden and library, mingling but little 
 with society and avoiding all excitement. His close application 
 to his duties here during the sessions of Congress, which were 
 never interrupted except by sickness while he Avas a member of 
 the Senate, made such draughts on his naturally feeble constitu 
 tion as to render it necessary for him to recuperate mentally 
 and physically during the recess. 
 
 A slight departure from his usual course in this regard 
 probably induced the attack which terminated his life. His 
 sickness lasted but a few days, during which time the hopes 
 and fears of his friends alternated, until the morning of Sep 
 tember 7, when he began gradually to sink away. 
 
 " His sufferings ended with the day, 
 
 Yet lived he at its close, 
 And breathed the long, long night away 
 In statue-like repose ! 
 
 " But when the sun in all his state 
 
 Illumed the eastern skies, 
 He passed through glory s morning gate 
 And walked in Paradise." 
 
 He died in Portland at his home, which he loved so well, 
 and surrounded by his family and friends, who were so dear to 
 him, at twenty minutes past six o clock on the morning of 
 September 8. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden, though born in the State of New Hamp 
 shire, (October 16, 1806,) was from his earliest childhood a 
 resident of Maine. In that State he received his early train- 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 57 
 
 ing and Ms collegiate education, and it was in the public 
 service of that State that he acquired reputation as an able 
 statesman. 
 
 Admitted to the bar before he had attained his majority, he 
 rose rapidly in his profession, and at the time of his with 
 drawal from it into political life had no superior at the bar 
 in Maine, and very few in the country. Candid, straightfor 
 ward, and direct, clear in his statements and logical in his 
 arguments, he had great influence with court and jury ; and it 
 was these qualities which, brought into exercise in the forum 
 of the Senate, gave him such commanding influence in that 
 body. 
 
 He loved his profession, and left it reluctantly for the 
 more exciting and arduous duties of political life. Iden 
 tified with the Whig party, which, being in a minority 
 in the State and nation, felt the necessity for putting 
 forth its ablest champions, he found it difficult to resist 
 the demands made upon him by his political friends; 
 and in 1831 he was elected one of the representatives 
 from the city of Portland to the Legislature of Maine; 
 and although the youngest member, he soon rose to dis 
 tinction in that body and in the State. 
 
 It was during this period that the United States Bank ques 
 tion was agitating Congress and the country, and resolutions 
 were introduced into the Legislature instructing the Senators 
 in Congress from Maine to vote against re-chartering that 
 institution. Mr. Fessenden made a speech against the resolu 
 tions, which is remarkable not only for that peculiar power 
 which distinguished his subsequent efforts, but more remark 
 able still as embodying his views of the duties and responsibil 
 ities of a Senator of the United States, and as laying down 
 those opinions and principles which governed his own action in 
 that high position. Some passages of this speech so strikingly 
 illustrate his character, and shed so much light upon his 
 course as a public man, that I cannot forbear quoting them 
 
58 REMARKS OF MR. LYNCH ON 
 
 here. Speaking of the proposition to instruct Senators in 
 Congress by State Legislatures, he said : 
 
 " They have much better opportunities to give the question full, fair, and 
 thorough examination than we can possibly possess. They, too, are acting 
 under the sanction of an oath, and they have, therefore, stronger induce 
 ments to give this matter, as they are to pass upon it, such an investigation 
 as it deserves. 
 
 " Sir, I have no doubt that our Senators in Congress entertain these views. 
 I should hesitate to believe that, in the discharge of their high and import 
 ant trust, they would, on questions of great importance to our whole 
 country, yield up their honest convictions and violate their oaths, simply to 
 comply with the directions of any set of men whatever. I am free to con 
 fess, sir, that I would not thus act. On questions of mere local interests, 
 interests connected with themselves alone, my constituents hav.c a right to 
 instruct me, and I am bound to obey their instructions. 
 
 " But, sir, on questions of general interest I have a higher obligation ; I 
 am bound to examine and judge for myself, to form my own opinions, and to 
 act upon them, and them only, on a question of this kind. Sir, did I know 
 that the opinions of every one of my constituents differed from my own, if 
 I acted at all, I would act according to my own honest convictions of right, 
 were it directly in their teeth. Those whom I represent, sir, would despise 
 me if I acted otherwise. No, sir ; I might in such a case resign my office, 
 but I would never violate the dictates of my own conscience. I am willing 
 to be the servant of the people, but I never will be their slave." 
 
 How clearly and distinctly these words foreshadow the last 
 prominent act of his public life. 
 
 If his constituents Avere disappointed in his vote on the 
 impeachment trial, they were at least fairly warned of the 
 principles which would govern the man whom they chose to 
 represent them. Differing with him in his vote on this, ques 
 tion, believing then as I still believe he reached wrong conclu 
 sions, I cannot too strongly express my admiration of the high 
 motives by which he was governed. And, sir, whatever differ 
 ence of opinion may exist in regard to the duty of Eepresenta- 
 tives of States or districts to obey the expressed will of their 
 constituents, all who appreciate true manhood must admire 
 the character of him who in youth avowed these manly princi 
 ples, and consistently and courageously lived up to them 
 against whatever temptation to the day of his death. 
 
 The same high tone is characteristic of the man who in early 
 life spoke these brave words ; and this character of perfect integ- 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 59 
 
 rity and conscientiousness impressed itself upon all with whom 
 Mr. Fessenden came in contact. His speeches were never sensa 
 tional; clothed in plain, simple language, they were severe in 
 their logic, apt and pointed in their application, and wonderfully 
 effective in their influence. He seemed to follow the maxim of 
 Solomon, that " it is an honor for a man to cease from strife, 
 but every fool will be meddling ;" for he never dissipated his 
 power in angry wrangling, or in stump speeches on current 
 topics, but reserved his strength for emergencies when it was 
 required; and however sudden and important the occasion, he 
 was always found ready and fully armed. Making no preten 
 sions to oratorial powers, and seldom speaking to popular 
 assemblies, yet few could command closer attention, or at times 
 rouse an audience to a higher pitch of enthusiasm. 
 
