The late Alexander Porter. The subjoined notice of the death of this gentleman, appeared in the Bulletin newspaper of the 31st of January, 1844, from the pen of Judge Bullard, who succeeded, in January, 1834, to the seat on the bench of the Supreme Court left vacant by the resignation of Judge Porter.

Obituary.

A wide void has been created by the death of Alexander Porter. One who has known him intimately during the greater part of his brilliant career, who admired his genius and his energy of character, and who, in common with the rest of the community, sincerely laments its untimely termination, cannot permit the occasion to pass away without putting upon record his testimony of his worth, not in the common place language of indiscriminate eulogium, but in terms dictated by truth and candor.

The subject of this notice was born in Ireland, in 1785, and consequently was hut a boy when the same political calamities which drove an Emmett and a Sampson, and many others, to our shores, deprived him of a father and a country. He sought refuge from the storm, and found a home in the United States. He was at first destined to mercantile pursuits ; but fortunately was permitted to follow the bent of his own inclination, and, with an early education somewhat neglected, he embraced the profession of the Law. Having prepared himself for admission to the bar in Nashville, where he had resided *414since his arrival in America, he came to Louisiana in 1810. He settled himself in Attakapas; and such was the energy of his character, and the charm of his manners and conversation, that in a parish peopled at that time almost exclusively by inhabitants of French origin, and speaking only that language, he was elected two years afterwards a member of the Convention which formed the present Constitution of this State. He was one of its most active and distinguished members ; and many of his efforts, in which he put forth the most glowing and fervent eloquence, are yet remembered by the survivors of that body.

We have said, that the early education of Mr. Porter was imperfect. After he commenced the practice of the law in this State, by a constant persevering self-culture, he made himself sufficiently acquainted with Latin, French, and Spanish, to gain access to all the treasures of legal learning. It must not be forgotten, that at that time the Spanish law was in force in Louisiana, coexisting with a code in itself imperfect, and calculated to bewilder the researches of the student and the practitioner. He made himself so well acquainted with the Spanish Law and its history, as to furnish that analysis of the Spanish Codes or positive law, which is to be found in the appendix of one of the volumes of Wheaton’s Reports.

From 1810 till 1820 the range of practice of Mr. Porter embraced the counties of Attakapas, Opelousas, and Rapides. He was always distinguished, not only for the enthusiasm and ardor of his character, and his impassioned eloquence, but for the joyous hilarity of his conversation in society ; always replete with Humor, wit, and anecdote, “ which set the table on a roar.” Such a combination of qualities gave him, not only extensive popularity, but great influence, throughout that district.

On the retirement of Judge Derbigny, in 1820, Mr. Porter was appointed his successor as one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of this State.' His appointment, though a very young man, gave general satisfaction to the profession. From that time until the end of the year 1833, the Supreme Court was composed of George Matthews, whose sound judgment, unerring sagacity, and instinctive sense of equity, were universally admitted; of Fran?ois Xavier Martin, the only survivor — the Nestor of our jurisprudence, equally distinguished for singular acumen and extensive and varied learning — and v Alexander Porter.

It was a period remarkable in our judicial annals,, in the course of which the law itself underwent great changes, by the amendments of the Civil Code and the enactment of the Code of Practice, and the final abrogation of the Spanish law, in 1828. These changes added much to the labors of the ¿eneh ; *415and, while they ultimately simplified our jurisprudence, produced perplexing difficulties in the comparison of the old with the more recent enactments. The Code of Practice, especially, was a most perplexing innovation. The task imposed upon the Court was performed with discrimination and ability. It was also during that period that the most important decisions were rendered on questions of the conflict of laws, and that branch of international jurisprudence was greatly illustrated by the labors of the Supreme Court of Louisiana. It cannot be expected that this notice of the deceased should furnish anything like an analysis of those decisions, but it is proper to say that Judge Portee devoted the whole energies of his mind to the discharge of his official duties, and was remarkable for the full and able development of every question he was called upon to discuss.

In December, 1833, he was elected a Senator in the Congress of the United States, and resigned his seat on the Bench. He was far from being one of those politicians by trade, who have an eternal, morbid hankering after office, and who are always thrusting themselves forward whenever any office becomes vacant, which their selfish ambition suggests to them to solicit. On the contrary, his views were liberal and enlarged, and he entered the Senate with a high reputation already formed, as a jurist and a man, and he soon gave proof that he was a statesman of no ordinary stamp. The Senate was at that time composed of the most eminent men in the nation, and it is enough to say, that he distinguished himself as an able and ready debater, even in a body composed of Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Preston, Clayton, and a host of others. His career as a Senator, though brilliant, was not long. Before the end of his term he retired from public life, and devoted himself to literary and agricultural pursuits, until he was again elected to the Senate in January, 1843, without any solicitation on his part, and even in his absence from the seat of government. Under this new appointment he never took his seat. A disease, which his friends have always attributed to the severe labors of the Bench, terminated ultimately in hydrothorax, which put an end to his earthly career on the 13th of January last.

There are few examples of men like Alexander Porter, who, by the unaided energies of their own minds, triumphant over the disadvantages of early fortune, and in a foreign land, without the aid of family connections, emphatically artificers of their own fortunes, have so eminently adorned the land of their adoption, and more than repaid the debt of gratitude to the country by which they were so generously received, honored and beloved.