John Davis Long

John Davis Long
34th United States Secretary of the Navy
In office March 6, 1897 – April 30, 1902
President	William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	Hilary A. Herbert
Succeeded by	William Henry Moody
32nd Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 8, 1880 – January 4, 1883
Lieutenant	Byron Weston
Preceded by	Thomas Talbot
Succeeded by	Benjamin Franklin Butler
31st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 2, 1879 – January 8, 1880
Governor	Thomas Talbot
Preceded by	Horatio G. Knight
Succeeded by	Byron Weston
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 2nd district
In office March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1889
Preceded by	Benjamin W. Harris
Succeeded by	Elijah A. Morse
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
In office 1874
Personal details
Born	October 27, 1838 Buckfield, Maine
Died	August 28, 1915 (aged 76) Hingham, Massachusetts
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary W. Glover (her death) Agnes Pierce
Children	Margaret Long Helen Long Pierce Long
Alma mater	Harvard University
Profession	lawyer, politician
Signature

John Davis Long (October 27, 1838 – August 28, 1915) was an American lawyer, politician, and writer from Massachusetts. He was the 32nd Governor of Massachusetts, serving between 1880 and 1883. He later served as the Secretary of the Navy from 1897 to 1902, a period that notably included the primarily naval Spanish–American War.

Born in Buckfield, Maine, Long was educated a lawyer at Harvard, and then settled in Hingham, Massachusetts. He became active in Republican Party politics in the 1870s, winning election to the state legislature in 1874. He rose rapidly in prominence, and was elected lieutenant governor in 1879 and governor in 1880. He advocated modest reforms during his three years as governor, which were relatively undistinguished.

After returning to private practice he was offered a cabinet post by his friend, President William McKinley, in 1896. He chose to become Secretary of the Navy despite lacking detailed knowledge of naval matters. He clashed with his Under-Secretary, Theodore Roosevelt, over expansion of the Navy, but did so when the Spanish–American War broke out in 1898. He resigned the post after Roosevelt became president, and resumed his law practice. He died at his home in 1915; his publications include a lifelong journal, a history of the Spanish–American War, and a verse translation of Virgil's Aeneid.

Early years

John Davis Long was born in Buckfield, Maine on October 27, 1838, to Zadoc Long and Julia Temple (Davis) Long. He was named for Massachusetts Governor John Davis, a cousin of his mother's father. He received his primary education at Hebron Academy, and then attended Harvard, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1857.^[1][2] At Harvard he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity's Alpha chapter.^[3] While at Harvard he wrote both prose and verse for a student magazine, and was chosen to write an ode for his class's graduation.^[4] He also began a private journal some time before his arrival at Harvard, which he maintained with some regularity for his entire life.^[5]

After a two-year stint as headmaster of the Westford Academy in Westford, Massachusetts, Long went to Harvard Law School, and became a member of the Massachusetts bar in 1861.^[1] He practiced law, first without success in Buckfield, and then in Boston, and was active in the state militia during the American Civil War.^[6] He settled into a home in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1869, and the following year married Mary Woodford Glover of Hingham.^[1] The couple had two daughters (and one stillborn birth) before her death in 1882.^[7]

Massachusetts politics

Long began his involvement in politics at the local level in Hingham in 1870.^[8] Temperance was a major issue which dominated his political beliefs.^[9] His early politics was somewhat independent: he supported the reformist Republican Benjamin Butler for governor in 1871, but received an unsolicited Democratic nomination later that year for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He did not campaign, and lost the election.^[10] Nominated by both Democrats and reformist Republicans in 1872, he lost again. He thereafter became more of a Republican stalwart, convinced that reform would be best accomplished from within the party organization.^[11]

In 1874 Long chaired the state Republican convention, and finally won election to the state legislature. He formed a close relationship with Speaker John E. Sanford, and in a politically calculated move, supported the successful gubernatorial candidate in 1875, Alexander H. Rice, even though Rice supported liberal legislation on alcohol sales that Long opposed. He was able to parlay this support into his own election to the speakership in 1876.^[12] He widened his reform views to the national stage by supporting Benjamin Bristow in his unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination.^[13]

