Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich (6 November 1841-16 April 1915) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-RI 1) from 4 March 1879 to 4 October 1881 (succeeding Benjamin T. Eames and preceding Henry J. Spooner) and a US Senator from 5 October 1881 to 3 March 1911 (succeeding Ambrose Burnside and preceding Henry F. Lippitt).
Biography[]
Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich was born in Foster, Rhode Island in 1841, and he served in the Union Army during the American Civil War before becoming a partner in a large wholesale grocery firm. Aldrich served in the state house from 1875 to 1876, in the US House of Representatives from 1879 to 1881, and in the US Senate from 1881 to 1911. Aldrich co-authored the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, which created an extensive system of tariffs to protect American factories and farms from foreign competition, and he also helped win Senate approval of the treaty ending the Spanish-American War, supported the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, and sponsored the Sixteenth Amendment to bring about a direct federal income tax. Progressive reformers accused him of being a representative of the evils of big business, but he was committed to the Progressive Era's efficiency model through his financial and trade policies. He died in New York City in 1915.