U.S. senator Nelson W. Aldrich wields enormous…

U.S. senator Nelson W. Aldrich wields enormous power in the Senate on behalf of the Republican majority from 1897.

A multimillionaire businessman elected as Senator form Rhode Island in 1882, by the 1890s he was one of the "Big Four" key Republicans who largely control the major decisions of the Senate, along with Orville H. Platt of Connecticut, William B. Allison of Iowa and John Coit Spooner of Wisconsin.

Aldrich's main power base is his chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee which oversees bank regulation and monetary policy.