In 1878 Long unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent Rice for the gubernatorial nomination.^[14] When Rice announced his retirement the following year, Long again sought the nomination. It went to former Lieutenant Governor Thomas Talbot, but Long won the lieutenant governor nomination by acclamation.^[15] The Democratic opposition was divided by Benjamin Butler's return to that party, and the Republican ticket won the general election.^[16] Long capitalized on Talbot's avoidance of public ceremonies to maintain a high profile despite his post's relative unimportance. He was easily nominated for governor when Talbot announced he would not run for reelection, despite a lack of support from the party leadership.^[15] The election was highly divisive, pitting Long against Butler and the divided Democrats.^[16][17] Long was criticized for his lack of Civil War service and attacked for his diversions from the party line, but won a comfortable victory. He was reelected by comfortable margins the two following years.^[18]

Long's time as governor was relatively uneventful. He proposed a number of modest reforms, including a measured expansion of women's voting rights (then restricted to voting for school committees), and allowing women to sit on state boards. Most of these reforms were not implemented during his tenure, although some were later enacted into law by his successors.^[19] He kept a busy schedule, attending all manner of civic events across the state.^[18]

In one of his last acts as governor, he appointed Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The lame duck appointment was occasioned by the sudden resignation of Otis Lord, a Republican who may have resigned in order to deny the appointment opportunity to the incoming Democratic Governor, Benjamin Butler.^[20] The appointment was made on December 8, 1882, the last day of Long's term when the Governor's Council (which had to approve the appointment) was scheduled to meet.^[21]

Long was elected to the United States Congress in the 1882 election, and served until 1889, declining to run for reelection in the 1888 election.^[22] In 1886 he was encouraged to stand for the Senate by Henry Cabot Lodge, although Lodge's support was apparently part of a ruse to test the strength of the state party leadership. Lodge withdrew his support at the last minute, throwing it instead to the incumbent Henry L. Dawes, and the legislature reelected Dawes to the seat. The incident cooled relations between Lodge and Long.^[23] In the wheeling and dealing that preceded the Senate election, Long was offered Democratic support by Butler, but refused, believing that such votes would be seen as tainted by an unsavory political deal.^[24]

Long's tenure in Congress was uneventful, since the Congress was under Democratic Party control for the six years he served.^[25] In addition to lobbying the administration for patronage appointments, he sat on a joint committee examining interests of shipbuilding and shipowners, as well as on conference committees dealing with pensions and Navy financing.^[26] In 1886 Long married again, to Agnes Pierce, a teacher and daughter of a Universalist minister; they had one son, born in 1887.^[27]

Long decided in 1888 not to run for another term in Congress,^[25] and spent the next eight years in private practice. His clients were typically corporate interests, and he appeared on their behalf in court as well as in legislative committee hearings. He was sought after as a public speaker, something he engaged in for many years.^[28] He remained somewhat active in Republican Party circles, supporting Roger Wolcott's Young Men's Republican Club, which sought to bring new blood into the party. When offered the opportunity to challenge longtime Republican Senator George Frisbie Hoar, he refused.^[29] In 1889 he was appointed to the committee overseeing the enlargement of the Massachusetts State House, a post he held until 1897.^[30]

Secretary of the Navy

While in Congress Long had become a close friend of William McKinley, who was elected President in 1896.^[2] McKinley offered Long his choice of several cabinet posts;^[31] Long chose to become Secretary of the Navy, and he was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 2, 1897.^[2] The appointment brought on a storm of criticism from Henry Cabot Lodge. Lodge had been elected to the Senate, dominated the Republican Party in Massachusetts, and had expected to have a say in choosing a cabinet nominee in return for his support of McKinley. One of Lodge's supporters complained that Long was in poor health, and that he would not give the administration "back-bone and vigor".^[32] (Long had recently stepped back from his law practice after suffering a nervous breakdown.)^[33]

