The Portland daily press., 1867-03-11
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Monday Morning, March IL, 1867.
William Pitt Fessendeu.

ly extended country. He is statesman con-
fessedly of the first rank, and has no superior
in the assembly of great men who make up
the highest deliberatiye, body known to our
laws. Indeed, there are many respects in
which Mr.. FEssENDEN is without peer in
the body of which he is so distinguished a
member, for among men of all parties, and in
all parts of the country, he is confessedIy the
best debater on the floor of the Senate, and
has that rare power of combining readiness,
earnestness and GOODNESS in such degree that
he is never taken by surprise, never thrown
Off his guard, never loses strength or weakens
his cause by losing his temper and betraying
excitement and passion. ...5
Mr.. FEssENDEN from the start identified
himself with the Republican party, and found
in Tits avowed antagonism to everything
like slavery propagandism-the very element
in which his instincts found themselves i'm the
most perfect harmony with the reasonable ex-
pectations of his political associates. He has
from first to last been found live ON all great
questions of the day, and in no case has he
disregarded the pleadings of oppressed and
down-trodden humanity.
MIR. FEssENDEN is eminently practical
man, and hence, no doubt, hisi selection for
the position he has so long and so ably filled,
that of chairman of the Finance Committee
ofthe Senate really The most important Com
mittee of that body, and position which
has ever placed him in close and intimate re-
lations with the Treasury Department When
Mr.. Chase returned the keys of the Treasury
to Mr.. Lincoln, at a most critical time in the
history of the country-critical because so
much depended upon the confidence reposed
in the financial strength of the government.
and this could so easily be impaired-Mr.
FEssENDEN's name was sent into the Senate
by the President to fill the vacancy, and in
his absence, without the usual reference to a
committee and in aspace Of time not exceed
ing i've minutes, the nomination was unani-
meusy confirmed. Mr.. F. objected, and was
on the point peremptorily Of declining because
the onerous duties it would impose upon him,
and which at that time could not well be dele
gated to subordinate hands, were too great to
be thought OF in the delicate state of his never
robust constitution, but delegates came 10
Washington from commercial boards and dis
patches poured In upon him, all insisting that
duty should outweigh personal convenien .e.
and that, to keep up the public confidence
he must not refuse to accept the position to
which he had been thus Unexpectedly called.
1t was under such circumstances that he yery
relunctantly consented to vacate his seat in
the Senate and enter the Treasury Depart
ment,-a position which he filed with honor to
himself and satisfaction to the country till the
close of Mr.. Lincoln's first term, and which
would have been continued in the new cast of
the cabinet had he not positively refused to
serve in position which imposed labors abso-
lutely too arduOus to be borne in the critical
condition of his physical health. The legisla-
ture of his State had, meantime, with mark
ed unanimity, elected him for another term of
six yeaIs to the Senate, which Office he is
now so ably serving out.
Since the close of armed rebellion in the
South, MIR. FEssENDEN has challenged the re.
spect and admiration of loyal men by the firm.
steady, persistent manner in which he has
met the great questions growing out of the
political situation of the country and the
calm, significant, square-edged and yet always
dignified manner in which he has never fai i
ed to rebuke Executive encroach1nents upon
the rightful prerogatives of the legislative
branch OF the government, and the unmistak-
able determination he has always evinced to
secure to the loyal people fthe land the le-
gitilnate results OF the conquest of rebellion
which made so severe draft upon their blood
and material substance. sr.
1t was no doubt his cool, clear head and his
answering, courageous heart that indicated
his fitness above his felow-Senators for the
new and peculiarly delicate position to which
he was assigned,-the Craftsmanship of the
Joint Committee on Reconstruction-a com
mittee to which all matters touching this mo-
mentous question were referred and by which
they were fully considered before being
brought up for action in either House.
On all the important questions that have
come before Congress Mr.. FEssENDEN has
acted with the majority and yet no man who
knows him will believe for moment that, in
SO acting, he has sacrificed particle of his in
dependence to the behests of party. He is
not the man to do so; rather he is one of the
men who give tone and direction to his party
a man to lead rather than to follow after
Hefs man of Independent thought, who
seldom adopts the views of others except as,
by force of their logical correctness, they be-
come part and parcel of his own convictions,
while, being free from arrogance and Sc elfcon
ceit he never rejects an opinion or measure
because it does not happen to be the offspring
ofhis own mind. On questions of vital i'm
portance to the loyal life of the nation, such
as the recently passed Reconstruction bill, Oh
the Civil Rights and Freedmens Bureau bills
of the first session of the last Congress, we
venture to suggest that the simple fact of a
man OF Mr.. FEssENDEN's well known candor
and freedom from all mere theories and
crotchety notions, favoring and cordially en-
dorsing them, did much to lessen the fears o.
the timid and to inspire confidence in the
minds of those who are slow to appreciate the
necessity for severe and searching remed les tc
overcome severe and deep-seated nationa
diseases.
1t is not for his speeches that Mr. FEssEN
DEN is best known or will be the longest re-
membered, though some of his speeches In
Congress have shown marked ability ani
abound with eloquent passages. He has new
er been man of speeches. We are no
aware that he has ever made speech tha
would fill volume, or that he has made on,
that he had first taken pains carefully t.
elaborate and write out as though intended
rather for the ieye on the printed page than
for the ear of a listening Senate. His
speeches, as we have already intimated, have
almost uniformly been off-hand efforts, made
on the spur of the moment, called out by
questions in hand at the time, without ap
parent forethought or preparation, showing
the quick comprehension, the ready analysis,
and the clear and almost intutive insight O
the successful debater rather than the elabo
rate study, the painful research and the crush
ing ponderosity OF the exhaustive speech
maker.
Socially, while Mr.. FEssENDeN is al
ways affiable towards Others never for