of his own nature, and no external surroundings can raise him to a place higher than that to which his own genius may lift him. I claim to rank as a merchant; as a merchant I believe I hold a public office. I desire no prouder honor than to hold humble rank with men who have so distinguished their class. I regard honorable distinction as a merchant as infinitely more valuable than I do the highest glory that can come from any office in the gift of people or President. Whose name stands higher in the catalogue of merchants, higher in the roll of fame, higher in the annals of history, than that of George Peabody? What office in the gift of Prince, Potentate, or President, can confer such distinction as has been earned by this simple, unpretending merchant and banker? Indeed, does not his name shine out more glowingly than that of any Prince or President himself? And this, not because he has become possessed of huge wealth, but because his mind has been disciplined while accumulating that wealth, to a correct knowledge of the uses to which it should be applied, which so few understand. Such men, too, were Robert B. Minturn, Jonathan Goodhue, and Peter Cooper, now living, and a host of others.

Mr. Swain not only possesses the faculty of expressing himself readily and neatly on public occasions, but he is also peculiarly happy in the composition of addresses, while his pen has frequently been engaged in contributions to the press, both by editorials and communications, on a variety of subjects, but usually in the discussion of topics of pressing public interest. His style is compact and logical, and when occasion seems to require it, men and measures are handled with a force and directness that leaves nothing to be inferred.

In retiring from the responsibilities and cares of office, he gladly resumed his place as a private citizen, enabling him to pursue his regular mercantile business, which, however, he had never abandoned during his superintendency of the Mint. The office came to him unsought, and he left it without regret, satisfied to know that the department over which he had presided for so many years, continually enjoyed the confidence of the people and of the Government, that in the discharge of his duty he established many valuable precedents which no successor can set aside, and that during his official career not a word was whispered even among his political enemies against the upright management of an institution which sends forth two-thirds of the coinage of the country.

Notwithstanding that he has figured conspicuously as a man of affairs-as a public man-those who know him intimately are aware that he does not court prominence or notoriety-has no ambition to be a leader. If he has taken a leading part in public matters, it was with the consciousness that duty demanded the consecration of time and influence to useful objects, and the building up of a purer and more elevated tone of society, while his own impulses leaned to the studious seclusion of his library or the quiet of his legitimate calling. Together with a strict fidelity to every engagement, and unclouded clearness and accuracy in business, he has a cheerful, elastic, ingenuous manner that invites confidence, and is in keeping with a kindly, sympathetic nature. Still in the prime of life, Mr. Swain has been fortunate in retaining, through many years, all his valuable early friendships, while the range of his commercial connections has widely extended on both sides of the continent.

FREDERICK F. LOW.

BY WILLIAM Y. WELLS.

THE HE appointment of Governor Low as United States Minister to China, while regarded as a fitting recognition of his services in the several honorable stations he has occupied under the Federal and State Governments, was particularly pleasing to Californians-not only his intimate friends, but the community at large. The increasing importance of California, and its position relatively to China, seem especially to designate that State as a point from which to select envoys to the Asiatic countries bordering on the Pacific; a policy, however, which has too often been overlooked by administrations previous to that of President Grant. But Mr. Low, although a Californian proper, made so by twenty years' residence in the land of gold, has a reputation somewhat national in character, having filled the offices of Collector of the Port of San Francisco and Member of Congress, both during periods of great public agitation, and when abilities of no ordinary kind were demanded; and the same may be said of his term as Governor of California. He is not only a representative Californian, but a representative American, and is endowed with those qualities of mind which eminently fit him for a leading foreign mission. In view of the international questions incident to our proximity to the vast populations across the Pacific, the Chinese Mission rises to the first importance. Our

representative to that ancient Government is liable to have submitted to his judgment, subjects involving commercial and maritime issues of incalculable weight. A third of the human race live opposite to us; and these nervously active and imitative people are brought by the modern appliances of steam travel nearer to the factories of the North and the cotton fields of the South than England was forty years ago, when European labor reached America by sailing craft, sometimes occupying six weeks in crossing the Atlantic. The natural anxiety which all feel who are interested in our relations with China was relieved upon the announcement of the name of the new Minister, from whose good sense, tact, and experience, much was to be expected.

Mr. Low was born in 1828, in the State of Maine, where his ancestors were among the earliest settlers. After completing an academical education, he engaged in mercantile pursuits in Boston, whence he came to California in 1849, arriving in San Francisco in the height of the gold excitement on the first trip of the steamship Panama, in June of that year. Continuing business as a merchant in San Francisco until 1854, he went to Marysville in the following year, where he established a banking house, and was widely known as a prosperous banker. In 1861, he was elected to the thirty-seventh Congress, and repairing to Washington took an active part in the vital issues then convulsing the nation. The civil war had broken out, and during the whole of his Congressional term every hour was big with events in which the national existence was at stake between contending armies. The record of Mr. Low finds him ever prompt, energetic, and uncompromising in his devotion to the cause of the Union. The limits of our sketch will not admit of more than this condensed allusion to his course at that time, familiar as it is to the general reader for its unshaken patriotism. In counsel with statesmen of veteran experience, his clearness of discernment and fertility of resource were ever apparent in times of emergency. At the expiration of his term in the spring of 1863, he was appointed by President Lincoln Collector

of the Port of San Francisco, succeeding Ira P. Rankin; and here, as in the halls of Congress, he showed an aptitude for business, and a quick comprehension of intricate revenue questions, that commanded the respect of the merchants with whom he came in contact. Soon after assuming the office of Collector, he was elected Governor of California, and entered upon his duties in December, 1863, serving the full term of four years, when, in 1867, he returned to private life.

This, in brief, is the public career of Mr. Low. We believe it will be universally conceded that we have in no respect overestimated his services or abilities. During the larger portion of his term as Governor the civil war was raging, and his activity in holding California true to the Union gave great satisfaction to the Government and to the people of this coast. He devoted himself to the finances of the State, and by his prudence, sagacity, and business intelligence, cleared off the floating debt, amounting to something like $1,000,000, and placed the State Treasury on a cash basis. His administration was distinguished for unflinching opposition to all special and local bills, and a determined enmity to such as were calculated to squander the funds of the State for the benefit of individuals. His veto of several bills granting aid to railroads, and for other similar schemes, gave him the unlimited confidence of the people. His inaugural and messages, terse, vigorous and practical, were generally-admired as lucid expositions of the state of public affairs, for the clear comprehension of which, his experience as merchant, banker, and legislator had given him peculiar advantages. He declined a renomination in 1867, which, in the language of one of the leading journals of California, was the mistake of his life, and a great mistake for his party. The appointment of Minister to China was tendered to him by President Grant without solicitation, and his acceptance of that important and delicate mission was more in deference to the wishes of the leading business men of the Pacific coast than to his own inclination. He has naturally given considerable attention to the various difficult questions accompanying our increased intimacy