 He never spoke unless he had something to say, and never 
 electioneered for the votes of his constituents by talking bun 
 combe from the floor in Congress, or writing it for newspaper 
 publication. The small arts of the demagogue he disdained to 
 use. He never flattered the people to obtain their votes. 
 
 " He \voulcl not flatter Neptune for his trident, 
 Or Jove, for his power to thunder." 
 
 He had great influence in the body of which he was a mem 
 ber; which is proof that he was really a great man, for none 
 other could acquire and retain the influence which he exerted 
 over such a body of men as compose the Senate of the United 
 States. 
 
 This influence was largely due to the confidence which his 
 high character inspired in those with whom he was associated. 
 Every one felt that whether Mr. Fesseuden was right or not, he 
 believed himself to be so, and could give a reason for the faith 
 that was in him in a plain, simple, quiet way, that commanded 
 respect, if it did not produce conviction. He did not seek to 
 persuade and argue people into his way of thinking. He only 
 stated his convictions and the reasons for them, leaving those 
 he addressed to decide for themselves on the issues presented. 
 
(JO KEMAKKS OF MR. LYNCH ON 
 
 He had great order, not only in all business matters, but in 
 his mental processes. Whether in his library at home, or in 
 his committee-room or private apartments here, this same order 
 was observed. There were no piles of books and manuscripts, 
 no confusion of papers, but all the surroundings were clear, 
 clean, and orderly as the mind that presided over them. He 
 kept himself unencumbered of all waste material, weeding out 
 and rejecting everything superfluous, and retaining only the 
 useful. Before making a speech he thought out and thoroughly 
 analyzed his subject until his mind had reached a distinct con 
 clusion by logical and correct methods, and then stated in the 
 simplest language what that conclusion was, and how he had 
 himself arrived at it. His construction of a speech was like 
 the building of Solomon s temple ; you heard neither the sound 
 of the hammer nor saw the debris of the workmen, but every 
 stone was taken from the quarry ready fitted to its place, and 
 the building rose silently and rapidly from foundation to cap 
 stone. He was a man of exceedingly sound judgment, exam 
 ined everything brought to his attention critically before he 
 decided upon it, and never signed any paper without carefully 
 reading its contents, and when he did not fully agree to its 
 statements, qualifying his approval. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden first took his seat in the Senate of the United 
 States in 1854, when the agitation of the slavery question had 
 nearly reached its culmination. He immediately took a promi 
 nent part in the senatorial discussion on this subject, resisting 
 manfully the aggressions of the slave power, and repelled with 
 spirit the insolence of its advocates, teaching them that they 
 were engaged in a conflict in which there were " blows to take 
 as well as blows to give." It was in these discussions that Mr. 
 Fessenden s talents as a ready and forcible debater were most 
 conspicuously displayed ; and with all his reputation for con 
 servatism, an examination of his record will show that in 
 the great contest in which slavery was destroyed, while 
 freedom had fiercer and more violent champions, it had 
 
W.ILJ,IAM PITTFESSENDEN. 
 
 none steadier, truer, or more reliable than William Pitt 
 Fessenden. 
 
 After a thorough examination of his congressional record, I 
 cannot find where, from the beginning to the end of this con 
 flict, from the abrogation of the Missouri compromise to the 
 last act of reconstruction, he ever yielded one essential point in 
 favor of slavery. He was not a reformer, not a man to attack 
 existing evils in the state ; but rather inclined to suffer from 
 them while endurable than to disturb the existing forms by 
 which they were protected. But he resisted all new conces 
 sions to slavery, and when he saw that the safety of the nation 
 demanded its destruction he aimed to do the w r ork thoroughly 
 and effectively. 
 
 In the debate on the admission of the Senators from Arkansas 
 in June, 1864, he stated the foundation principles which guided 
 the policy adopted for reconstructing the rebel States. This 
 not only illustrates his habits of reflection on questions of pub 
 lic importance long before they arise, but a comparison of this 
 speech with the report of the Committee on reconstruction 
 will show a remarkable similarity of thought and purpose, and 
 that report has been essentially the basis of this great work 
 the most difficult and important ever committed to a legislative 
 body which is now happily near its completion. 
 
 Without according to the common judgment, popular sym 
 pathies, and therefore not what would be called a popular man 
 with the people, he was nevertheless six times elected to the 
 Legislature of Maine; once in 1840 elected to this House 
 from a district in which his party was in a minority ; and was 
 three times elected to the Senate of the United States in 1854, 
 1855, and 1859 by the unanimous vote of his party in the 
 State Legislature, attesting the high appreciation by the people 
 of his State of his pre-eminent abilities as a statesman and of 
 his sterling qualities as a man. 
 
 As chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate he took 
 a leading part in shaping the legislation that provided the 
 
EEMAEKS OF MR. LYNCH ON 
 
 "sinews of Avar" during the rebellion, and although his natural 
 conservatism, often led him to hesitate to adopt some of the 
 financial measures which the emergency required, his doubts 
 always yielded to the necessities of the case, and he maintained 
 from the first the right of the Government to adopt any measures 
 however arbitrary to preserve its existence. At a most criti 
 cal period of the war, July 6, 18G4, after having performed the 
 arduous duties of his position in the Senate for nearly eight 
 months, worn down with fatigue and suffering from physical 
 exhaustion, he was called by President Lincoln to the Cabinet 
 as Secretary of the Treasury. And as he expressed himself in 
 a letter to a friend at that time: "At whatever risk of health 
 or reputation, I am compelled to accept. I dare not take the 
 responsibility of declining at such a crisis." 
 
 Making no pretensions as a financier, and having no particu 
 lar policy or theories on the subject of finance, he had what in 
 such a crisis was vastly better than either a character to 
 inspire that confidence which is the soul of credit, and an abid 
 ing faith in the ability and determination of the American peo 
 ple to sustain their Government. With an apparent stagna 
 tion in military movements, the people, heart-sick with "hope 
 deferred," an army to be recruited, maintained, and paid ; with 
 demands pressing for payment on an empty Treasury, few men 
 ever assumed weightier responsibilities, and none ever met such 
 more manfully, or discharged them more honestly and success 
 fully. He immediately put himself in communication with the 
 capitalists of the country by calling a meeting of bankers at 
 New York, stated to them in a straightforward, business-like 
 manner the financial condition and needs of the Government, 
 his desire to gather opinions from all sources, and listen to 
 advice from any who might offer it. 
 
