Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-06

| The duties and victories of civil life
are as important as those of arms,
and the statesman, who aids in wisely
directing the councils of the nation,
should be held in as cherished remem-
brance as he who successfully COM
mands our armies in the field. Such
| is the position the historian will as
sign Mr.. Fessenden."
Mr.. Fessenden entered college in the
class of 1923. During his under
graduate life one of the most dis
tinsuished groups of men ever gath
cred at an American college were in
attendance at Bowdoin. There were
those men so widely known to their
contemporaries, James Ware Brad
bury, Alpheus Fetch, and John P. Hale,
each of whom became a United States
| Senator-Jonathan Ciiley, later a lead
er in the House of Representatives.
and that other group which needs no
Observation-Disclosures Pierce, Ma
thaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Long
fellow. The association with such
| splendid characters must have left an
| important impress upon the youthful
Fessenden. The contact with such
men undoubtedly developed and
strengthened those high qualities of
| self sacrifice and courage that glorified
his later years.
After graduation he devoted himself
to the study of the law and became
one of the leading members of the
Maine bar. He served many terms in
| the State Legislature and one term in
the national House of Representatives
But it was in the Senate that he
achieved fame.
Elected to that body in 1854, Fessen-
| den was thrown at once in the vortex
of that storm of sectional and party
hatred which for nearly twenty years
shook the country to its foundations.
which eliminated in the War of Sc
| cession, and which did not recede I'M
til the days of Reconstruction were
over. Through all that tumult, the
senator from Maine remained erect
and immovahle as a rocky promontory,
against which the waves of mistaken
public opinion and party hatred
dashed in vain. And when the storm
subsidized the Nation realized thank
fully. that there was one among its
citizens, who was strong enough and
brave enough to consult the welfare
| rather than the passions of the people
When Fessenden took his seat, Con-
gress was in the midst of heated de-
bate over the Kansas Nebraska BILL
This bill marked the renewal of the
fight over slavery which, it was sup
posed, had been laid to rest by the
Missouri Compromise in 1850. Fes-
sender at once took his stand with
the anti-slaVery forces and delivered
speech that electrified the country. As
Sumner afterwards said, His arrival
was like a Reinforcement on the field
of battle"
This was the first of a series of able
speeches. In them. his plain, straight
forward style. his memorable logic, his
| mastery Of wit and sarcasm. soon won
for him the acknowledged leadership
OF the Senate position he held until
his death.
AT the outbreak of the war the
senator from Maine was placed at the
head of the finance committee. The
vigorous and efficient conduct of the
affairs of that important committee
caused Lincoln to offer him position
as Secretary of the Treasury, made
vacant by the resignation of Salmon
P. Chase. The Senator, who was in
falling health, did not wish to accept
the position. But the Treasury was
in desperate straits, and Lincoln
urged that a sacrifice was necessary.
Accordingly. with his characteristic
self effacement, he accepted. What
1t cost him is shown by one of his let
tiers, containing these words: L am
run down with fatigue retiring ex
hausted, and rising little refreshed--a
| poor state for such work as have to
do. But it must be done, and / will
do it somehow" That he did it most
efficientlyALincoln himself testified. y
The crisis past, Fessenden returned
to the Senate just as reconstruction
of the South was beginning. Great
as his services had already been to the
country. it was during this trying
period that he rendered still greater
services. He was promptly made
! chairman of the joint committee on
reconstruction-one of the most i'm
portant committees ever appointed in
Congress. The task before this COM
mittee was tremendous. It's duty was
to secure permanently the results of
the war. 1t was under the RESPONSE
bility of reconstructing the rebellious
States, Oh sowing the problem pre-
sented by the emancipated slaves. A
long and weary struggle took place in
the committee and in Congress. With
infinite wisdom and patience, re-
straining this too radical member,
urging on this too conservative one,
Senator Fessenden guided the COM
mittee to a solution Of it's problems.
When its recommendation were
finally completed, he presented them
to Congress in a series of masterful
speeches that silenced all objections.
He saw the reward of his labors in
the adoption of the 14th and 18th
amendments to the Constitution,
These amendments made certain that
the freedman should be wholly free.
that those who had died in battle
should not have died in vain.
Meanwhile a quarrel had developed
between President Johnson and Con-
gress. Their ideas concerning re-
construction differed widely The
President had blocked legislative
| measures and so had brought down
upon himself the wrath of Congress.
AS chairman of the Committee on Re-