Hon. John D. Long, the thirty-second governor of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, under the Constitution, and whose wise,
prudent administration reflected great credit upon himself, was born in
Buckfield, Maine, October 27, 1838.
His father was a man of some prominence in the Pine Tree State, and in
the year in which his more distinguished son first saw the light, he ran
for Congress on the Whig ticket, and although receiving a plurality of
the votes cast, he was defeated.
The son was a studious lad, more fond of his books than of play, and
thought more of obtaining a solid education than of developing his
muscles as an athlete. At the proper age he entered the academy at
Hebron, the principal of which was at that time Mark H. Dunnell,
subsequently a member of Congress from Minnesota.
At the age of fourteen, young Long entered the Freshman class at Harvard
College. He at once took high rank, stood fourth in his class for the
course, and second at the end of the Senior year. He was the author of
the class ode, sung on Commencement day.
After leaving College, Mr. Long was engaged as principal of the Westford
Academy, an old institution incorporated in 1793. He remained at
Westford two years, highly esteemed by his pupils and beloved of the
whole people. As a teacher, he won marked success, and many of his
contemporaries regret that he did not always remain in the profession.
But he cherished another, if not a higher ambition. From Westford he
passed to the Harvard Law School, and to the offices of Sidney Bartlett
and Peleg W. Chandler, in Boston. In 1861, he was admitted to the bar,
and then he opened an office in his native town, to practise his new
profession.
He soon found, however, that Buckfield was not the place for him.
People there were far too honest and peace-loving, and minded their own
business too well to assist in building up a lawyer's reputation. After
a two years' stay, therefore, he removed to Boston, and entered the
office of Stillman B. Allen, where he rapidly gained an extensive
practice. The firm, which consisted of Mr. Allen, Mr. Long, Thomas
Savage and Alfred Hemenway, had their offices on Court Street, in an old
building now on the site of the new Young's Hotel. Mr. Long remained in
the firm until his election, in November, 1879, to the governorship of
Massachusetts.
In 1870, he was married to Miss Mary W. Glover of Hingham,
Massachusetts, to which town he had previously removed his residence.
During his executive administration, he had the great misfortune to
undergo bereavement by the loss of this most estimable lady, whose wise
counsel often lent him encouragement in the perplexed days of his
official life.
In 1875, Mr. Long was chosen to represent the Republicans of the second
Plymouth District in the legislature. He at once took a prominent
position, and gained great popularity with his fellow members. In 1876,
he was re-elected to the House, and soon after he was chosen speaker.
This position he filled with dignity, grace, and with an ease surpassed
by no speaker before him or since. He showed himself thoroughly versed
in parliamentary practice, and his tact was indeed something remarkable.
So great was his popularity that, in 1877, he had every vote which was
cast for speaker, and in the following year every vote but six.
In the fall of 1877, the Republican State Convention assembled at
Worcester, and it at once became apparent that many of the delegates
were desirous to vote for Mr. Speaker Long for the highest office in the
Commonwealth. At the convention he received, however, only 217 votes for
candidate; and his name was then withdrawn. At the convention of 1878,
he again found numerous supporters, and received 266 votes for Governor.
He was then nominated for Lieutenant Governor by a very large majority,
and was elected. In the convention of 1879, Governor Thomas Talbot
declining a re-nomination, Lieutenant Governor Long received 669 votes
to 505 votes for the Hon. Henry L. Pierce, and was nominated and
elected, having 122,751 votes to 109,149 for General Benjamin F. Butler,
9,989 for John Quincy Adams, and 1,635 for the Rev D.C. Eddy, D.D.
On the fifteenth of September, 1880, Governor Long was re-nominated by
acclamation, and in November he was re-elected by a plurality of about
52,000 votes,--the largest plurality given for any candidate for the
governorship of Massachusetts since the presidential year of 1872. He
continued to hold the office, by re-election until January, 1883.
Several important acts were passed during the administration of Governor
Long, and notably among these was an act fixing the penalties for
drunkeness,--an act providing that no person who has been served in the
United State army or navy, and has been honorably discharged from the
service, if otherwise qualified to vote, shall be debarred from voting
on account of his being a pauper, or, if a pauper, because of the
non-payment of a poll tax,--an act which obviated many of the evils of
double taxation by providing that, when any person has an interest in
taxable real estate as holders of a mortgage, given to secure the
payment of a loan, the amount of which is fixed and stated, the amount
of said person's interest as mortgagee shall be assessed as real estate
in the city or town where the land lies, and the mortgagor shall be
assessed only for the value of said real estate, less the mortgagee's
interest in it.
The creditable manner in which Mr. Long conducted the affairs of the
State induced his constituents to send him as their representative in
Washington. He was elected a member of the Forty-eighth Congress, and is
now a member also of the Forty-ninth. His record thus far has been
altogether honorable and characterized by a sturdy watchfulness of the
interests entrusted to his care.
As a man of letters. Governor Long has achieved a reputation. Some years
ago, he produced a scholarly translation, in blank verse, of Virgil's
_Æneid_, which was published in 1879 in Boston. It has found many
admirers among students of classical literature. Governor Long, amid
busy professional and official duties, has also written several poems
and essays which reflect credit upon his heart and brain. His inaugural
addresses were masterpieces of literary art, and the same can be said of
his speeches on the floor of Congress, all of them, polished, forceful
and to the point.
Mr. Long is a very fluent speaker, and, without oratorical display, he
always succeeds in winning the attention of his auditors. It is what he
says, more than how he says it, that has won for him his great
popularity on the platform. When, in February last, the Washington
monument was dedicated, he it was that was chosen to read the
magnificent oration of Robert C. Winthrop.
As a specimen of Mr. Long's happy way of expressing timely thoughts, the
following passage, selected from an address which he delivered at
Tremont Temple, Boston, on Memorial Day, 1881, deserves to be read:--
"Scarce a town is there--from Boston, with its magnificent column
crowned with the statue of America at the dedication of which even the
conquered Southron came to pay honor, to the humblest stone in rural
villages--in which these monuments do not rise summer and winter, in
snow and sun, day and night, to tell how universal was the response of
Massachusetts to the call of the patriots' duty, whether it rang above
the city's din or broke the quiet of the farm. On city square and
village green stand the graceful figures of student, clerk, mechanic,
farmer, in that endeared and never-to-be-forgotten war-uniform of the
soldier or the sailor, their stern young faces to the front, still on
guard, watching the work they wrought in the flesh, and teaching in
eloquent silence the lesson of the citizen's duty to the state, How our
children will study these! How they will search and read their names!
How quaint and antique to them will seem their arms and costume! How
they will gather and store up in their minds the fine, insensibly
filtering percolation of the sentiment of valor, of loyalty, of fight
for right, of resistance against wrong, just as we inherited all this
from the Revolutionary era, so that, when some crisis shall in the
future come to them, as it came to us, they will spring to the rescue,
as sprang our youth, in the beauty and chivalry of the consciousness
of a noble descent."
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