The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 221
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petition of Benjamin Evans; and it was referred to
the Committee on Commerce.
By Mr. DODGE: The resolution of the Council
and House of Representatives of the Territory of
Wisconsin, asking Congress for an appropriation
for a light-house at Lank harbor, on the western
shore of Lake Michigan, in said Territory: referred
to the Committee on Commerce. The resolution of
the House of Representatives of the Territory of
Wisconsin, requesting the passage of a law estab-
lishing a post-route from Madison, in the county of
Dane, in said Territory, by the way of New Prairie,
Columbus, and Beaver Dam, to , in the
county of Fond du Lac; also the establishing a post-
route from Port Winnebago, county of Portage, by
the way of Green Lake, to Fond du Lac: referred to
the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads.
The resolution of the House of Representatives,
asking the passage of a law to establish a post-route
from Madison to Fort Atkinson, in Jefferson county,
to connect with a post-route already established,
front the last named place, via White Water and
Elkhorn, in Walworth county, to Genesee: referred
to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads.
The petition of the citizens of Eagle Prairie, and
Milwaukie, Territory of Wisconsin, asking the es-
tablishment of a mail-route from Prairieville, North
Prairie, Eagle Prairie, White Water, Fort Atkin-
son, and Snell's Lake, to Madison, the seat of gov-
ernment of said Territory: referred to the Commit-
tee on the Post Office and Post Roads.
By Mr. THOMPSON: The petition of Charles
Pendleton, Frederick and Joseph W. Pendleton, and
others, praying the oassage of a law granting them
a pre-emption right to a certain parcel of land there-
in named.
By Mr. W. HUNT: The petition of 110 citizens
of Knowlesville, New York, for an extension of the
pension laws.
The following resolutions, offered on Monday
last by Mr. Thomas Smith, (and inadvertently
omitted,) lie over for consideration:
Resolved, That the heirs of Captain Robert Bealle,
claiming commutation for the services of said Cap-
tain Robert Bealle, of the 15th Virginia regiment,
on continental establishment, be taken from the
files of this House, together with all the papers and
evidences in the possession of this House relating to
the petitition and application of said heirs, and be
referred to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims.
Resolved, That the petition and papers of Mary D.
Dibble, of Switzerland county, Indiana, claiming
commutation and other allowances due her father,
Wm. M. Smith, who was a Colonel in the revolu-
tionary war, commissioned by the State of Massa-
chusetts, be taken from the files of this House, and
be referred to the Committee on Revolutionary
Claims.
IN SENATE.
Friday, February 2, 1844.
The journal of yesterday having been read,
Mr. BARROW rose and announced to the Senate
" THE DEATH OF JUDGE PORTER.
He said: Mr. President, it is with unfeigned sorrow
that I announce to the Senate an event of the most
painful character. My colleague and friend, the
Hon. Alexander Porter, departed this life on the
13th ultimo, at his residence m Louisiana, aged fifty-
eight years.
By the death of Senator Porter, Louisiana loses
one of her most talented and honored citizens, and the
nation is deprived of the valuable services, in this
body, of a pure patriot and an enlightened states-
man; and under such a national calamity, it would
be unmeet for me to speak of the personal bereave-
ment I have sustained by the death of my friend.
It is the usage, on occasions like this, to pre-
sent a brief sketch of the life and character of the
deceased; and I should most deeply regret my lim-
ited knowledge of Judge Porter's parentage and
early life, if I did not know that history takes care
of men of his order of genius and distinguished
public character; and that she looks to other sources
for information concerning the lives of htr great
great men, than to the ephemeral eulogies of partial
friends.
