FESCUE. 559 FESSLER. foot in height, and often much loss, abundant in mountainous pastures, and especially suitable for such situations, in which it often forms a prin- cipal part of the food of sheep for many months of the year. It is common in all the mountainous parts of Europe and in the Himalayas, and is also a native of North America. Species very simi- lar to this, if not mere varieties of it. abound in the Southern Hemisphere. Its habit of growth is much tufted. Of species which have been in- introduced into cultivation in the United States and Great Britain, Festuca hetcrophylla, referred by some authors to various other specific names, best deserves notice. It is a tall species with narrow root-leaves, and broad leaves on the culm. It is a native of France and other parts of the Continent of Europe, and is pretty extensively cultivated in some countries, particularly the Netherlands. A number of species abound in the Western United States, where they are important constituents in the range pastures. All these species are perennial. Some small annual species occasionally form a considerable part of the pasture in dry, sandy soils, but are never sown by the farmer. A Peruvian species, Festuca quadridentata, called 'pigouil' in its native country, and there used for thatch, is said to be poisonous to cattle. FESS (OF. fcs.se, Fr. faisse, fasce, fesse, from Lat. fascia, bundle). In heraldry (q.v.), one of the charges known as ordinaries. FES'SENDEN, Reginald Aubrey (1866—). An American electrician, born at Milton, Quebec Province, Canada. From 1887 to 1890 he was head chemist of the laboratory of Thomas A. Edison, the inventor; from 1*890 to 1892 an electrician with the Westinghouse Company of Newark, N. J., and in 1892-93 professor of physics and electrical engineering in Purdue Uni- versity (Lafayette. Ind.). In 1893-1900 he was professor of electrical engineering in the Western University of Pennsylvania (Allegheny, Pa.), and in the latter year became a special agent of the United States Weather Bureau. FESSENDEN, Thomas Green (1771-1837). An American writer. He was born at Walpole, N. H., and graduated at Dartmouth in 1796. He was for some time in London engaged in an enter- prise which ruined him financially, and while there advertised the metallic tractors of Benja- min D. Perkins (q.v.) in a grotesque poem enti- tled Terrible Tractoration (1803), a satire upon the medical profession which opposed the use of the instruments. In 1822 he started in Boston the Xetc England Farmer, with which he was con- nected until his death. For two years he was editor of the Weekly Insjtcctor in New York City. Among his further works are: Pills, Poetical, Political, and Philosophical, Prescribed for the Purpose of Purging the Public of Piddling Phi- losophers, Penny Poetasters, of Paltry Politicians, and Petty Partisans, by Peter Pepperbox, Poet and Physician (1809); Democracy Unveiled (1806); American Clerk's Companion (1815); The Ladies' Monitor (1818); and Laws of Patents for New Inventions (1822). Consult Hawthorne, Fanshawe, and Other Pieces (Boston, 1876). FESSENDEN, William Pitt (1806-69). An American statesman. He was born in Boscawen. N. H.. graduated at Bowdoin College in 1823. and began the practice of law in 1827. He settled in Portland, Maine, was elected to the State Legislature in L832, and became known as an able debater. In 1840 he was elected to Congress as a Whig, but served only one term, lie won national repute as a lawyer, and as an Anti- Slavery Whig orator and campaign speaker, and in 1848 he was a strong supporter of Webster for the presidency. In 1854, while a member of the Maine Legislature, he was elected United States Senator, by the combined votes of the Whig and Anti-Slavery Democratic members. A fortnight alter taking his seat in the Senate, he delivered a stirring speech in opposition to the Kansas Nebraska Bill, thereby leaping at once into prominence as one of the ablest speakers on the Anti-Slavery side. In ]X.~>!i he was reeled ed to the Senate for a second term as a Republi- can, and was at once made chairman of the important Committee on Finance, in which posi- tion, during the next five years he ably seconded President Lincoln and Secretary Chase in their attempts to solve the puzzling financial questions arising from the war. Upon the resignation of Secretary Chase in 1864, President Lincoln and his counselors naturally turned to Senator Fes- senden as the man best fitted to take the vacant portfolio of the Treasury. Fessenden hesitated at first, but after it became evident that there was need of his services and that both President and nation looked to him in the emergency, he accepted. The period was one of the blackest in the financial history of the country. Gold was at 280, the currency of the nation' was in- flated, the paper dollar was worth only 34 cents, and the government had just found it necessary to withdraw from the market a loan which it had been unable to float. The first act of the new Secretary in this crisis was the issuance of the famous "seven-thirty" bonds, — bonds bearing interest at the rate of 7.30 per cent., and issued in denominations as small as $.50. His idea »;i^ that if appeals were made to the patriotism of the people, and the loan offered in such sums that people of moderate means could invest, it would succeed, and his judgment proved correct. He also withheld the further issue of greenbacks for the time being, thus inducing the State banks to adopt the national system. Gold having fallen to 199 and the necessities of the occasion having been met. Secretary Fessenden resigned his port- folio in March, 1865, in order to take his seat. in the Senate, to which he had been chosen for a third term. In the years immediately following the war he took a leading part in the debates and was chairman of the joint committee on re- construction. His action in voting for the ac- quittal of President Johnson on his impeachment trial brought upon him the harshest criticism of his political career. He bravely faced the storm of reproach which it called forth, and although for the moment his political associates looked upon him as almost a traitor, his sincer- ity and honesty of purpose were so apparent, and his continued devotion to the principles of the Republican Party so absolute that he very soon won again his old position as a party leader. FESSLER, fes'ler, Ignaz Aubelitts (1756- 1839). A well-known Hungarian historian and ecclesiastic. He was born at Czurendorf and educated at Pressburg and Raab. He was suc- cessively a Capuchin monk in Vienna, professor