 Although this meeting tended to strengthen the confidence 
 of capitalists in the new Secretary and to improve the national 
 credit, as was seen in the immediate decline in gold, it failed to 
 X>rovide the needed funds. His next step was to issue an appeal 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSEN DEN. 
 
 to the people of the United States, reminding them that it was 
 their war ; that they had proclaimed it and carried it on thus 
 far; that if they now contributed their money to continue it, 
 the end was not far distant, as the rebels were nearly exhausted. 
 If they kept their money for speculations and gold gambling 
 they might make larger immediate incomes for the time, but 
 they would lose that without which no investments would have 
 any value the prosperity of our institutions and the safety of 
 the nation. The response to the appeal was electric. Money, 
 which had been locked up, came forth into the market, and the 
 wheels of trade began to move again. The press of the country 
 seconded the efforts of the Secretary with its powerful influence, 
 and the $200,000,000 authorized by law were speedily poured 
 into the Treasury. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden s idea was that the cause could not be gained 
 unless the people were determined to gain it, and an appeal to 
 their purses would be -the shortest road to ascertain the true 
 extent of their energies and determination. At the beginning 
 of his administration of the Treasury in July, 1864. gold was 
 270 to 280. When in March, 1865, he left it to resume his seat 
 in the Senate, it had fallen to 198, and the national credit was 
 correspondingly improved. I know it is said that financial suc 
 cess during the war depended upon military success, but is it 
 not equally true that military success depended upon financial 
 success 1 ? 
 
 At the period I have referred to the former followed the 
 latter. I have dwelt at some length upon this brief period in 
 the public life of Mr. Fesseuden, because I have always felt 
 that the services he so quietly and unostentatiously rendered the 
 country at this critical juncture had never been duly appre 
 ciated, and also because it illustrates particularly his most 
 valuable traits of character : his comprehensive statesmanship, 
 his unselfish patriotism, the readiness and availability of his 
 powers in a case of emergency, and his firm, abiding faith in 
 the patriotism of the American people. Holding positions in 
 
G4 
 
 REMARKS OF MR. LYNCH ON 
 
 the Government which afforded him great opportunities to 
 enrich himself, he was never suspected of prostituting them 
 to that purpose. With abilities that would have brought him 
 large wealth in his profession, he gave his time to the service 
 of his country, and left that service as poor as he entered it. 
 
 I regret to feel that such virtue in a public man calls for 
 special commendation. The worst enemy of Mr. Fessenden 
 never dared question his scrupulous integrity. He was indeed 
 God s noblest work, an honest man. He appeared to regard 
 with supreme indifference criticisms on his public acts, seldom 
 betraying any emotions or taking any pains to correct public 
 opinion when he was assailed or his motives misjudged; yet 
 he was not unmindful of the approbation of his fellow-men, 
 but was governed by the conviction that it could best be per 
 manently secured by deserving it. 
 
 To say that Mr. Fessenden had no faults would be to claim 
 for him exemption from the frailties of humanity; but his faults 
 were not of the meaner, but of the nobler kind, 
 
 " And ev n his failings leaned to virtue s side." 
 
 In manner he was cold, reserved, and somewhat aristocratic, 
 communing little with his fellow-men. His private life was 
 retired and unostentatious. He had but few intimate friends, 
 and shrank almost instinctively from that general acquaintance 
 and notoriety in which persons differently constituted find 
 delight; but for those who did enjoy his confidence and esteem, 
 his friendship, though not demonstrative, was strong and en 
 during ; and by such he was admired and beloved, and it was 
 difficult for them to understand how he could be regarded as 
 cold and selfish. They saw in the cold exterior and somewhat 
 proud reserve a manly independence and a contempt of mean 
 ingless or hypocritical professions, and beneath it a generous 
 nature and a warm heart. 
 
 Such, sir, is the man whose life and services we this day com 
 memorate and whose loss we mourn. The nation has few such 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 to spare from its councils. May we emulate Ms virtues, and 
 so live and serve our country that when we depart we may 
 deserve from it the plaudit which is to-day so heartily bestowed 
 on our departed friend, " Well done, good and faithful servant." 
 Mr. Speaker, I now offer the following resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That this House has heard with deep sensibility the announce 
 ment of the death of Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, a Senator in Congress 
 from the State of Maine. 
 
 Resolved, That as a testimony of respect for the memory of the deceased 
 the members and officers of this House will wear the usual badge of mourn 
 ing for thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That the proceedings of this House in relation to the death of 
 Hon. William Pitt Fessenden be communicated to his family by the Clerk. 
 
 Resolved, That as a further mark of respect for the memory of the de 
 ceased this House do now adjourn. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. PETERS, OF MAINE. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : I rise to second the resolutions. I cannot let 
 the occasion pass without adding a few words to the record in 
 memory of a man for whom I entertained so much respect and 
 admiration as I did for the late Senator from Maine. But little 
 can be added to what has been said, in the public press and 
 public addresses, of the history and character of the statesman 
 whose death the people of his own State and the country at 
 large at this time so sorrowfully mourn. 
 
 William Pitt Fessenden had a reputation for ability varying 
 but little with classes of men, or in periods of time, and it has 
 been by someone truly remarked that the characteristics ex 
 hibited in his congressional life were conspicuously displayed 
 by him at the early age of seventeen. In his earliest profes 
 sional and political career he took a place in the front rank of 
 eminent public men and easily held it to the end. 
 
 In his earlier life, and for a long period of time, the practice 
 of the law was his delightful avocation. He had a natural 
 
G6 REMARKS OF MR. PETERS ON 
 
 legal mind. He would have excelled in all respects as a 
 judge, and I have reason to believe that for many years 
 he entertained an opinion that it would have satisfied his 
 tastes and inclination to have occupied a place on the 
 bench. 
 
