Background
He was born in Buckfield, Maine, United States, on October 27, 1838.
He was born in Buckfield, Maine, United States, on October 27, 1838.
He was educated at Harvard, where he graduated in 1857. Later he studied law at Harvard Law School.
During the next two years after Harvard he taught at the Academy at Westford, Massachussets. He was admitted to the bar in 1861. After returning home for a year he commenced the practice of law in Boston and built up a large business, becoming senior member of the firm of Long and Hemenway.
In 1871 he accepted nomination for the Massachusetts state legislature on the Democratic ticket but he later became an active Republican and served from 1875 until 1878 as a member of the Massachusetts state legislature, being nominated speaker of the house in 1876 and again in 1877. In 1879 he was elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts and the next year became governor, being reelected in 1881 and again in 1882. In 1883 he was elected a member of Congress and served until 1889, when he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate.
In 1897 President William McKinley appointed him secretary of the Navy. In this office Long was successful in building up the U. S. Navy during the Spanish-American War and by his wise counsels contributed heavily to the navy's victories. Long retired in March 1902 at the age of 64 and devoted himself largely to writing on naval affairs.
(After Dinner and Other Speeches Classic Reprint)
He proposed a number of modest reforms, including a measured expansion of women's voting rights, 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.
He was interested in various reforms, including women's suffrage and the abolition of the death penalty.
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.
In 1870 he married Mary Woodford Glover of Hingham. The couple had two daughters (and one stillborn birth) before her death in 1882. In 1886 Long married again, to Agnes Pierce, a teacher and daughter of a Universalist minister; they had one son, born in 1887.