CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  Medicul A. Long - Smith County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
7 June 2002 
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson,  

MEDICUS A. LONG.

Medicus A. Long, of Tyler, was born in Shelbyville, Tenn.,in 1811.  
His education was attained in the schools of that state.  He read 
law at home, and being given his ma­jority by legislative enactment 
he was in 1830 admitted to the bar.  During his early days at the bar 
he was also inter­ested in journalism.  He established and published 
the Nashville Union in the thirties, and under his able direction it 
became a power in the state and he became a leader of great 
prominence in Tennessee politics.  In pursuit of health he went to 
Florida in 1844 and settled in Tallahasse, where he was prominently 
engaged in the practice of law.  He was a member of the state senate 
for four years, and was elector-at-large for Florida in the 
presidential campaign of 1856 on the Buchanan and Breckenridge ticket. 
In 1851 he was, after a protracted struggle, defeated for United 
States Sen­ator by Stephen R. Mallory, afterwards Secretary of the 
Navy of the Confederate States.  In 1858, still in pursuit of health, 
Mr. Long removed to Tyler, Texas, where for a num­ber of years in co-
partnership with Hon. Franklin N. Gary, he did a  lucrative practice.  
A  stalwart Democrat and ardent secessionist he promptly volunteered 
for duty in the army upon the outbreak of the war in 1861, but his 
serv­ices in another sphere were urgently needed and he was made 
Confederate States judge for the Eastern District of Texas and as 
such rendered valuable service to the govern­ment and to the people.  
After the war he resumed the practice of law, was a member of the 
constitutional con­vention, and was along with A. W. Terrell and 
W. M. Wal­ton, counsel for the State of Texas in the celebrated case 
ex parte Rodriguez.  In 1872 Mr. Long removed to Austin, where he 
practiced with distinction before the supreme court and federal 
courts until his death a few years later.  From the time of his birth 
he was physically frail.  He possessed vigor of mind, was of a 
philosophical turn, with a decided taste for literature.  Of 
unswerving integrity, stud­iousness of habit, and cheerfulness of 
disposition, he lived a life of usefulness, passing away after a 
long period of honorable achievement and labor.  His son, Judge 
Richard C. Long, who lived for a short time in Tyler, is a 
prominent citizen of Tallahasse, Florida.