Washington Politics and Distinguished Guests
Over several decades, Wharton lobbied successfully in Washington, D.C. for tariff laws protecting U.S. manufacturing. He was a defender of large business and evolved into a staunch Republican. He successfully lobbied for the use of nickel in the U.S. coinage, but his lobbying for nickel tariffs was only partially successful, probably because he had a virtual monopoly on production in the U.S. In 1873 the world was in a very trying economic depression and many industrial firms went bankrupt. Wharton became widely known as a leader of the Industrial League of manufacturing concerns, and the main lobbyist and President of the American Iron and Steel Institute. He was a personal friend and consultant with several presidents including Grant, Hayes, and Harrison. Wharton entertained distinguished internationally-known guests such as biologists Thomas Huxley and Joseph Leidy, astronomer Samuel Langley, scientist Lord Kelvin, Senators James Blaine and Justin Morrill, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, and metallurgist Alfred Krupp. Wharton successfully lobbied for a bill in the Pennsylvania General Assembly supporting Limited Partnerships to allow more participation of capital in enterprises with risk.
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““If Washington were President now, he would have to learn our ways or lose his next election. Only fools and theorists imagine that our society can be handled with gloves or long poles. One must make one’s self a part of it. If virtue won’t answer our purpose, we must use vice, or our opponents will put us out of office, and this was as true in Washington’s day as it is now, and always will be.””
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—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“When the guests have left, the host is at peace.”
—Chinese proverb.