The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-09-13
The Funeral Of senator Fessendcn.


Saturday. the 18th of September, friends gazed
their last upon the pallid features Of one whom
the nation had delighted to honor From an
early hour the citizens weDded their way to the
First Parish Church where the funeral SER
vices were to be held, and waited patiently
upon the steps and sidewalks until the family
and various public bodies had taken their seats
before entering the edifce.
The interior of the church was most appro-
priately and tastefully draped in mourning by
the members of the Parish in honor of the
pit recess heavy folds of sable depended, loop
ed on either side, while the pulpit and galle-
ries were shrouded with the same. Over the
upper part of the pulpit an ivy was gracefully
festooned and fastened at either side by sin.
gle white rose, and wreath of immortelles
decked the front. Small clusters of white
flowers, from which depended trailing vines,
muuion table, while three large bouquets
gave forth their delicious perfume The organ
was draped in festoons of sable, and ornament
ed by three other bouquets, while the clock,
whose hands pointed to twenty minutes past
six 1.-THE hour of the Senator's decease) was
lovingly entwined with wreath of ivy. The
coffin stood upon trestles in front of the pull
pit, and was metallic one, representing rose
wood, bearing solid silver plate inscribed:
William Pitt Fessenden,
Died Sept. 8, 1869,
Aged 62 yrs. II mos
At 10 IL o'clock precisely, the hour of the
ha nj IT,,
campments, and the Ligonia Lodge (of which
the deceased was a member) of Odd Fellows
entered, followed by Mayor Putnam, the Board
of Aldermen and Members of Common Coun-
Gil; Immediately after these the Cumberland
Bar arrived, headed by the venerable ex-Chief
Justice Ether Shepley, leaning upon the arm
of his son, Gen. George f. Shepley, and &C.
companied by Judges Kent and Walton of the
Supreme Bench. Among the other distin-
guished personages present were Senator Ham,
lin, Hons. John Lynch, Sidney Perham, A. F.
Stevens, member of Congress from N H., Ex-
Senators Morrill, of Maine, and Foster of Con-
necticut, Gov. Chamberlain, Council and Staff,
Ex-Govs. Washburn and Coburn, Hon. S. p,
Benson, President Harris of Bow loin College,
Hon. Franklin M. Drew, Secretary of State,
Hon. III. X. Oliver of Massachusetts,, Judge
Lothrop of New York, Gen. R. B. Ayres, U. S.
A., Ex-Mayor Hon. S. Fl. Dale of Bangor,
Gen. Thorn, Gen. Hill and officers from Fort
Preble, and many personal friends from New
York and the New England States, a number
of whom had travelled long distances in order
to attend the funeral. There were probably
many other distinguished persons present with
whom we we're unacquainted.
AS soon as the family and relatives of the
deceased had tlken their seats the solemn an
them was sung by the quartette choir of the
church, 81 heard a voice from heaven saying,
blessed are the dead who die in the Lord
The Rev. Mr.. Bailey pastor of the church, then
read a peculiarly appropriate burial service of
his own selection, beginning with an acknowl-
edgment of the infinite power and wisdom of
God, passing to the mournful separations and
privations of death, as described by the poets
of the Old Testament, and concluding with the
inspiring promises of st. Paul in the New. DR..
Carruthers next delivered the following dis
course:
FUNERAL DISCOURSE.
death loves a shining mark" and few
marks more brilliant and conspicuous have
been presented to the great destroyer than the
man whose mortal remains are now
to be consigned to the house appointed for all
living. lie was man, and as such subject to
the divinely appointed laws and conditions of
humanity on earth. He had not reached. it is
true, the farthest limit of earthly existence;
but with physical constitution such as his,
nothing but the lifelong habit of temperance
even to abstemiousness could, humanity speak,
ing, have prolonged his life to the age of three
score years and three. All but his childhood
and his youth are now incorporated with the
history of this city, where he early gained the
esteem of his fellow citizens, of this State of
Maine, where he soon gave sufficient proof of
his tact and talent as legislator, and of his
native lend where, throughout its wide ex-
panse, he has long been highly esteemed and
is now lamented as one of the ablest and most
distinguished of Its Senators.
Contemporary vehicles of information to the
people have everywhere accompanied the
notice of his death with such details of his
public life as entirely supersede and render
utterly superfuous anything like even the
briefest sketch of career singularly free from
eccentricities but presenting throughout
constancy and continuity of sterling qualities,
such as rarely meet in such perfect harmony
and such effective combination. The yenera-
BILE Historian and Biographer of our city has
sketched with his facile pen the public life of
the deceased, with SO much accuracy and
beauty as to need but an expansion of the
narrative in order to furnish memoir worthy
alike of its subject and its author. Difference
only to the wishes of surviving relatives, and
profound respect for the memory of the de-
ceased, could have induced me on the shortest
possible notice to have undertaken the almost
superfuous work of tracing few characters
tics of man who has stood for so many years
and so prominently before the public eye, and
whose course as legislator and an occasional
minister of state is inseparahly interviewer
with by far the most interesting period of our
national career.
There are some men-there are ALWAYS some
even in high places, who present an imprac-
ticable study to the keenest and most scrutini-
zing observers. They have in some instances
no fxedness and permanence of character and
undergo SO many changes of expressed opinion
and visible condition and relations of public
life, that it is difficult to recognise their identity
at different periods of their history, or by any
force even of imagination, to reconcile opinions
so diverse and practices SO divergent as that
history presents. Others there are, whose rare
qualities of head and heart are almost unknown
TO their contemporaries by reason of the arti-
icial folds which education or association have
thrown around them, so as to conceal from the
most careful observation the best points of their
Individual characters. To know either of these
classes of men, you must see them long you
must search them thoroughly and even
then you may come to conclusions to
be completely countervened and utterly
Falsifed by subsequent discoveries. Few
public men retain their early principles
and predictions unmodiied throughout
heir entire course, and fewer still are known
It once by the absolute transparency of their
character and conduct. Amidst these few,
lone assuredly of his contemporaries will for
moment hesitate to give prominent place to
he true nobleman whose abandoned tenement
Of clay now lies before us. He was the same
nan at sixty-three, as at seventeen-the only
difference being that of growth, develop
ment, and ultimate maturity. He was the
same man in his private practice of the law, in
the legislature of the State, and in the high
of the nation-strong, steadfast Sc
renely conscious right, and stern even to Sc
verify in the maintenance and avowal of well
principles.
AS to character William Pitt Fessenden was
itself, and even brief study of
he man presented to careful observation all |
that was peculiar about him. Pbysiognomi- |
,ally, his countenance betrayed sagacity, a |
sense of independence, placid satisfaction, a |
reedom from all stiffness and hauteur all which |
inspired at once respect, confidence, and |
'eadiness of communication, even on the part |
If casual associates. They who connect with |
Elevated station the air of personal superiority,
artificial dignity of gesture, stilted information,
md seeming condescension, would have found |
lone of these in him; and hours might have |
'een spent with him without any suspicion,