William P. Fessenden

Running the "Machine"
An 1864 cartoon featuring Fessenden, Edwin Stanton, Abraham Lincoln, William Seward and Gideon Welles takes a swing at the Lincoln administration.

Bureau of Engraving and Printing portrait of Fessenden as Treasury Secretary

Fessenden was one of only three people depicted on United States Fractional currency during their lifetime.

Frederic Porter Vinton's portrait of Fessenden, posthumous. Circa. 1870

American politician from the U.S. state of Maine.

- William P. Fessenden

75 related topics

Slave Power

The Slave Power, or Slavocracy, referred to the perceived political power in the U.S. federal government held by slave owners during the 1840s and 1850s, prior to the Civil War.

Massachusetts, Wooster Republican, February 2, 1859 (Reproduction)

Politicians who emphasized the theme included John Quincy Adams, Henry Wilson and William Pitt Fessenden.

United States Senate Committee on Finance

Standing committee of the United States Senate.

In 1868, this committee of representatives prosecuted President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial, but the Senate did not convict him.

Under the Chairmanship of William Pitt Fessenden, the committee played a decisive role during the Civil War.

Bowdoin College

Private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine.

Bowdoin College, c. 1845 (Lithograph by Fitz Hugh Lane).

Bowdoin was also the Medical School of Maine from 1821 to 1921

Bowdoin Chapel during the winter semester

Hubbard Hall, once the college's library

Bowdoin announces plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020

Hubbard Grandstand in 1912, built in 1904 at Whittier Field

Before a match between Bowdoin and Williams at Watson Arena, built in 2009

Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States

Robert Peary, explorer, who claims to be the first person to reach the North Pole

William P. Fessenden, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasuery

William Cohen, 20th U.S. Secretary of Defense and former U.S. Senator

Joshua Chamberlain, Brigadier general in the Union Army

Melville Fuller, 8th Chief Justice of the United States

Lawrence B. Lindsey, Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors

George J. Mitchell, former Senate Majority Leader

Harold Hitz Burton, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Thomas Brackett Reed, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Augustus Stinchfield, co-founder of Mayo Clinic

Major General Oliver Otis Howard, class of 1850, led the Freedmen's Bureau after the war and later founded Howard University; Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, class of 1837, was responsible for the formation of the 54th Massachusetts; and William P. Fessenden (1823) and Hugh McCulloch (1827) both served as Secretary of the Treasury during the Lincoln Administration.

History of the Republican Party (United States)

One of the two major political parties in the United States.

Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President (1861–1865)

This Democratic editorial cartoon links John C. Frémont to other radical movements including temperance, feminism, Fourierism, free love, Catholicism and abolition

National Union ticket in 1864 as party men gave these to voters to deposit in the ballot box

African-American members of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives: Sen. Hiram Revels (R-MS) and Reps. Benjamin Turner (R-AL), Robert DeLarge (R-SC), Josiah Walls (R-FL), Jefferson Long (R-GA), Joseph Rainey and Robert B. Elliott (R-SC), 1872

Ulysses S. Grant was the first Republican president to serve for two full terms (1869–1877)

An 1896 Republican poster warns against free silver

Theodore Roosevelt leads party to landslide win in 1904

Theodore Roosevelt's 1908 Farewell speeches sought progressive laws that did not pass Congress

President Theodore Roosevelt watches the party team pull apart on tariff issue

Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, 1953: the first Republican presidential inauguration in 24 years

Arizona Senator and 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater was a key figure of the American conservative movement in the 1950s and 1960s

Richard Nixon currently holds the record for most states won in a presidential election, 49 excluding Massachusetts and D.C. in 1972

Ronald Reagan launched the "Reagan Revolution" with his election to the presidency in 1980, providing conservative influence that continues to the present day

George H. W. Bush, the first former vice president to become president by vote rather than by the death or resignation of the sitting president since 1836, ended the Cold War during his term

Newt Gingrich, House Speaker (1995–1999), was the most visible adversary for President Bill Clinton

The presidency of George W. Bush was greatly impacted by the events of the September 11th terrorist attacks

John Boehner, House Speaker (2011–2015), was the most visible adversary for President Barack Obama

2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was the first Mormon nominated for president by either major party

Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States

Led by Senator William P. Fessenden and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Congress took the lead in economic policy, bringing in high tariffs, a new income tax, a national banking system, paper money ("Greenbacks") and enough taxes and loans to pay for the war.

39th United States Congress

Meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

President of the Senate Andrew Johnson, until April 15, 1865

Senate President pro tempore Lafayette S. Foster, until March 2, 1867

Senate President pro tempore Benjamin F. Wade, from March 2, 1867

2. William Pitt Fessenden (R)

41st United States Congress

Meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

Senate President pro tempore Henry B. Anthony

2. William P. Fessenden (R), until September 8, 1869

Peace Conference of 1861

Meeting of 131 leading American politicians in February 1861, at the Willard's Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the American Civil War.

Washington DC's Willard's Hotel was the site of the unsuccessful 1861 Peace Conference.

Among the representatives to the conference were James A. Seddon and William Cabell Rives from Virginia, David Wilmot from Pennsylvania, Francis Granger from New York, Reverdy Johnson from Maryland, William P. Fessenden and Lot M. Morrill from Maine, James Guthrie and William O. Butler from Kentucky, Stephen T. Logan from Illinois, Alvan Cullom from Tennessee, and Thomas Ewing and Salmon P. Chase from Ohio.