ful, and his influence upon the honorable
Senate and the country at large beneficial to himself and helpful to
his race.

In the convention of the Republican party at Chicago, in 1880, he was
a candidate for Vice-President. In the spring of 1881, after the close
of his senatorial career the President nominated him to be Register of
the United States Treasury, and the nomination was confirmed without
reference, after a complimentary speech from his associate, Senator L.
Q. C. Lamar. He has appeared as a political speaker on several
occasions. As nature did not intend him for this work, his efforts
appear to be the products of hard labor, but nevertheless excellent;
his estimable and scholarly wife (_nee_ Miss Wilson, of Cleveland,
Ohio) has been a great blessing to him;--a good wife and a helpful
companion. From a penniless slave he has risen to the position of
writing his name upon the currency of the country. Register Bruce is a
genial gentleman, a fast friend, and an able officer.

John Mercer Langston was born a slave in Virginia; is a graduate of
Oberlin College and Theological Institution, and as a lawyer, college
president, foreign minister, and politician, has exerted a wide
influence for the good of his race. As Secretary of the Board of
Health for the District of Columbia, and as President of the Howard
University, he displayed remarkable executive ability and sound
business judgment. He is one of the bravest of the brave in public
matters, and his influence upon young Colored men has been wide-spread
and admirable. He is now serving as Resident Minister and
Consul-General to Hayti; and ranks among the best diplomats of our
Government.

In Massachusetts, Charles L. Mitchell, George L. Ruffin, John J.
Smith, J. B. Smith, and Wm. J. Walker have been members of the
Legislature. In Illinois, a Colored man has held a position in the
Board of Commissioners for Cook County--Chicago; and one has been sent
to the Legislature. In Ohio, two Colored men have been members of the
Legislature, one from Cincinnati and the other from Cleveland. Gov.
Charles Foster was the first Executive in any of the Northern States
to appoint a Colored man to a responsible position; and in this, as in
nearly every other thing, Ohio has taken the lead. The present member
(John P. Green) of the Legislature of Ohio representing Cuyahoga
County, is a young man of excellent abilities both as a lawyer and as
an orator. John P. Green was born at