 Until the formation of the present Republican party of 
 the country having his associations with the Whig party as 
 a compeer of George Evans, of Maine, and an admirer and 
 close friend of Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, although 
 highly esteemed by his Democratic opponents, he found them 
 almost always too strong an opposing organization to allow 
 him to obtain any considerable political place. Portland, 
 however, sent him as her local representative to the State 
 Legislature, and in the great upheaving of politics in 1840 
 he was elected for a term as a Representative in the Congress 
 of the United States. Unfortunately for the old and respect 
 able Whig party, its muniments consisted more in idols than 
 in success ; and while Mr. Fessendeu was for many times 
 and many years its candidate for United States Senator, it 
 was not until the Democratic party in Maine had become 
 overthrown upon the issues growing out of slavery that he 
 reached that eminent elevation. In this legislative foruin 
 he secured for himself a proud and enviable fame. To say 
 nothing of the powers of his mind as impressed upon other 
 legislation, his report as chairman of the Joint Special Com 
 mittee on Reconstruction will be an enduring monument to 
 his memory. Its clear statements, fairness of proposition, 
 and sound reasoning swayed the public mind at a critical mo 
 ment in the affairs of our country when we could not see our 
 way clearly through the perplexing questions which beset us. 
 I recollect well its powerful effect upon the minds of those 
 in my section of the country who were inclined to look upon 
 our prospects and situation with dissatisfaction. It was unan 
 swerable. His eloquent friend, Hon. James S. Pike, thus 
 well characterizes it: 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 
 " Mr. Fessenden s report on reconstruction stands as the ablest political 
 document drawn during the war, and if it does not exhibit initiative, it 
 displays what is better, namely, a clear comprehension of a wholly novel 
 political situation, a masterly interpretation of its phenomena, and a lucid 
 exposition of the true method of treatment of a vast and perplexing national 
 disorder." 
 
 Although Mr. Fessenden in some quarters has been called 
 cool and conservative in meeting the issues of peace succeeding 
 war, I have abundant reason to believe that at that time he 
 would have gone beyond the recommendations of his report, 
 and in the direction we have since taken, but for the counsels 
 of men esteemed more radical than he that the moment for it 
 had not arrived. 
 
 As an advocate or debater Mr, Fessenden s qualities could 
 hardly be surpassed. He had clearness, directness, and 
 earnestness, impelled by great mental force. His mind 
 worked with the smoothness of machinery, without friction 
 or chafe ; his perceptions were clear and exact, and so clearly 
 did he see the truth or falsehood of almost every proposition, 
 that he may have been impatient at times with the workings of 
 other minds which moved with less rapidity and thoroughness 
 than his own. It was said of an eminent British orator that 
 his intellect was all feeling and his feeling all intellect. I 
 have often thought of Mr. Fessenden that his feeling was but 
 intellect, for when his mind was enkindled to a blaze in the 
 cause he advocated, all the qualities of his head and heart 
 seemed to conspire to furnish the intellectual and magnetic 
 force commanded by him. His style was simple and unstudied, 
 but marked by fine taste. He disliked all attempt at display, 
 and had no ear and but little toleration for a person whom the 
 great dramatic poet describes as " drawing out the thread of 
 his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument;" quick, 
 though cool and cautious, and in purpose independent and 
 bold. No man gained an advantage of him by personal 
 assault ; he would strike upon the weak point of his adversary 
 with unerring aim and resistless force. 
 
(J3 REMARKS OF MR. PETERS ON 
 
 One of the crowning traits of his character was sterling 
 integrity. His actions and motives were clear, transparent; 
 his conduct was not based upon a formulary of morals such as 
 in practice would satisfy the requisitions of society and obtain 
 the approval of the world, but an absolute and profound love 
 of truth was born in him, to which, through a long life, in all 
 public and private relations, he most rigidly adhered without 
 feeling even a temptation for departure from it. His intellect, 
 as well as heart, was honest. He had the unbounded respect 
 of all the courts within the jurisdiction of which he was known. 
 An ex-chief justice of Maine once told me that Mr. Fessendeu 
 submitted a case at law to the court and argued it with great 
 force ; afterward, upon reflection, he became doubtful of the 
 value of the proposition he had maintained, and was unwilling 
 that he should be considered as abiding by it, and so called up 
 the case to qualify the views he had submitted ; notwithstand 
 ing which, and all his frankness, the court decided the case 
 upon the objectionable point in his favor. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I shall never forget his internal struggles upon 
 the question of impeachment. I saw the deep emotion he felt 
 while his friends were urging, if not demanding, his vote for 
 the conviction of Andrew Johnson. I knew his deep consci 
 entiousness on the subject, and you and I very well knew that 
 wherever the tendencies of his mind and his deliberate con 
 victions carried him, there, without regard to consequences, 
 would he stand forever. It was to him the trying scene of a 
 lifetime. No man in Maine, to my knowledge or belief, ever 
 deliberately offered to cast any imputation of dishonesty upon 
 his proud name and record for that vote. That it to some 
 extent created an alienation of feeling and sentiment toward 
 him cannot be denied. What would have been the result of 
 such alienation upon the question of his re-election as a 
 Senator a year hence was with him a point of the deepest 
 interest. His soul seemed agitated to know whether for the 
 performance of an act, however distasteful to his friends, but 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. (JQ 
 
 dictated by his conscience, lie should stand or fall in the 
 estimation of his noble and beloved constituents. 
 He was in a position, as the poet hath it, to 
 
 " Know how sublime a thing it is 
 To suffer and be strong." 
 
 His nature made him a match for any adversity. And here 
 let me say, I have several times since his death noticed in the 
 newspapers a statement that in the earlier stages of the con 
 troversy Mr. Fessenden favored the idea of prosecuting an 
 impeachment. Such an assertion is not just to his memory, 
 for I know that at all times and under all circumstances he 
 was strongly opposed to it upon all the grounds of a wise 
 expediency. He has always contended that his action as a 
 Senator upon that memorable occasion would redound to the 
 future honor and prosperity of the Republican party. 
 