Theodore Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1898

Lodge compensated for the setback by helping secure the position of Assistant Secretary for Theodore Roosevelt, a brash and aggressive New Yorker.^[34] Long and Roosevelt did not get along: in addition to personality differences, Roosevelt pushed a view to aggressively modernize and expand the Navy, while Long took a more studied and conservative approach. He preferred to expand the Navy more gradually as the nation's global interests grew, and committed himself to its peaceful growth in line with McKinley's policies. As a result of his disagreements with Roosevelt Long took steps to minimize the amount of power his subordinate could exercise.^[2] Roosevelt, on the other hand, sought ways to spur Long into action, writing "I only wish that I could poison his mind so as to make him a shade more truculent in international matters."^[35] He also chafed against Long's policy of deferring much of the department's work to its permanent bureau chiefs, which resulted in constraints on the flow of information to the administration.^[36] (Long was somewhat proud of the fact that he knew little of the detail of naval affairs, commenting that he was "a civilian who does not know the stem from the stern of a ship".)^[37]

Long believed that ongoing tensions with Spain were unlikely to lead to war, and even if they did, that the war would be easily won.^[38] He consequently did not take significant steps to prepare the Navy for that contingency.^[2] In January 1898 he ordered the USS Maine to Havana, Cuba, as a matter of "customary relations", although he and McKinley were concerned for the safety of Americans in Cuba due to the ongoing Cuban War of Independence.^[39] By early February 1898 the tensions had reached crisis proportions, and Long was compelled to begin drawing up plans for war. The explosion and sinking of the Maine at Havana on February 15 was the spark that ignited the Spanish–American War. The administration continued to be opposed to war, but the public outcry over the sinking could not be ignored. Ten days after the sinking of the Maine Long took a day off, and Roosevelt used his authority in Long's absence to issue a number of orders designed to increase the Navy's readiness for war, including famously ordering Commodore George Dewey into an aggressive offensive posture in the Spanish Philippines. Long countermanded some of Roosevelt's orders afterward, but began stepping up naval war preparations.^[40]

The loss of the Maine highlighted to the administration the nation's shortage of modern warships, setting off a scramble for the acquisition of more ships.^[41] One significant order Long gave was to transfer the USS Oregon, one of the Navy's most powerful ships, from the west coast to the Caribbean;^[42] the ship made the journey around Cape Horn from San Francisco to Key West, Florida, in 66 days, a remarkable achievement.^[43] When the war was declared in April 1898 Roosevelt resigned his post the next month, a move Long thought foolhardy but later acknowledged was significant in advancing Roosevelt's career.^[44]

Long directed the Navy's activities throughout the war, significantly increasing its size in the process.^[45] He ordered Dewey to neutralize the Spanish fleet in the Philippines, ordered the seizure of Spanish Guam, and worked to support a blockade and offensive operations against Cuba.^[46][47][48] He also directed naval resources into threatening postures against mainland Spain to encourage the Spanish recall of a fleet destined for the Philippines.^[49]

In response to increasing pressure from Navy brass, Long moved to create a permanent advisory staff after the war. The board, created in March 1900, was designed to unify the work of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Naval War College, and the fleet leadership for the production of war plans and the proper preparation, planning, and deployment of naval resources in pursuit of objectives defined in those plans.^[50] After the war Long moved forward plans to establish a naval base in the Philippines, but funding for the plans was held up in Congress, which repeatedly sought review of potential base locations in the islands.^[51] The matter was also caught up in branch rivalry with the War Department, which objected to the Navy's establishment of a permanent base there that was not under its authority. Construction of the Subic Bay Naval Base did not begin until after Long left office.^[52]

