The Portland daily press., 1865-01-13


The Senatorial question has been happily
disposed Of and we have no farther occasion
to say more upon that subject. 1t is just
ground of mutual graduation that the friends
of the candidates, in the zeal which they dis
played to secure their ends, carried into the
discussion so little of Objectionable personai-
tiles, and seemed so generally disposed 10
sneak of both candidates in terms worthy OF
the distinguished gentlemen whose names
have been brought SO prominently before the
people of Maine.
But for an unintentional act of injustice-at
least we so regard and treat it--done to Mr..
Fessenden in the Belfast Age, we would stop
here; but with no purpose to provoke sim
gle word of unpleasant reply, and no desire to
cast censure upon any one. we make the fol-
lowing quotation, for the purpose of saying
word in justice to one of our nations noblest,
truest, and most honorable men. The Age
says:
But it is said that Mr.. Fessenden only ac-
copied the Office temporarily, and that he has
constantly been expecting to 60 Immediately
back to the Senate. We should be very sorry
to believe this to be true; we cannot believe
that he could have been willing to do such
injustice to himself, and the country. He
could have but known that ia holding place
of such vital Importance under such tenure,
he would have been unable to do credit to him.
SELF or service to the country.
y ~ - ~
The idea that we have really no permanent
Minister of Finance, that one man shall take
tne treasury Department and run it for few
months, his eye all the time fixed on something
else, and then leave some one else to run
1t awhile till he can find some place that would
suit hin better, is certainly unique. Mr.. Fes
sender when the position was offered him
had his option to accept or refuse. He knew
its difficulties and responsibilities. He either
should never have accepted it, or he should,
in justice to himself and to the people, have
accepted it with the determination to do his
best, and remain in the Office as long as he
could be of service to the country in that ca
pacity.
Here is reflection upon Mr.. Fessenden be-
cause he did not in accepting the portfolio of
the Treasury, resolve to stay there, but con-
sidered his occupancy of that position tempo
rary; only "for few months" Can the Age
inform us how Mr.. Fessenden or any other
man could have taken different view of the
matter? How could he look beyond the 4th
of March next, when the Presidential term
VIII close by Limitation, and with it the term
every member of the Cabinet? When Mr..
Fessenden accepted the keys of the Treasury,
Mr.. Lincoln himself was not reelected. No
living man knew who was to be President af-
ter the 4th OF March; and what right had any
cabinet Minister to act upon any other pre-
sumption than that he would then give place
to another?
And after Mr.. Lincoln aods reelected, Mr..
Fessenden had no means of knowing that his
services in the Treasury wonld be required in
the second term. We are not aware that the
slightest hint was ever conveyed to mis- mind
that he could remain in the cabinet even
should such retention be the leading desile
of his heart What right, then, we repeat, had
he or has he now, to contemplate running
the Treasury Department longer than "a few
months?' How, as a modest gentleman,
could he for moment act upon any other pre-
sumption than that, after the 4th of March, he
would be at full liberty-should his friends
desire ito resume his old place in the Sen
ates and was there any sin in an honorable
ambition to do soP ~ g i
Says the Age, "Mr. Fessenden, when the
position was offered him, had his option to
accept or refuse" In one sense this is true !;
in another it is not only untrue, but cruelty
false. Legally he was at liberty to refuse
when the position was offered him; morally
and periodically he could not refuse; there
was necessity laid upon him that he could
not, in fidelity to the nation, escape.
We know whereof we speak, for on this
point we have Mr.. Fessenden's own personal
statement, made when he had no possible mo-
tive for Misrepresentation, were he not as he
is, morally incapable of such an act. Mr..
Chase had suddenly resigned. 1t was a criti-
cal momentum our financial affairs. Gov. Tod
was offered the place, and, fortunately for the
nation, it is generally believed, declined Mr..
Fessenden was the next man selected. Before
he knew a word OF what was going on !; with
out an intimation of the Presidents purpose,
his name was sent into the Senate while he
was not in his seat, and without the usual ref
erence to a committee, the Senate went into
Executive session. and in less than ten min
utes the confirmation was unanimously made
Mr.. Fessenden was Chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, presumed to be as well
posted in relation to our national finances, as
any man in the country. His impulse was per-
emptoriy to decline, but his friends gathered
about him, Senators and Representatives ap-
pealed to him, business men from all parts OF
the country flooded him with dispatches, COM
mittees waited upon him, all urging him, in
the name of an imperrilled national credit, not
to act rashly, but to accept the trust. 1t was
urged that for him to decline, no matter for
what personal reason, the act would be in
terprete unfavorably for the national faith
1t would esaid that man wel-iniormed of
the condition of the national treasury, and
whose position had givenhim the best means
of information, looked upon the whole thing
as involved in hopeless confusion and bank
rup!cy, and his declining would serve to pre-,
cipitate financial crisis which every body
was anxious to avert For these reasons Mr.
Fessenden felt compelled to sacrifice all per-
sonal choice, and to yield to necessity that
ne mad no moral right to decline; and for this
. sne natlon owes him debt of gratitude which
Sle5 nave not been slow TO acknowledge.
"ne. ne LOOK the Treasury portfolio he did
not feel that his physical energies were ad.
equate to the burdens Imposed nnona tbea,n I
and he feared that he would not ho able 70 I
bear up longer than would suffice to enable
the President to look around and secnre .
proper person to succeed him one in whom
the business men Of the nation could confide
Hence he assured the President that his early
withdrawal long before the Presidential term
would expire, must not be regarded as a dis
courtesy. But he never looked beyond the
4th OF March, to seat in the Cabinet, not on
ly because his tastes do not lead him in that
direction, not only because he does not re.
0ord HE hoalfh an,,al a..