Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/163

Rh years is pronounced by his son invaluable. His mother was of a different mold, a woman of gentle and saintlike character, and these different strains of influence had to do with forming the character of their son, who was born October 27, 1838, in the family home at Buckfield, Oxford county, Maine.

Zadoc Long, who kept the village store at Buckfield, was not lacking in local distinction. He was a justice of the peace, and in 1838 was the Whig candidate for congress. Though sharing the defeat of his party in the election contest, he was chosen as one of the presidential electors in the Harrison campaign of 1840. His son proved a hearty and robust youth, fond at once of play and of books, and emulating his father in a tendency to verse writing in his later boyhood. The use of his father's modest library and the inspiring influence of his conversation and training were of great advantage to the growing boy, who early developed studious habits, which his father made every effort to encourage. From the village school the young student passed to Hebron academy, and thence to Harvard university, where he attained distinction in his class and was graduated with honors in 1857, his skill in versification making him the author of the class ode on commencement day. His graduation degree of A.B. was subsequently added to by the degree of LL.D. from Harvard, while a similar honorary degree was later conferred upon him by Tufts college. As yet the young student, not yet nineteen years of age, manifested no special inclination for any of the professions, law, medicine or divinity, to which his college training seemed to lead. He taught for a couple of years as principal of the academy at Westford, Massachusetts; then in 1859 decided upon the law, and reentered the Harvard law school for a post-graduate course of legal training. He was graduated there and admitted to the bar in 1861.

So far Mr. Long had manifested no predilection for any special pursuit. Though successful in the law, he had, as he himself says, drifted into it. While the influence of his home associations had been very wholesome in molding his character, and his early devotion to the reading of history and the classic English novels in developing his mind, he entered and left college at too youthful an age to form the inspiring associations which often spring from college life, and with no marked aspirations. Several years passed, indeed, before he entered upon his true vocation, that of a legislator and public