The republican leader in the senate, Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, was born
in Foster, Rhode Island, November 6, 1841. After having received a
common school and academy education, he became engaged in mercantile
pursuits in Providence, being entirely successful therein. While a very
young man, Mr. Aldrich became interested in the conduct and welfare
of public schools. He became so prominent in connection with efforts
looking to school improvements that in 1871 he was elected president
of the Providence common council. In 1873 he was a member of the
Rhode Island legislature, and at 1876 was its speaker. It was about
this period that Mr. Aldrich began to take an active part in national
politics, in consequence of which he was made member of congress in
1879, holding that office until 1883, when he resigned in order to
take a seat in the senate. Since that time he has been more or less
continuously in the public eye. He is chairman of the committee of
rules of the Fiftieth congress, and is, as already stated, republican
leader in the senate. While Mr. Aldrich is not a brilliant orator, he
has a remarkable instinct for organization, and it is that faculty
more than any other that has obtained for him the prominent position in
the Republican party which is now his.