Judge Porter was bom in the land of Curran,
and his father was a cotemporary and friend of that
brilliant orator and incorruptible patrwt. The
father of Judge Porter was a man of piety and classi-
cal education, and was by profession a minister of
the Gospel; but the fire, of patriotism and the love of
liberty glowed so warmly in his bosom, that he
threw aside the sacerdotal robe, and put on the bur-
nished armor of a soldier, resolved to conquer or
die in defence of his country's freedom. History
informs us what was the result of the patriotic but
indiscreet attempt made, in 1798, by some of the
purest and most gifted sons of Ireland, to emancipate
her from the thraldom of England. And from the
pages of the same history we learn that the father
of Judge Porter fall a martyr in the cause of free-
dom, and was executed as a rebel. Judge Porter
thus became, in early life, fatherless and without a
home; and he was forced to abandon his own, his
native land, and seek refuge in a land of stran-
gers. To this country, the asylum of the oppress-
ed of all nations, Judge Purter, in company
with his widowed mother and a younger brother,
emigrated, and settled in Nashville, Tennessee,
amongst whose ever-generous citizens he found
many ready to comfort the widow and protect the
fatherless. In Nashville, he entered a mercantile
house, in the capacity of clerk; and, while he was
engaged in that vocation, he did not neglect the cul-
tivation of those high faculties with which nature
had so bountifully endowed him.
In a few years, while thus laboring for his own
and a widowed mother's support, he not only ex-
tended the sphere of his general knowledge, but he
laid (lie broad and deep foundation of that legal
learning which was the pride and ornament of his
mature age, and which will transmit his name to
the latest posterity as one of the brightest judicial
lights of this age. At this period of his life, we find
Judge Porter once more seeking a new home; and,
about the year 1809, he removed from Nashville
to the Territory of Orleans, and settled in the
county of Attakapas, where he lived and died, loved
and admired for his many private virtues, and hon-
ored for his talents and public services.
The first high station of trust in which we find
him placed by the confidence of the people among
whom he had settled, is in the convention which as-
sembled in 1812 to form a constitution for the people
of the Territory of Orleans. In that body, which
numbered the ablest men of the Territory, Judge
Porter soon acquired a reputation for integrity,
learning, and statesmanship, which placed him, at
once, most conspiculously before the people; and he
was, not long after that period, elevated to the
supreme court bench of the State of Louisiana; which
station he occupied for about fifteen years. It was
in that office that Judge Pouter rendered services to
the people of Louisiana above all appreciation, and
acquired for himself a reputation as imperishable as
the civil law itself; and as that system of jurispru-
dence has survived the wreck of empires, it is likely
to continue as long as civilization finds a resting
place on the earth. I am confident that the distin-
guished jurists of the nation, to whom Judge Por-
ter's judicial character must be well known, will not
consider it the exaggerated language of eulogy,
when I say that the opinions which he delivered as
judge of the supreme court of Louisiana display a
depth of learning, a power of analysis, a force of
reasoning, and a comprehensiveness and accuracy of
judgment, which justly entitle him to a niche m the
temple of fame in juxtaposition with even the great,
the pure, the immortal Marshall.
The health of Judge Porter, at last, sunk under
the severe and incessant labors of his office, and he
was compelled to retire from that brench from which
he had, for so many years, dispensed justice with the
inflexible integrity of a Hale, the intrepidity of a
Holt, and the legal acumen ofa Mansfield.
He was not, however, long permitted to enjoy the
ease and happiness of private life; but was called
upon, in 1833, by the people of his State, to serve
them in the councils of the nation: and here, in this
chamber, he acquired new laurels, and added new
lustre to lus already bright fame, his brilliant wit,
his infinite humor," his general courtesy, and gentle-
manly bearing: and I know that, with me, you sin-
cerely lament that he has been stricken down by the
cold "hand of death, at the moment he was, for a sec-
ond time, summoned by the State of Louisiana to
take his seat on this floor, as one of the representa-
tives of her sovereignty. While I consider that the
nation has sustained a grievous loss by the death of
Judge Porter, I know that the loss to Louisiana is
irreparable. This vacant seat here cannot be filled
with his equal, no matter who may become his
honored successor.