 What would have been the personal future of our great and 
 beloved Senator had he lived, it is useless now to attempt to 
 predict. In the very prime of his usefulness to his State and 
 nation he has been taken from us. Maine has lost a son who 
 was always to her an idol, and the country has been deprived 
 of one of her most illustrious and gifted men. That intelli 
 gent and beaming face, the gentle and modest form, always so 
 erect and undaunted in any forum, the winning conversation, 
 the charm of simple manners, the magnetic personal presence, 
 and the friendly encouragements which so won for him the 
 affection of his friends and associates, will be familiar to us no 
 more. It becomes hard for me to say of such a man, Farewell! 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. BROOKS, OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The more we advance along the pathway of life the more 
 deeply do we feel occasions of this sort when we are obliged to 
 take part in them, for death comes nearer to us, and the shafts 
 which hit others will soon hit us. 
 
70 REMARKS OP MR. BROOKS ON 
 
 I first came here into the House of Representatives some 
 twenty years ago. On looking about me now, I find that there 
 are but four of us left in public life, three of whom are now on 
 the floor of this House. One is the honorable gentleman from 
 Ohio, [Mr. Schenck,] the chairman of the Committee of Ways 
 and Means; another is the chairman of the Committee on 
 Commerce, [Mr. Dixon,] and another the chairman of the Com 
 mittee on the Public Lands, [Mr. Julian.] Death has struck 
 down all, or nearly all who were then in the House of Eepre 
 sentatives ; and they who have not been stricken down, have 
 been more or less removed from public life, and are now hardly 
 known to this day or generation. 
 
 Hence do I now feel the more deeply the death of one who 
 was not only a contemporary and companion in public life, but 
 also a companion in my own early life. Mr. Fessenden was my 
 friend, associate, room-mate, and bed-fellow in my early boy 
 hood. I grew up with him in the town of Lewiston, then a 
 comparatively small and unknown village in Maine, on the 
 Androscoggin River, on the frontier of civilization, but now a 
 large and populous manufacturing town. He was the teacher 
 of the village school there, while I was a boy in a country 
 store, acting as clerk in the establishment. He, I think, was 
 sixteen or seventeen years of age, a student then in Bowdoiii 
 college, Maine, and sent forth to teach in the then small village 
 of Lewiston, where there were but very few inhabitants, and 
 those struggling with the forest and the field, and but little 
 given to literature. 
 
 He was some few years older than I, but we were almost the 
 only persons in that village at that time who had a love for 
 books and who were devoted to literary pursuits. Hence our 
 companionship was constant. 
 
 No place is more fitted for the education of a young man for 
 public life, or for private life, than the position of teacher of a 
 country school. Accustomed there to govern others, a man 
 soon learns to govern himself, and thus prepare himself for that 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEtf. 
 
 public life in which more important even than the government 
 of others, is the government of himself. 
 
 We studied many books together, some of them not now 
 very well known, such as Bigland s History of the World, 
 Rollin s Ancient History, then Russell s Modern Europe, or Plu 
 tarch s Lives; and we read through and through the village 
 library, which was deemed magnificent, with its forty or fifty 
 volumes. 
 
 We afterward came into competition for public life, though 
 belonging to the same political party. He became a lawyer in 
 Portland, Maine, and I returned there to act as editor of the 
 Portland Advertiser. As young men we were rivals for the 
 public favor, and more or less constantly came into competi 
 tion for that public favor. I represented the town of Portland 
 in the Legislature of Maine some years before he did, although 
 younger than he was, and I was a candidate for Congress in 
 that district which he afterwards represented in the House of 
 Representatives, though it was largely democratic, by some 
 fifteen hundred or two thousand majority. 
 
 In the rivalry for public life, in that contest of youthful 
 ambition, we maintained our social relations with each other ; 
 and in the end our ambition was amply gratified ; if not there, 
 elsewhere, in all the honors to which we aspired in our early 
 youth. 
 
 I have mentioned these facts in connection with myself, 
 though they may seem somewhat personal, in order to excuse 
 the deep feeling which I am showing while now paying a 
 tribute to the friend and companion of my youthful days and 
 my associate afterward in public life. 
 
 We met again in this Capitol ; he, in the other branch of the 
 Government, and I, in this ; and though we had been associated 
 in political feeling and political principles for many years from 
 our boyhood up, we were when we thus met in public life 
 called upon to part company politically. The father of Mr. 
 Fessenden was an earnest Federalist. He was a distinguished 
 
72 REMARKS OF MR. BROOKS ON ( 
 
 lawyer of the State of Maine, well known throughout !N~ew 
 England, and occupying the highest position at the bar. His 
 father, with his powerful intellect, gradually educated his 
 rising son in the principles of the Federal party, in which he 
 himself had been trained and in which he had felt such a 
 lively interest. When great questions arose here relating to 
 the construction of the Constitution and the administration of 
 the Government, Mr. Fessenden naturally acted upon the prin 
 ciples in which he had been educated, while I followed those 
 which I had imbibed. I cherished profound regard for the 
 clear rights of the States, while he gave a higher respect 
 to the consolidated powers of the Federal Government. 
 
 When Mr. Fessenden first entered the House of Bepresenta- 
 tives as a member, as well as when he took a seat in the 
 Senate of the United States, there were great and mighty men 
 upon the floor of both Houses of Congress. There were in the 
 House such men as MeDuffie, Sergeant, Binney, John Quincy 
 Adams, Wise, Gushing, Peyton, Stanley, Evans, and Fillmore. 
 In the Senate there were, or recently had been, such men as 
 Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Clayton, Cass, Frelinghuysen, Wright, 
 Eives, and Leigh. Whoever met and struggled with those men 
 in debate, or in any contest whatever, must have been equal to 
 the occasion or he could not have attained the exalted position 
 which Mr. Fessenden won in both Houses of Congress. 
 