Long was promoted as a potential vice presidential candidate by the Massachusetts delegation to the 1900 Republican National Convention, and was a personal favorite of McKinley's for the position.^[53][54] However, party leaders objected to him on geographic grounds,^[53] and Lodge (with whom Long continued to feud) disingenuously wore a Long banner while supporting Roosevelt, who easily won the nomination. The McKinley–Roosevelt ticket won the election, and Long decided to stay on for McKinley's second term.^[54]

Later years

After McKinley was assassinated in September 1901, Long had a change of heart, and tendered his resignation to President Roosevelt on May 1, 1902. The exact reasons for this are unclear, but several factors probably contributed. First, Roosevelt had a close relationship with Long's political rival Lodge, was known to disagree with Long on naval matters, and was not welcoming of his presence at the White House. Second, an inquiry into the actions of Admiral Winfield Scott Schley around the July 1898 Battle of Santiago de Cuba had resulted in a significant amount of criticism of Long's role in the war. Third, one of his daughters died in October 1901, less than a month after McKinley's assassination.^[55] These matters drove Long into a depression, and the situation was further exacerbated when Roosevelt squabbled with him over the beginning of the war, and then made newsworthy overrides of some of his decisions.^[56] Historian Wendell Garrett notes that Roosevelt took a great personal interest in the Navy, and had difficulty working with subsequent secretaries.^[57]

Long returned to Massachusetts, where he resumed his law practice and remained interested in party politics. He sat on a few corporate boards, and served as president of the Puritan Trust Company.^[58] He continued to advocate for women's suffrage, and served on the boards of several private schools, include his alma mater, Hebron Academy. He regularly spent time in Maine (having in 1882 repurchased the family home in Buckfield), and fell ill there in August 1915. He returned home to Hingham, where he died on August 28.^[59]

Writings and legacy

In addition to Long's extensive journal, he wrote on a variety of other subjects. During his unsuccessful attempt to start a law practice in Buckfield he produced a paper on Congressional power and slavery.^[7] While in Boston in the eary 1860s he had a play produced locally.^[60] In 1878 he produced a verse translation of Virgil's Aeneid.^[61] In 1903 he published The New American Navy, a history of the Spanish–American War and the development of the Navy during that time.^[62]

Among Long's charitable works was funding the establishment of a public library in Buckfield in 1900, which is now known as the Zadoc Long Free Library.^[63] USS Long (DD-209) was named in his honor.^[64]

Publications

As author

• Virgil (1879). The Æneid of Virgil. Long, John Davis (trans.). Boston: Lockwood Brooks. OCLC 503897508.
• Long, John Davis (1903). The New American Navy, Volume 1. New York: The Outlook Company. OCLC 225348.
• Long, John Davis (1903). The New American Navy, Volume 2. New York: The Outlook Company. OCLC 225348.
• Long, John Davis (1939). Papers of John Davis Long, 1897–1904. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society. OCLC 616782.
• Long, John Davis (1956). Long, Margaret, ed. The Journal of John D. Long. Rindge, NH: R. Smith. OCLC 614736339.

As editor

• Long, John Davis (ed) (1888). The Republican Party: Its History, Principles, and Policy. New York: M. W. Hazen. OCLC 11734261.
• Long, John Davis (ed) (1902). Famous Battles By Land And Sea. Boston: Hall & Locke. OCLC 3827277.

