Aldrich, Nelson W. (Nelson Wilmarth), 1841-1915

Senator Robert M. La Follette recently delivered a speech excoriating President William H. Taft for having “broken all the vital party platform pledges and repeatedly and continuously [betraying] the public interests into the hands of special privilege.” While Taft attained the presidency through his association with Theodore Roosevelt, his actions in office have gone against many of the progressive policies that Roosevelt upheld.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-17

The article grapples with the paradox of President William H. Taft’s loyalties and personal ethics. Taft appears to be honorable, but influences from his brother Charles Phelps Taft and others are hindering his ability to carry out the Progressive promises that elected him. The advisors are the cause of many of the scandals in the administration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-19

The writer of the article calls into question statements made by Senator Theodore E. Burton made in an address the the American Bankers’ Association. Burton’s statements are generally agreeable, but provide little information on what the Monetary Commission intends to do to reform currency matters. Banks should facilitate the flow of money for commercial use to meet legitimate demands, while preventing inflation. Contraction should be prevented by forcing financiers to comply with regulations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-10

The writer responds to an editorial in the Wichita Beacon stating that eventually men like Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and Senator Nelson W. Aldrich will be “read out” of the Republican Party before Theodore Roosevelt returns and is made president again.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909

William Emlen Roosevelt tells President Roosevelt that he does not think that either New Jersey Governor Franklin Murphy or Elihu Root is the man he wants for the job of chairman of the Republican National Committee, and that he would prefer someone like Senator Nelson W. Aldrich. Emlen would prefer Root to be governor of New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-11

President Roosevelt, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich walk out of the “National Treasury” with “aid for Italy” money bags.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Foreign aid as we know it today was never a major part of the national government’s attention or priorities, and even in President Roosevelt’s era the source of American monies sent overseas was largely the work of charities and church organizations.

Secretary of the Treasury Shaw was disappointed with President Roosevelt’s “blue pencil” comments on his speech. He feels Roosevelt is being misrepresented on the tariff question, and it is causing harm. Therefore, he thinks Roosevelt should “set himself squarely” or have a Cabinet member express the opinion. Popularity has never prevented Shaw from saying what should be said. The view that the tariff should be lowered to invite more goods from abroad is unrepublican and vicious. He plans on sending a copy of his speech to Senator Nelson W. Aldrich. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-03

An article in The American Review of Reviews reflects on the current political situation in Congress, especially lamenting that both houses are controlled by powerful cliques who work in their own interests, often at the expense of legislation that would benefit the people. In particular, tariffs and appropriations for the construction of battleships are discussed. The author also speculates about the outcomes of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the upcoming presidential campaign, as well as the necessity of a good man to run the Republican convention.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05-21

President Roosevelt encloses an interesting letter from Judge John Carter Rose and asks Senator Lodge to show it to Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island before returning it.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1902-05-28

Cornelius Newton Bliss advises President Roosevelt on officers to manage the 1904 presidential campaign.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-26

James S. Whipple informs President Roosevelt that Daniel O’Day is anxious for Roosevelt to meet John D. Archbold. O’Day suggests that Senator Nelson W. Aldrich might arrange such a meeting. Whipple comments that the O’Days “are surely good friends” and offers to help bring about the desired meeting.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-19

Booker T. Washington writes to President Roosevelt regarding the visits he made to many United States senators during his trip to Washington, D.C. Washington states he will continue to visit senators in person as he believes it is the best way to influence them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-21

Senator Gallinger is taking up the “Crum case” during an executive session, with the hope of settling the matter. Gallinger asks President Roosevelt to notify certain senators of the importance of the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-22

Hamilton Fish recommends Nelson W. Aldrich for appointment as chairman of the National Republican Committee. The New York State Convention was harmonious, with strong delegate support going to Thomas Collier Platt. Fish believes that the decision made involving Leslie M. Shaw, Charles H. Murray, and Mr. Bliss was “a very wise one.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-13