 When this House impeached the late President of the United 
 States, I never had a doubt in my own mind what course Mr. 
 Fessendeu would pursue. Many of my colleagues here will 
 remember that on repeated occasions I said to them, "There 
 can be no earthly doubt as to the vote of Mr. Fessenden." I 
 knew his devotion to principle as a lawyer ; I knew that he 
 would look at the question, not as a politician, not as a states 
 man, not as a public man, but as a lawyer and a jurist, and I 
 never doubted what his decision as a judge would be. And, 
 sir, his vote upon that question is an act of which his party 
 ought to forgive him ; for, in my judgment, the failure of im- 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 73 
 
 peachment saved his party from defeat and destruction. As a 
 mere party man I always desired the success of the impeach 
 ment project, though as a public man I shrank with horror 
 from the fatal precedent. If impeachment had been success 
 ful, and the then incoming President had been called on to dis 
 tribute the patronage and power of this Government, who 
 could have foreseen the amount of disappointment and bad 
 feeling among the members of the party now in power that 
 would have been the result of that distribution of patronage 
 prior to a presidential election? And if impeachment had 
 been successful the action of the Democratic party in its 
 nominations would have been different. With all our devo 
 tion to intellect, with all the love of the Democratic party 
 for its first and foremost men, it would have been neces 
 sary and wise for us under such circumstances to select 
 some John Doe or Eichard Roe who might have won a 
 success which the distinguished presidential nominee of our 
 party failed to secure. Hence, I say that, in my judgment, 
 Mr. Fessenden rendered high service to his party by voting 
 no" as a judge, and by thus relieving them from the embar 
 rassing position in which they had been placed by the House. 
 Mr. Fessenden s beau ideal of a Senator was well illustrated 
 by the honorable gentleman from the Portland district, Maine, 
 in the extract he read from a speech he made. His unflinch 
 ing devotion to duty, his love of independence, his fearless 
 ness, his determination to do his duty no matter what be 
 came of himself personally without regard to anything that 
 might affect him, we have all seen in his action on this im 
 peachment case. AVe have also seen that the independence 
 which he manifested there amid trial and temptation, he mani 
 fested throughout his entire life. 
 
 My honorable friend from Portland, Maine, in the course of 
 his beautiful eulogy, took occasion to say that Mr. Fessenden 
 was not eloquent. In that I differ from him entirely. Elo 
 quence, sir, is not mere words. Eloquence is not the pompous 
 
 10 
 
74 REMAKES OF MR. DAWES ON 
 
 parade of speech. Eloquence is not emphasis, ejaculation, ges 
 ticulation, or intonation. The orator is not he who can roll off 
 periods on sesquipedalian words, or emblazon feeble thought 
 in brilliant rhetoric ; but it is he whose mind most powerfully 
 grasps ideas, and with unerring logic, pours them forth in fitting 
 words to the public ear. He who can do that is really an elo 
 quent man; and in that respect, sir, no man was more eloquent 
 than Mr. Fessenden. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the great characteristic of Mr. Fessenden was 
 his individuality, his fearless individuality. He went with his 
 party when he thought it was right, and nothing on earth 
 could induce him to go with his party when he thought it was 
 wrong. No screws of party, no pressure of caucus, no outcry 
 of the public press, no thundering denunciations of the mob, 
 ever affected his conscience or moved him in the least from 
 what he believed his duty to his country ; and I commend that 
 independence, that individuality, to all the public men of this 
 day, for it is in that alone they may hope to secure abiding fame 
 as public men. We, who are here to-day in mere party strug 
 gles, will pass away and soon be forgotten if that is all we leave 
 behind. Let us therefore endeavor to leave such honest 
 records behind us as those of Mr. Fesseuden, who has be 
 queathed a name to posterity, as well as to his children, which 
 shines as bright as the stars in heaven. 
 
 REMAKES OF MR. DAWES, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : The biography of Mr. Fessenden has been 
 spoken in fitting terms, and nothing can be added to the elo 
 quent words of tribute to his talents and worth which have al 
 ready fallen from other lips. And yet I would like very briefly 
 to give utterance to the feelings of personal as well as public 
 loss with which his death has burdened me. I cannot forget 
 on this occasion that he gave me his hand at the door upon my 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 75 
 
 entrance into public life, and that his welcome ripened into a 
 personal friendship, which, however widely we sometimes dif 
 fered, nevertheless suffered no abatement while he lived. And 
 upon his bier to-day I lay the offering of a stricken friend. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden came to the public service first in this House 
 for a single term 5 many years before I met him here, then a 
 young man of growing fame and toward whose future the ex 
 pectations of his friends turned with pride and confidence. It 
 was as early as 1841, while the great statesmen of the past gen 
 eration were still holding imperious sway in these halls and 
 were at the zenith of their fame and influence. He came among 
 them, however, with a mind so well disciplined by early study 
 and professional training as well as public service in his own 
 State as to be able at once to take the foremost rank as a de 
 bater even upon that arena, and to make room for himself 
 where the strongest stood. He left the House of Representa 
 tives at the end of a single term to return to the chosen pro 
 fession of his life, with a reputation established for clearness of 
 perception, accuracy of statement, and power of argument 
 hardly equalled even then by any of his compeers. The next 
 ten years of his life, devoted to his profession with signal suc 
 cess at the bar of his native State, taking rank and leadership 
 among those who had rendered that bar illustrious, was never 
 theless a constant, though, perhaps, unconscious preparation 
 for that greater work to which he seemed called on his return 
 to the Senate in 1853, and in which, with the exception of the 
 few months he was Secretary of the Treasury, was spent the 
 remainder of his strength and life. 
 
 His senatorial career covered the most eventful period in the 
 history of the nation. About him and before his eyes began 
 and were matured those plots for the dismemberment of the 
 Republic which eventually drenched the land in blood. Trea 
 son reared its head in the Senate Chamber, and stalked out of 
 the open door with the torch of war in its hand. Firm hands 
 and stout hearts and clear heads alone could stay up against 
 
76 REMARKS 0!" MR. DA WES ON 
 
 the assaults of traitors the tottering government. And among 
 all upon whose part in that great life struggle we look back 
 from the calm and peace of this day, no hands were firmer, no 
 heart was stouter, and no head was clearer than his. 
 
