SW1NTON, John, journalist, born in Salton, Haddingtonshire, Scotland, 12 December, 1830. He received his early education from his uncle, the Reverend Robert Currie, emigrated in 1843 to Canada, and afterward to the United States, with his family, learned the printer's trade in Illinois, and practised it for some time in New York city. He then received a course of classical instruction at Williston seminary, Massachusetts, and afterward travelled extensively through the United States. Feeling an abhorrence for slavery, he left Charleston, South Carolina, where he resided at the time, in order to take an active part in the free-state contest in Kansas. He returned to New York city in 1857, and began the study of medicine. While thus engaged he contributed articles to the " Times," afterward accepted an editorial place on that paper, and soon became managing editor. During the absences of Henry J. Raymond he had the sole control, and wrote a large number of the leading articles. He resigned the post of managing editor at the close of the war, on account of impaired health, but continued his connection with the journal as an editorial writer till the death of Mr. Raymond. Subsequently he was managing editor of the New York "Sun." He became a leader in the movement for labor-re-forms, and in 1883 severed his connection with the "Sun" in order to expound his political and social views in a weekly journal that he called "John Swinton's Paper," which he ceased to publish in 1887. Besides other pamphlets, he has published "New Issue: the Chinese American Question" (New York, 1,870), and also a "Eulogy on Henry J. Raymond (1870); "John Swinton's Travels" (1880); and an "Oration on John Brown" (1881). --His brother, William, author, born in Salton, Scotland, 23 April, 1833, was educated at Knox college, Toronto, and at Amherst, with the intention of becoming a Presbyterian minister, and in 1853 began to preach, but adopted the profession of teaching. He was professor of ancient and modern languages at the Edgeworth female seminary, Greensborough, North Carolina, in 1853-'4, and afterward went to New York city to take a professorship in Mr. Washington collegiate institute. While in the south he contributed to "Putnam's Monthly" some critical and philosophical articles, and a series of etymological studies that were afterward published under the title of "Rambles among Words : their Poetry and Wisdom" (New York, 1859; London, 1861). Having previously contributed articles to the New York "Times," he was taken on the staff of that journal in 1858, and in 1862 went to the seat of war as a correspondent. He was equipped for this work by close study of military art, and he discussed tactical movements with such freedom that in 1864 General Ambrose E. Burnside, whom he had criticised in his letters, procured an order for his exclusion from the camps of the army. He also, at a later date, incurred the displeasure of General Grant. In 1867 he travelled through the southern states and collected material for a history of the war from the military and civil leaders of the Confederacy. Returning to the office of the "Times," he resumed the work of literary criticism, in which province he had gained a reputation before he became a war-correspondent. Before abandoning journalism, he published in newspaper articles and in a pamphlet an exposure of the machinations of railroad financiers to procure subsidies. In 1869 he became professor of belles-lettres in the University of California, where he remained for five years. Subsequently he made Brooklyn, New York, his residence, devoting himself to the composition of educational works, most of which were widely adopted in public and private schools. For a series of these, which cover most of the studies pursued in schools, he received a gold medal at the Paris exposition of 1867 "for educational works of remarkable originality and value." His principal military works are "The 'Times's' Review of McClellan : his Military Career Reviewed and Exposed" (1864) ; "Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac: a Critical History of Operations in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania" (1866 ; revised ed., 1886) ; "The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War : a History of the Eastern and Western Campaigns in Relation to the Actions that Decided their Issue" (1867) ; and "History of the New York Seventh Regiment during the War of the Rebellion" (Boston, 1870).