FESSENDEN, WILLIAM PITT American statesman and financier, was born in Boscawen, N.H., on Oct. 16, 1806. After graduating at Bowdoin college in 1823, he studied law, and in 1827 was admitted to the bar, eventually settling in Portland, Me., where for two years he was associated in practice with his father, Samuel Fessenden (1784-1869), a prominent lawyer and anti-slavery leader. In 1832 and in 1840 Fessenden was a representative in the Maine legislature, and in a Whig member of the national House of Representatives. When his term in this capacity was over, he devoted himself with great success to the law. He became well known, also, as an eloquent advocate of slavery restriction. In 1854 he was chosen by the combined votes of Whigs and Anti-Slavery Democrats to the United States Senate, where he delivered a speech in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill which made him a force in the con gressional anti-slavery contest. He was re-elected to the Senate as a member of the Republican party. As chairman of the Senate committee on finance, his services were second in value only to those of President Lincoln and Secretary Salmon P. Chase in ef forts to provide funds for the defence of the Union; in 1864 Fes senden succeeded Chase as secretary of the Treasury. The finances of the country in the early summer of 1864 were in a critical con dition ; a few days before leaving office Chase had been compelled to withdraw from the market $32,000,000 of 6% bonds, on account of the lack of acceptable bids; gold had reached 285, while the value of the paper dollar had sunk as low as 34 cents. It was Fessenden's policy to avoid a further increase of the cir culating medium, and in spite of powerful pressure the paper currency was not increased during his tenure of office. As the sales of bonds and treasury notes were not sufficient for the needs of the Treasury, interest-bearing certificates of indebtedness were issued to cover the deficits. When these began to depreciate Fes senden engaged the services of the Philadelphia banker Jay Cooke (q.v.) and secured the consent of Congress to raise the balance of the $400,000,000 loan authorized in 1864 by the sale of the so called "seven-thirty" Treasury notes (i.e., notes bearing interest at 7.3% payable in currency in three years or convertible at the option of the holder into 6% 5-2o year gold bonds). Through Cooke's activities the sales were enormous; the notes, issued in denominations as low as $50, appealed to the patriotic impulses of the people who could not subscribe for bonds of a higher denomination. In the spring of 1865 Congress authorized an additional loan of $600,000,000 to be raised in the same manner, and for the first time in four years the Treasury was able to meet all its obligations. After thus securing ample funds for the enor mous expenditures of the war, Fessenden resigned the Treasury portfolio in March 1865, and again took his seat in the Senate, serving till his death. He was not, however, entirely in accord with the more radical members of his own party, and this difference was exemplified in his opposition to the impeachment of President Johnson and subsequently in his voting for Johnson's acquittal. He died at Portland, Me., on Sept. 6, 1869.
See Francis Fessenden, Life and Public Services of William Pitt Fessenden (Boston, 1907).