[4] Low attended Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn and Columbia College.

After graduating from Columbia in 1870, Low made a short trip abroad, and then entered the tea and silk house of A.

During this period, the reform movement, of which Low was a stalwart, denounced emergency assistance of potatoes and flour for the poor.

[4] Low accepted the nomination at the Republican city convention, making it clear that he would not be a partisan mayor.

[4] Although the Democrats ran the weak, nearly unknown candidate Joseph C. Hendrix in 1883, Low beat him by a slimmer margin than his first election.

[5] He led the move of the institution from Midtown Manhattan to Morningside Heights, and secured trustee approval to change its name to "Columbia University".

The new campus matched Low's vision of a civic university fully integrated into the city; the original design subsequently reconceived, left it open to the street and surrounding neighborhoods.

Further reforms effected by him include the reorganization of the Law School, the addition of a faculty of pure science, the association of the university with the Teachers College, and the extension of the department of political and social study.

[5] In 1895, he gave one million dollars of his inheritance from his father for Low Memorial Library to be built at the new Columbia University campus.

We cannot forget that our flag received its first foreign salute from a Dutch officer, nor that the Province of Friesland gave to our independence its first formal recognition.

By way of Leyden and Delft-Haven and Plymouth Rock, and again by way of New Amsterdam, the free public school reached American shores.

These are some of the things for which we believe the American people owe no little gratitude to the Dutch; and these are the things for which today, speaking in the name of the American people, we venture to express their heartfelt thanks.Low's first campaign for mayor of consolidated New York in 1897 was unsuccessful, partially because of a division among anti-Tammany Hall candidates and parties.

He stands out as the first mayor of Greater New York to be elected on a fusion ticket, with the support of both the Citizens Union and Republican parties.

Even though he believed in collective bargaining rights, which had customarily been denied to labor unions by those in authority, he did not favor strikes, but rather embraced arbitration as a suitable labor-management negotiation tactic.

[5] Low became interested in the food supply problem, that is its contribution to the constantly increasing cost of living.

Even his funeral demonstrated the ability of Low to reach political consensus, with honorary pallbearers that included both financier and philanthropist J. P. Morgan Jr. and labor activist and AFL founder Samuel Gompers.