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 2 A Loyal Whig, 1837-1848 William Pitt Fessenden’s path to national power was far from smooth. He possessed many weapons in his armory: a remarkable self-confidence born of his privileged upbringing ; a piercing intellect and suave, dignified manner that commanded respect from his peers; a strong sense of conviction tempered by a pragmatic politician’s understanding of the need for compromise; a plain, direct speaking style honed in the courtrooms of New England; and a realistic awareness that most significant decisions , even in a relatively democratic republic, were made by professional politicians behind closed doors. Though undeniably bourgeois, he was an astute judge of public opinion. On occasions he would sneer privately at “the sovereign people,” but he was sage enough to realize that the popular will could not be flouted carelessly in “the Age of Jackson.”1 Obstructing his progress was not only the majoritarian Democratic Party but also contingency—that relentless sequence of interconnected historical events that could not be predicted accurately even by shrewd politicians like himself. His Whiggery was passionately held, rooted in his belief that the party possessed the optimal solutions to the myriad problems bedeviling the American republic in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Although sensitive to the dangers of concentrated power (how could Samuel Fessenden’s son be unaware of them?), he shared John Quincy Adams’s view that government must be used positively to unlock the republic ’s vast resources and guard against moral corruption. However, while historian Daniel Walker Howe rightly asserts the importance of the Whigs’ modernizing, even civilizing, influence on antebellum America, Pitt Fessenden’s allegiance to the party of Clay and Webster in a relatively remote Jacksonian state gained for him no more than local notability during a period book-ended by the election of two Whig presidents.2 Only as the growing crisis over slavery expansion strengthened his (and others’) commitment to a republic shorn of southern domination did the prospect of rapid political advancement begin to open up. 37 a loyal whig, 1837–1848 Hard Times Although Fessenden was, broadly speaking, at ease with the changes remaking the antebellum North, his heavy dependence on, and attention to, family ties throughout his career illustrated the importance of older forms of kinship networks to the development of politics and capitalism in the antebellum period. In an era of rapid material growth and high rates of geographical mobility, it was no longer as easy as it once had been to trust those with whom one dealt on a regular basis. Yet trust was essential in business and formal politics—hence the continuing reliance in both of these male-dominated spheres on family members. Without his father’s example and assistance, it is unlikely that the Portlander would have become either a lawyer or a politician. His Uncle Thomas, who had contributed to the young man’s legal education in the 1820s, was a secondary but important influence. In March 1837, Hiram Ketchum, Thomas’s law partner in New York, offered Fessenden a giant step up the political ladder: a tour of the trans-Appalachian West with Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. Webster was one of the most influential politicians of his day. The Whig grandee had abandoned thoughts of an alliance with Jackson after the president took the controversial decision to remove federal deposits from the Bank of the United States and distribute them in state banks.3 Unsuccessful in his bid for the presidency in 1836, Webster was eager to launch his second attempt to reach the White House. A trip to the West would help to dispel his image as a sectional candidate and enable him to make valuable personal connections ahead of the forthcoming campaign. What Webster required was “a travelling companion,” Ketchum told Fessenden toward the end of March 1837, “some young, ambitious, and highly talented man, in whom he could repose unlimited confidence, who could say things for him, or on his behalf, that it would not be proper for him to say directly.” Here, he thought, was the perfect opportunity. Out west Fessenden would not only meet some of the most powerful men in the country but also have the chance of “fully measuring one of the greatest minds in the world.” Uncle Thomas urged his nephew to accept the offer, helpfully suggesting that James Deering might be able to offset the costs and venturing the hope that the trip would...

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