My feelings, Mr. President, admonish me to for-
bear further observations on this sad occasion; and
I therefore commit" to history "th® character i
utation of my late colleague: aiid, a.. -sSJghtJisti^
monial of the high respect* felt by this body
memory, I submit "for the adoption of (he. Senate
the following resolutions:
Resolved, That the Senate has received wiili deep
sensibility the information of the death of die Hon.
Alexander Porter, a senator from the State of
Louisiana; and, in token of their high respect, for
the memory of the deceased, the members . of the
Senate will wear crape on the left arm, as mourning,
for thirty days.
Resolved, That, as a further mark of respect for
the memory of the Hon. Alexander Porter, the
Senate do now adjourn.
The resolutions having been read, Mr. BENTON
rose and said:
I rise, Mr. President, to second the motion which
has been made to render the last honors of this
chamber to our deceased brother Senator, "whose
death has been so feelingly announced; and in doing
so, I comply with an obligation of friendship, as
well as conform to the usage of the Senate. I am
the oldest personal friend which the illustrious de-
ceased can have upon this floor, and amongst the old-
est which he can have in the United States. It is now,
sir, more than the period of a generation—more
than the third of a century—since the then emigrant
Irish boy, Alexander Porter, and myself met on
the banks of the Cumberland river, at Nashville, in
the State of Tennessee, when commenced a friend-
ship which death only dissolved on his part. We be-
longed to a circle of young lawyers, and students
at law, who had the world before them, and nothing
but their exertions to depend upon. First a clerk
in his uncle's store, then a student at law, and al-
ways a lover of books, the young Porter was one of
that circle, and it was the custom of all that be-
longed to it to spend their leisure hours in the de-
lightful occupation of reading. History, poetry,
elocution, biography, the ennobling speeches of the
living and the dead, were our social recreation; and
the youngest member of the circle was one of our
favorite readers. He read well, because he com-
prehended clearly, felt strongly, remarked beauti-
fully upon striking passages, and gave a new charm
to the whole with his rich, mellifluous Irish accent.
It was then that I became acquainted with Ireland
and her children, read the ample story of her wrongs,
learnt the long list of her martyred patriots' names,
sympathized in their fate, and imbibed the feelings
for a noble and oppressed people which the extinc-
tion of my own life can alone extinguish.
Time and events dispersed that circle. The
young Porter, his law license signed, went to the
Lower Mississippi; I to the Upper. And, years
afterwards, we met on this floor, senators from dif-
ferent parts of that vast Louisiana which was not
even a part of the American Union at the time that he
and I were born. We met here in the session 1833,
'34—high party times, and on opposite sides of the
great party line; but we met as we had parted years
before. We met as friends; and, though often our
part to reply to each other in the ardent debate, yet
never did we do it with other feelings than those
with which we were wont to discuss our subjects of
recreation on the banks of the Cumberland.
I mention these circumstances, Mr. President, be-
cause, while they are honorable to the deceased, they
are also justificatory to myself for appearing as the
second to the motion which has been made. A per-
sonal friendship of almost forty years gives me a
right to appear as a friend to the deceased on this
occasion, and to perform the office which the rules
and the usage of the Senate permit, and which so
many other senators would so cordially and so faith-
fully perform.
In performing this office, I have, literally, but lit-
tle else to do but to second the motion of the sena-
tor from Louisiana, [Mr. Barrow.] The mover has
done ample justice to his great subject. He also
had the advantage of long acquaintance and inti-
mate personal friendship with the deceased. He
also knew him on the banks of the Cumberland,
though too young to belong to the circle of young
lawyers and law students, of which the junior
member—the young Alexander Porter—was the
chief ornament and delight. But he knew him—
long and intimately—and has given evidence of that
knowledge in the just, the feeling, the cordial, and
impressive eulogium which he has just delivered on
the life and character of his deceased friend and
colleague. He has presented to you the matured
man, as developed in his npe and meridian age; hs
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2367/m1/245/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.