 There was no mind in its organism or its culture like his, so 
 completely made for antagonism and argument, and trained, 
 like the athlete for his work, to constant conflict and wrestling. 
 For this reason he seemed to so stand alone among his peers 
 that the sphere in which he worked was left to him, few ven 
 turing to dispute his supremacy in it. To this peculiarity of 
 mental structure and discipline is attributable much of that 
 occasion for criticism to which his course not imfrequently gave 
 rise. In debate he so hated sophistry that nothing could re 
 strain him from rending it in pieces, no matter whom he 
 wounded. Subterfuge and pretense in argument were dealt 
 with by him as downright dishonesty and fraud. And some 
 times, thinking he saw these phantoms flitting across the field 
 of debate, he would charge indiscriminately upon friend and 
 foe, leaving grievous wounds that were long in healing; and 
 yet self-possession, clearness of mental vision, directness and 
 aptitude of expression, in short, perfect command of thought 
 and language in the most animated debate, were marked char 
 acteristics of his mind. In current debate he had but few if 
 any equals. He wielded a Damascus blade that never was 
 broken and seldom parried. With the coolness and delibera 
 tion of a surgeon with his dissecting knife, he laid bare every 
 argument that fell in his way, and never left his subject so long 
 as a muscle remained uncloven or a limb unjointed. 
 
 He had power, also, to touch the tenderest chord and stir 
 the deepest fountain by his eloquence if fitting occasion re 
 quired it. Once in debate, all unpremeditated, he was forced 
 to speak of his own personal sacrifices in the war, and his 
 allusion to one son who had fallen and to another who had 
 lost a limb in battle moistened every eye in the Senate Cham 
 ber. And when the late Executive, by an insane attempt at 
 
WILLIAM PITT FES SEN DEN. 
 
 forcible ejectment from office, crowned his long and bitter hos 
 tility to that great Minister of War who had organized victory 
 out of defeat, and wrested national salvation from the very 
 jaws of national dissolution, the defense of Mr. Stanton pro 
 nounced by Mr. Fessenden, without preparation, at midnight 
 upon the floor of the Senate, will live forever. 
 
 Not less conspicuous than the great ability with which he 
 grappled those mighty questions born of the war, which 
 divided and shook the nation, were the painstaking and fidel 
 ity which he brought to the discharge of every official duty, 
 however minute or apparently unimportant. In the dull and 
 painful drudgery as w^ell as in the attractive and exciting or 
 the grave and responsible duties of the statesman, he was 
 equally patient and faithful, performing what each day fell to 
 his lot as if it were his specialty. 
 
 To all his work he brought an official and personal integ 
 rity that never for a moment encountered a suspicion or a 
 whisper. He trod the devious and doubtful ways of oppor 
 tunity and temptation with unsoiled feet, and moved amid 
 corruption and scandal with raiment untarnished. When 
 recently his convictions of public duty caused him to sepa 
 rate so widely from political associates and personal friends 
 that permanent alienation seemed inevitable, the universal 
 tribute to personal integrity which was heard above the 
 tempest stilled at last the waves of public indignation, and 
 plucked reconciliation from the unrelenting lips of denuncia 
 tion itself. 
 
 At his decease Mr. Fessenden was chairman of the Com 
 mittee on Appropriations in the Senate, and it was in the dis 
 charge of his official duties as such that I last met him. My 
 intercourse with him in that capacity has profoundly impressed 
 me with the loss the nation has sustained in his death. His 
 great familiarity with every detail of his multiplied work, his 
 scrupulous care, and, over and pervading all, his fearless in 
 tegrity, were qualities it is not easy to supply. 
 
78 REMARKS OF MR. HALE ON 
 
 I have not spoken of any great public measure with which 
 the name of Mr. Fessenden is identified. In the grand rebuild 
 ing of the national structure upon the ashes of the rebellion 
 he worked faithfully and wisely. But if he originated less, he 
 fashioned more. Measures which others introduced lost none 
 of their inherent value under his molding and polishing hand; 
 and no blot or blemish, no flaw or failure, can be traced to his 
 folly. 
 
 Of the great statesmen who have finished their work and 
 departed, Mr. Fessenden will stand alone in history. The 
 proud niche his name and fame will fill was made by and for 
 himself, and no one can reach or occupy it with him. Such 
 was the structure of his mind "and such his habits of thought 
 and work that he could not always co-operate with others. 
 That liberty of independent thought and action which he 
 always asserted permits us in this hour to put on record our 
 differences with him and our sorrow for their consequences. 
 But as "it is the angles of the diamond which give it its 
 beauty and its brilliancy," so these differences will not impair 
 a just estimate of the life and character of a great statesman 
 except it be in the mind of him, the dead unbroken level of 
 whose pathway has never led him to experience the agony 
 of a doubt or the luxurv of a conviction." 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. HALE, OF MAINE. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I speak as a young man who admired and re 
 vered William Pitt Fessenden. Twelve years ago, when I cast 
 my first vote, he was an honored Senator from the State of 
 Maine. In that State his life had been passed, and his educa 
 tion and experience had been such as to eminently fit him for 
 the high place which he then filled. 
 
 He was a graduate of our oldest college, had chosen the 
 profession of law, been admitted to practice at an early age, 
 
WILLIAM PITT FESS EN DEN. 79 
 
 and for many years bad given to it his best talent, wbicb bad 
 carried him to the head of the profession in bis State. 
 
 His professional life was always marked by the highest 
 sense of honor, by a keen sympathy for the poor or oppressed 
 suitor, and by a plainly-shown impatience at that public 
 clamor which now and then usurps the place of public justice, 
 and demands a victim without much heed as to the question 
 of guilt or innocence. His single term in this House, and his 
 longer service in our State Legislature, had prevented his mind 
 from running in a purely legal channel, and he stood, by 
 natural ability and varied training, the peer of his fellows in 
 the United States Senate. 
 
