Nelson W. Aldrich
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| Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich | |
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U.S. Senator from Rhode Island
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| In office 1881-1911 |
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| Preceded by | Ambrose Burnside |
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| Succeeded by | Henry F. Lippitt |
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| Born | November 6, 1841 Foster, RI |
| Died | April 16, 1915 New York, NY |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Abby Pearce |
| Profession | Businessman |
Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich (November 6, 1841 – April 16, 1915) was a prominent American politician. Born in Foster, Rhode Island in 1841, he was a direct descendant of Rhode Island founder, Roger Williams. Aldrich was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1878 for a single two-year term, after which he was elected to the United States Senate.
Because of his impact on national politics and central position on the pivotal Finance Committee, he was referred to by the press and public alike as the "General Manager of the Nation", dominating all tariff and monetary policies in the first decade of the 20th century. In a career that spanned three decades, Aldrich helped to create an extensive system of tariffs that protected American factories and farms from foreign competition. He rebuilt the American financial system, with passage of the federal income tax amendment and plans for the Federal Reserve System. Aldrich became wealthy with investments in street railroads, sugar, rubber and banking. His only daughter married the only son of John D. Rockefeller.
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[edit] Political career
His first job was clerking for the largest wholesale grocer in the state, where he worked his way up to become a partner in the firm. On October 9, 1866 he married Abby Pearce, a wealthy woman with impressive antecedents. By 1877, Nelson had a major effect on state politics, even before his election to the United States Congress.[1] He served as the president of the Providence city council and Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
In 1878 the Republican bosses of Rhode Island endorsed him for the US House of Representatives; in 1881 he was elected to the Senate. He served in the Senate from 1881 to 1911 as an influential Republican, becoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
In 1906 Aldrich and other American financiers invested heavily in mines and rubber in the Belgian Congo. They supported Belgium's King Leopold II, who was alleged to have imposed slave labor conditions in the colony.[2]
As co-author of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909, Aldrich removed restrictive import duties on fine art, which enabled Americans to bring in very expensive European artworks that became the foundation of many leading museums.
In 1909, Aldrich introduced a constitutional amendment to establish an income tax, although he had declared a similar measure "communistic" a decade earlier. In 1908 he became the chief sponsor of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act which created the National Monetary Commission, later to become the Federal Reserve.
He also served as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. During his Senate tenure he chaired the committees on U.S. Senate Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, Rules, and the Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia.
A deep believer in the progressive themes of efficiency and scientific expertise, Aldrich led a team of experts to study the European national banks, discovering that Britain, Germany and France had a much superior central banking system. He worked with his experts to design a plan for an American central bank in 1911. In 1913 Woodrow Wilson adopted Aldrich's plan and implemented it as the Federal Reserve system.
Because of his control of the Senate (and his daughter Abby Greene Aldrich's marriage to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and son Winthrop Aldrich's later chairmanship of the Chase National Bank), Aldrich is considered to have been the most powerful politician of his time. His grandson and namesake Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller became one of the most powerful politicians of a later era and served asVice President of the United States under President Ford.
He died on April 16, 1915, in New York, New York, and was buried in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.
[edit] Further reading
- Kert, Bernice. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family. New York: Random House, 1993.
- Stephenson, Nathaniel W. Nelson W. Aldrich: A Leader In American Politics. 1930.
- Sternstein, Jerome L. “Corruption in the Gilded Age Senate: Nelson W. Aldrich and the Sugar Trust.” Capitol Studies 6 (Spring 1978): pp.13-37.
- Wicker, Elmus. The Great Debate on Banking Reform: Nelson Aldrich and the Origins of the Fed, Ohio State University Press, 2005.
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[edit] External link
| Preceded by Benjamin T. Eames |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Rhode Island's 1st district March 4, 1879 - October 4, 1881 |
Succeeded by Henry J. Spooner |
| Preceded by Ambrose Burnside |
United States Senator (Class 1) from Rhode Island October 5, 1881 to March 3, 1911 Served alongside: Henry B. Anthony, William P. Sheffield, Jonathan Chace, Nathan F. Dixon, George Peabody Wetmore |
Succeeded by Henry F. Lippitt |
