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Fessenden was born in BoscawenBoscawen is a town located in Merrimack County, New Hampshire. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 3,672. Sometime around 1846, the town's postmaster became one of about a dozen in the country to issue provisional postage stamps befo. He graduated from Bowdoin CollegeBowdoin College is a liberal arts college located in Brunswick, Maine. Founded in 1794, Bowdoin is intimately connected with the American Civil War. Some have said the war began and ended in Brunswick, as Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin whil and became a lawyer, practicing with his father Samuel FessendenSamuel Fessenden was an American abolitionist, state legislator and father of U. Treasury Secretary William Pitt Fessenden. He studied law with Daniel Webster, and served in both houses of the Massachusetts State Legislature. He acted as Major General of, who was also a prominent anti-slavery activist. He served four non-consecutive terms in the Maine House of Representatives , and he was elected for one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected in 1854, with the support of Whigs and Anti-Slavery Democrats , to the U.S. Senate. Upon taking office, he immediately began speaking against the Kansas-Nebraska ActThe Kansas Nebraska Act was a U. Act of Congress in 1854 organizing the remaining territory within the Louisiana Purchase for settlement preparatory to its admission to the Union. Its passage was an expression of the doctrine of popular sovereignty and ex and participated in the organization of the United States Republican Party, being re-elected to the Senate from that group in 1860.
He served as chairman of the Finance CommitteeSenate Committee on Finance (or, less formally, Senate Finance Committee is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It is concerns itself with matters relating to the bonded debt of the United States; customs, collection districts, and ports of during the 37th through 39th Congress es, which led to his Cabinet appointment. He also served as a chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and GroundsSenate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds was a committee of the United States Senate from 1883 until 1946. It was preceded by the Joint Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds and succeeded by the U. Senate Committee on Public Works. Committee C during the 40th Congress , the Appropriations CommitteeSenate Committee on Appropriations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It is charged with managing budget and federal funding legislation in the Senate. The Senate Appropriations Committee is the largest committee in the U. Senate, consis during the 41st Congress and the U.S. Senate Committee on the Library, also during the 41st Congress.
Following the close of the Civil War, which he helped finance on the Union side in cooperation with Lincoln, his predecessor Salmon P. Chase and members of the Congress, he was considered a moderate, rather than Radical, Republican.
Two of his brothers, Samuel C. Fessenden and T.A.D. Fessenden, were also Congressmen. He had three sons who served in the American Civil War: Samuel Fessenden, killed at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and Brigadier-General James D. Fessenden and Major-General Francis Fessenden , the latter of whom wrote a two-volume biography of his father which was published in 1907.