 Since that time his public life has been open to the view of 
 all, and in common with, I suppose, a large majority of men 
 who have watched it, I have learned the lesson of respect for 
 its excellence. Within the last few years I have enjoyed the 
 privilege of his close acquaintance and friendship, and can 
 bear earnest testimony to the kindness of heart and gracious- 
 ness of manner which made him, to those who knew him best, 
 the good friend and fascinating companion. I hope to carry 
 through my life a green memory of the good counsel and help 
 that he always generously gave me. Of his career as a public 
 man it is not fitting that I should attempt to speak. It was 
 open to inspection from its beginning to its close, and, like the 
 broad river which gains new volume with every affluent, it 
 increased in its force with each year until at last it ended in 
 that vast sea whither all human life flows. Others who have 
 been intimately associated with him in the important legis 
 lation of the last fifteen years, and who can more clearly point 
 out the guiding and restraining influence of his mind upon 
 that legislation, have spoken in language of full appreciation. 
 
 But I cannot fail to render my tribute of admiration for the 
 inflexible spirit of independence that he always displayed in 
 maintaining what he believed to be right, refusing to be 
 swayed by popular outcry or the fear of party displeasure. 
 
80 REMARKS OF MR. HALE ON 
 
 And this, joined with the absence of any overweening desire 
 to enforce views simply as his own views, thus preventing him 
 from becoming an " impracticable " in politics, made him what 
 seems to me as the nearly complete pattern of an American 
 legislator. His steadfastness in adhering to a given course 
 when both wind and tide were against him, was shown most 
 conspicuously in the impeachment trial. But I have studied 
 his life before that event closely enough to see that any one 
 well knowing him need not take that instance into the account in 
 concluding that Mr. Fessenden would not be turned from the 
 way he believed to be the right way by fear of immediate un 
 popularity. No tempest of voices ever dictated to him who 
 should be released to the people and who should be crucified. 
 But he who believes that this firmness came from a defiant and 
 unsympathetic spirit is, I think, wholly wrong. Mr. Fessen 
 den understood fully, and talked freely with his friends of the 
 burdens and restraints imposed by a political life, and he 
 always strove so to bear himself that no reproach of neglected 
 duty could be laid at his door, and that his acts and his 
 motives should not be cheapened by the inducements that 
 beset the politician. He has portrayed all this in his eulogy 
 upon the Honorable Solomon Foot, a Senator from Vermont, 
 who died in I860, and whom he respected and loved. 
 From his place in the Senate Chamber he then said : 
 
 " When, Mr. President, a man, however eminent in other pursuits, and 
 whatever claims he may have to public confidence, becomes a member of 
 this body, he has much to learn and much to endure. Little does he know 
 of what he will have to encounter. He may be well read in public affairs, 
 but he is unaware of the difficulties which must attend and embarrass every 
 effort to render what he may know available and useful. He may be up 
 right in purpose and strong in the belief of his own integrity, but he cannot 
 even dream of the ordeal to which he cannot fail to be exposed ; of how 
 much courage he must possess to resist the temptations which daily beset 
 him ; of that sensitive shrinking from undeserved censure which he must 
 learn to control ; of the ever-recurring contest between a natural desire for 
 public approbation and a sense of public duty ; of the load of injustice he 
 must be content to bear even from those who should be his friends; the 
 imputations on his motives; the sneers and sarcasms of ignorance and 
 malice; all the manifold injuries which partisan or private malignity, dis- 
 
WILLIAM PIT TFESSENDEN. 1 
 
 appointed of its object, may shower upon his unprotected head. All this, if 
 he would retain his integrity, he must learn to bear unmoved, and walk 
 steadily onward in the path of public duty, sustained only by the reflection 
 that time may do him justice; or, if not, that his individual hopes and 
 aspirations, and even his name among men, should be of little account to 
 him when weighed in the balance against the welfare of a people of whose 
 destiny he is a constituted guardian and defender." 
 
 As I read these words the form of the dead statesman rises 
 before me ; I behold him in his place in the Senate Chamber, 
 presenting the matured result of his thought and investiga 
 tion, or casting his vote uninfluenced by any consideration 
 whether he was for the time in the majority or minority; or 
 again I listen to his voice when, besieged by importunate 
 supplicants for political influence or political place, his stern 
 rebuke broke down the brazen front of the man who sought to 
 put his own advancement higher than the good of the public 
 service ; and when I interpret this loftiness by the light of the 
 words that he uttered at the grave of the friend whom he loved, 
 I know that he was not just because his nature was cold, and 
 that he did not hate demagogues because he had no sympathy 
 with the people, but that his ideal of the Senator was so high, 
 and he so loyally strove to reach it, that his course carried him 
 over all the pain and heartsickuess which he often felt when the 
 people murmured and friends grew estranged. 
 
 But he went in quest of no popularity that had to be bought 
 by time-serving, and never kept himself before the people by 
 eccentric courses and dangerous experiments in legislation. It 
 was not of such as he that Dryden wrote 
 
 " A daring pilot in extremity ; 
 
 Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high 
 He sought the storm, but for a calm unfit 
 Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit." 
 
 He had no such ambition for leadership that for its sake he 
 would bring the Eepublic nigh to final shipwreck. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, our own State mourns an honored son and the 
 nation has lost a tried and faithful public servant. Those who 
 have for years taken part in our national Government will miss 
 
 11 
 
82 HEM AUKS OF Mil. HALE. 
 
 the leader who was yet the comrade in this, that he took upon 
 himself his full share of the burden and work of the day. 
 
 But to the young men who are just entering public life the 
 deprivation is even greater. That life with its temptations and 
 seduceinents is all before us. There are tricks and shams and 
 intimidations that are set as pitfalls in our paths. With much 
 that is noble and inspiring about us, there are manifold incli 
 nations to sloth, to fickleness, and it may be to corruption. 
 Who can tell whether he has not already set his feet in the way 
 that leads down to moral death ? We need the tones of that 
 voice which never directed the coward s retreat, the splendid 
 calm of that clear face that kept its serenity when the battle 
 around him was at its thickest ; we need the actual sight of 
 and association with him and all such as he was, who by exam 
 ple and precept elevate our aims, establish our character, and 
 make us truly public servants for the public good. And for 
 him who, connected with public affairs, seeks to build up an 
 honorable reputation, what better course can be given than to 
 emulate the steadfastness, the sobriety, the justice of William 
 Pitt Fessenden ? 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 
 
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