Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-06-16
A. FAMOUS SON OF MAINE
Washington Writer Pens Glowing Eulogy of William
Pitt Fessenden and His Remarkable Career.

F, England. which cost him Bristol as
constituency; but Burke's case was dif-
| ferent from that Of an American Seha-
for Rurke was q representative OF q
nopular constituency. We have no less
an authority than Henry Cabot Lodge
that q Senator i'm Congress Is the am
| bassadOr of. sovereign state, and II
would be a bold man to deny that the
sovereign may instruct his ambassador.
| The matter OF instructions mas been
variousiy construed. Thus Stephen A.
Douglas, under :nstl uctions from the
| Illinois legislature, voted for the anti
| slavery Wilmot provision, ana was ap-
plauded by Jefferson Davis Tor the act,
though Davis considered the provis0
little short of treason. But subsequent
ly when L. Q. c. Lamar voted against
the Stanley Matthews resolution. de-
claring that the public debt was paya-
BILE in l6 to 1 silver dollars, Jefferson
Davis rebuked him, because he violated
the instructions of the legislature Of
Mississippi, though Davis said the vote
was such as he, Davis, should have
cast in the absence Of instructions.
| There has never been any settled rule
as regards these Instructions, and so
far as / know Douglas is the only
Senator who has obeyed instructions
that were distasteful to him.
In 1881 Webster made tour of the
Ohio Valley, and young Fessenden at
tended him He sustained the relation
| to the great expounder' that William l..
iancey did to Calhoun. or Garnet Davis
the guest OF Kentucky at the great
i barbecue at Louisville. Fessenden was
presented to Clay and to Crittenden as
| the most promising young man of all
| the East. In 1910 t'essenden was a dele
gate to the Wing national convention,
and urged the nomination OF Webster. He
1910 and again in 1913. Webster was urged
| to take second place, but he refused,
which shows what playthings even the
Clay. nor Calhoun. not Douglas nor
Blame, more ardently desired to be Pres
ident than did Webster. and here was
| fate Offering the prize, Indirectly, and
| twice the great Webster declined.
! Fessenden was conservative, and even
| the platform OF 1852. indorsng the com
promise of 1850. that drove so many thou
! sands out of the Whig party, failed to
| drive Fessenden from his allegiance. 1t
was not until after the death of Webster.
not until after the repeal OF the Missouri
restriction, that Fessenden sought new
political quarters. In 1865 he supported
in 1856 he formally allied himself with thu
| Republican party.
In 1853. Fessenden was elected Sena-
| tor in Congress from Maine and entered
| that body when the thirty-third Congress
was convened in December. 1853 1t was
| the Congress. dominated by Stephen A.
| Douglas, that repealed the Missouri Re
| strictiOn, an act that recruited half mil
| lion Democrats for the new Republican
party: Oliver P. Morton and Hannibal
| a man yet in public life, Charles II. Grov-
| yenor. Fesscnden's first venture in the
Senate was trial Of forensic strength
to say that he came Oft victor, but they
never said it with the confidence of vic
tory. That Douglas was a mighty ugly
namesake, BLACK Jim,'' in battle. He
asked no quarter, nor gave it. And when
it came to the brutahties of parliamen
tary dispute no man could strike harder.
| He began his reply 10 Fessenden with the
words. Il wish the young Senator from
Maine. who made his maiden effort in this
body in this debate. had learned some
thing about the subject before he at
| tempted to discuss it, Fessenden had
nf that DoIgas was IA "a Torthern
| retOrt went home. He opined that FeS-
| senden had been told SO by Sumner, and !
| then declared that he had never heard |
of but one individual who boasted that he
was a Northern man of Southern prin- |
ciples. and turning to Summer, he ex-
claimed, And for him you voted for
| AS forensic triumph the speech of
| Stephen A. Douglas. closing the debate |
| on the Kansas Nebraska bill, has never
| been surpassed or even equaled. since the |
! American Congress was instituted. 1t
was that speech that caused Horace |
though an ignorant man. Stephen A. |
douglas was the greatest debiter our
country had produced.
When Fessenden first entered the Sen
ate Sumner made the attempt to patron
iZe him. Solomon in all his glory, Caesar
in all his power. Burke in all his learning
Washington IN all his grandeur, could not
tor from far-Or Maine. and Sumner dear
ly paid for his mistake. He made an
enemy Of far greater Senator than him.
self. and tremendous as was Summers
fame big as was the place he filed. Fes-
sender conceived downright contempt
for him. Sumner. later. made the same
ate. but with slightly less disastrous re-
suit. FeSscnden was a conservative and
practical man; Sumner was a radical
and visionary man. The character of
Sumner was the most incomprehensible
OF all our public men. He was a CONTRA
diction. a fanatic: vain as a peacock, yet
He was the most cultivated man in the
Senate. yet that speech, for which Brooks
beat him. was the coarsest, and most
brutal the Senate had ever heard. He
hated no man. not even Brooks, but no
devil in Tophet could hate as Sumner |
hated what he conceived to be an error
His faVOrlte weapon was invective, he
was merciless in its use. and as he only
intended 1t for the thing he hated, and
not for the man against whom it was di-
rected. he could never understand why it
was resented.
When Gen. Grant, with whom Sumner
quarreled. was told that Sumner did not
believe the Bible, he answered: 'Of
course he does not; ne didn't write it,
Fessenden was one of the great war
Senators. AS chairman Of the finance
committee he nearly defeated the legal
tender clause of the greenback, and pity
it is that he did not succeed 1t would
have saved half the cost of the war. He
was a great Secretary of Treasury one
of the greatest. His refusal to issue any
more greenbacks saved millions, and it