Notes

1. Johnson and Brown
2. Beedle, p. 259
3. Eliot, p. 236
4. Taylor, pp. 74–75
5. Taylor, pp. 71–72
6. Taylor, pp. 75–76
7. Taylor, p. 79
8. Hess, p. 57
9. Hess, p. 59
10. Hess, p. 58
11. Hess, pp. 58–59
12. Hess, pp. 61–63
13. Hess, p. 63
14. Hess, p. 65
15. Hess, p. 66
16. West, p. 369
17. Hess, p. 67
18. Taylor, p. 82
19. Taylor, pp. 83–84
20. White (1996), p. 202
21. White (2000), p. 52
22. Taylor, pp. 84–85
23. Garrett, pp. 293–294
24. Hess, p. 72
25. Hess, p. 71
26. Taylor, pp. 85–86
27. Taylor, p. 88
28. Taylor, pp. 88–90
29. Chase, p. 123
30. Roe, p. 29
31. Taylor, p. 89
32. Garrett, pp. 294–295
33. Traxel, p. 91
34. Garrett, p. 295
35. Garrett, p. 299
36. Garrett, p. 301
37. Garrett, p. 296
38. Taylor, p. 90
39. Trask, pp. 24–25
40. Beedle, p. 260
41. Traxel, pp. 109–110
42. Traxel, pp. 109, 117–118
43. O'Toole, p. 221
44. Garrett, p. 302
45. Trask, p. 86
46. Braisted, p. 21
47. Trask, pp. 84–85
48. Traxel, p. 123
49. O'Toole, p. 252
50. Beers, pp. 53–54
51. Braisted, pp. 21–25
52. Braisted, p. 26
53. Morgan, p. 375
54. Garrett, p. 304
55. Garrett, pp. 306–308
56. Garrett, pp. 308–309
57. Garrett, p. 311
58. Taylor, pp. 91–92
59. Taylor, pp. 92–94
60. Taylor, p. 76
61. Taylor, p. 81
62. Garrett, p. 310
63. "History". Zadoc Long Free Library. Retrieved 2013-03-18.
64. "DANFS entry for USS Long". United States Navy. Retrieved 2013-03-18.

References

• Beede, Benjamin (1994). The War of 1898, and U.S. Interventions, 1898–1934: An Encyclopedia. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9780824056247.
• Beers, Henry (Spring 1946). "The Development of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations". Military Affairs (Volume 10, No. 1): 40–68. JSTOR 1983104.
• Braisted, William (June 1954). "The Philippine Naval Base Problem, 1898–1909". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review (Volume 41, No. 1): 21–40. JSTOR 1898148.
• Chase, Philip (October 1950). "A Crucial Juncture in the Political Careers of Lodge and Long". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Third Series, Volume 70): 102–127. JSTOR 25080445.
• Eliot, Samuel (1911). Biographical Massachusetts; Biographies and Autobiographies of the Leading Men in the State, Volume 1. Boston: Massachusetts Biographical Society. OCLC 8185704.
• Garrett, Wendell (September 1958). "John Davis Long, Secretary of the Navy, 1897–1902: A Study in Changing Political Alignments". The New England Quarterly (Volume 31, No. 3). JSTOR 362603.
• Hess, James (March 1960). "John D. Long and Reform Issues in Massachusetts Politics, 1870–1889". The New England Quarterly (Volume 33, No. 1): 57–73. JSTOR 362964.
• Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Volume 7. Boston: Biographical Society. OCLC 6182270. No page numbers.
• Morgan, Henry (2003). William McKinley and his America. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873387651. OCLC 237846277.
• O'Toole, G.J.A (1984). The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0393018393.
• Roe, Albert (1899). The Massachusetts State House; A Sketch of its History and a Guide to its Points of Interest. Worcester, MA: F. S. Blanchard & Co. OCLC 14690415.
• Taylor, P. A. M (1989). "A Politician's Life: The Papers of John Davis Long". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Third Series, Volume 101): 71–96. JSTOR 25081007.
• Trask, Douglas (1996) [1981]. The War With Spain in 1898. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803294295. OCLC 34690830.
• Traxel, David (1998). 1898: The Tumultuous Year of Victory, Invention, Internal Strife, and Industrial Expansion that saw The Birth of The American Century. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0679454675.
• West, Richard (1965). Lincoln's Scapegoat General: A Life of Benjamin Franklin Butler. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 241783.
• White, G. Edward (1996). Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198024330. OCLC 437173164.
• White, G. Edward (2000). Oliver Wendell Holmes: Sage of the Supreme Court. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195116670. OCLC 123330227.

External links

• United States Congress. "John Davis Long (id: L000423)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.