Arthur von Briesen’s plans to buy the German-American newspaper Staats Zeitung have been obstructed and purchase may not be possible.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-15

A Chinese play is being acted on a small stage with Joseph Gurney Cannon and Nelson W. Aldrich offering two small doll-like figures labeled “Small Dealer” and “Consumer” to a dragon labeled “High Protection” manned by two men labeled “Special Privilege” and “Graft.” J. S. Sherman, John Dalzell, and Sereno E. Payne play musical instruments on the left side of the stage. On the back of the stage is a Buddha icon labeled “Greed.” In the foreground, at the foot of the stage, are Chinese men labeled “Lumber Trust, Paper Trust, Steel Trust, [and] Beef Trust.” On the far right, beneath a sign that states “Box Reserved for Amer. Protective Tariff League,” is a Chinese man labeled “Chas A. Moore” holding a tray with two small figures labeled “First Voter.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Like a Chinese Play, It Goes On Forever” is an abecedarian and awkward variation on “trusts bad, politicians subservient, consumers powerless” themes. Cartoonist Frank A. Nankivell, who had lived part of career in Japan, had a difficult job in approximating Asian pictograph lettering, and he relied on stereotypes of culture and attire for the cartoon.

President William H. Taft, as Saint Patrick, wears a miter with the spectacles and grin of Theodore Roosevelt on it. Carrying Roosevelt’s big stick wrapped in “His Policies,” he strides ashore toward lizards, snakes, and frogs labeled “Aldrich, Cannon, Rockefeller, Harriman, Land Grafter, Ship Subsidy, Beef Trust, [and] ‘Preserved’ Food.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Barely weeks into his Administration, President William H. Taft is in Puck Magazine’s honeymoon phase, depicted in the cover cartoon by L. M. Glackens as a Saint Patrick who legendarily drove snakes from Ireland. Taft, caricatured as almost thin — anyway, not of the roly-poly corpulence in campaign cartoons — and earnestly about good deeds.

An oversized, bloated man labeled “Protected Monopoly” receives a blood transfusion from Uncle Sam who is being attended to by (left to right) Vice President J. S. Sherman; Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (Rhode Island); Representative Sereno Elisha Payne (New York); and Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon. Sherman stands on the left, on a stepladder, taking the pulse of the “Protected Monopoly.” Caption: “Uncle Sam–They say he needs it, but he doesn’t look sick to me.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The subject of the cartoon is the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909, the first upward revision of rates since 1897; and which proved massively unpopular with voters, particularly farmers. The Republican tariff was so unpopular that the party suffered major defeats in the 1910 midterm elections. President William H. Taft attempted to ameliorate the perennial tariff woes by drafting reciprocity treaties with many countries, but even the difficult Canadian negotiations could not please the angry consumers and disaffected voters.

Joseph Gurney Cannon, holding a rifle, stands with John Dalzell and Nelson W. Aldrich, operating a moonshine still at the opening to a cave in a wilderness area. A retort is connected to a barrel labeled “‘Still’ Legislation.” On a rock in the foreground is a shadow of a bust portrait in profile of Theodore Roosevelt. Caption: Or, the mooonshiners of Capitol Hill.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This January 1909 cartoon — published in advance of President Roosevelt’s presidential retirement in March — nevertheless showed the influences still held by the president, a check on then schemes of Old Guard leadership in Congress.

Theodore Roosevelt finds that the old parties of Massachusetts are “wedded to their idols” and do not offer any hope to the “man of vision.” He feels that there was “no surer touchstone of Bourbonism” than the support of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act. He urges the people of Massachusetts to remember that the present Wilson tariff, or the Revenue Act of 1913, was rendered possible only by the passing of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act and that the men who supported it represented the “extreme of reactionary Bourbonism within the Republican Party” against the interests of the American people. Roosevelt warns the people of Massachusetts that the man who supports the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act “has his face toward the past” and will lead the state “backward against the current of proper political development.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1914