William Pitt Fessenden

Maine senator who steadied wartime finance and cast a principled vote against convicting Johnson.

Overview

Fessenden served in the Senate from 1854 to 1864 and 1865 to 1869, and as Lincoln's Treasury Secretary in 1864 stabilized borrowing after the crisis of the summer. Returning to the Senate he chaired Finance through postwar taxation, then as one of seven Republicans voted not guilty in the 1868 impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, honoring his view that the Tenure of Office Act did not justify removal. The vote ended his influence with party leaders but made him a byword for constitutional conscience. He died in 1869, widely respected by both sides.