ABSTRACT: This article focuses on the role that Hegel’s concept of essence (Wesen) played in the thinking of Charles Sanders Peirce and Josiah Royce, two of the primary figures in the canon of classical American philosophy. It elaborates on Robert Stern’s discussion of Hegel and Peirce by claiming that the second book of Hegel’s Logic, entitled “The Doctrine of Essence,” can be understood as Hegel’s attempt to account for the experimental and turbulent character of human experience, a character that Peirce would term “Secondness.” While Pierce remained dissatisfied with Hegel’s relative neglect of Secondness, Peirce recognized the importance of this attempt in the yearly years of the twentieth century, with the help of the Josiah Royce’s detailed understanding of Hegel.