Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich.
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.