The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-04

WIS tulDIONeU III LHE OIFICE OF the dUIItOT
of state. In a few months he Went home
to Lawrenceburg and studied law in the
office of Philip spooner, father Of ex-sena-
turned to Indianapolis and began the prac-
tice of law. In 1916 he married Miss Mi
nerva V. Brown, who died in 1875. In 1851
he was made city attorney of indianapolis,
serving two years. In 1853 he was appointed
by Governor Wright as reporter of the SUI
preme Court to serve in place of Horace
Carter. deceased, until the next election,
when he was elected as the nominee of the
Democratic party. From 1857 to 1859 he
was a member Of the City Council. In 1856
he changed his political views and voted for
Fremont. the first candidate of the Repub-
lican party. In 1858 he was nominated and
elected to Congress and was reelected in
1860. serving until 1868. He declined a re-
nomination in 1862 and devoted himself
steadily to practicing law until 1877, when
he was appointed first controller of the
treasury under Hayes. In 1880 he was nom
mated and elected Governor of Indiana
serving until 1885. In 1889 he was appointed
United States minister to Italy, serving in
this post until 1888, since which time he
has lived in retirement at his home in this
city.
With the death Of Governor Porter there
passes away almost the last of the great
group of statesmen that made Indiana pol
itics famous throughout the country and
numbered among it's members Harrison,
Morton. Voorhees,. Hendricks, Mcdonald,
English and others. very few of whom are
still living. Fe will always be remembered
III I:Qldlld a. 1T Cit al liz 1 III lllC
memorable, the most intense campaign in
the history of the State, that of 1880, when
he made a remarkably successful light as
the candidate of his party for the governor
ship.
Each man who rises to greatness, no mat
ter how we'll rounded his character may be,
has some quality, mental or moral, to which
more than to any other one thing he owes
his success. In looking into the character
of Governor Porter for this greatest ele-
ment of success one finds it in that quality
of sympathy with the lower million that
made him pre-eminently the friend of the
poor man. In the heat of this memorable
campaign of 1880 his political opponents
called him a demagogue, but no man can
ever point to a line in his speeches or
messages or to an official act that smacked
in the least of demagOgy. If 1T is demagogy
to take the humbleSt of your felloW-nen by
the hand and treat him with as much con-
sideration as is accorded to me richest ard
most powerful of your nelghbors, IL II IS
demagOgy to sympathiZe with the men and
women who have a hard struggle for bread
and to hampton their cause with intelli-
gence and ability, then Porter was. a dema-
gogue, and his children may we'll be proud
of the title. They have the satisfaction OF
knowing that he was the idol of the work
ing people of Indiana, that ne honestly
earned their respect and gratitude, and that
he never abused their confidence.
He came of sturdy stock, entered the
battle of life penniIess, fought his way
single handed to success, ana dled tull OF
honors and in comfortable estate, earned by
his own ability and enormous capacity Tor
labor. His grandfather was a ,Pennsyli-
vania farmer, and at the age of eighteen his
father. Thomas Porter, enlisted with Balls
regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers in the
war of 1872, and was wounded at Mlssls-
sinewa, on Indiana soil. Before tie close
of the war the grandfather removed 10 the
island of Belleview, in the Ohio river; Here
the young soldier joined them after the war
and married Myra Tousey, the daughter of
a Kentucky farmer. They settled III Law
renceburg, across the river from her fatn-
ers farm. Here the family prospered mod
erately as times went in those days. Mr..
Porter was for many years the. cashier or
the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, and
served a term as auditor of Dearborn coun-
ty. Here Albert G. Porter was born in 1924,
and attended the public schools or Law
renceburg. When he was thirteen his grand
father died, and his father purchased the
home farm, which had attached to it a
ferry. Albert and another brother were
placed in charge of this ferry, and in two
years he had saved enough money TO try
for a collegiate education. Accordlngiy ne
Hanover, but by the time he was ready Tor
college his savings were exhausted. II
seemed that he would have to return to the
ferry. but his uncle, Omen Tousey, came
to his aid and promised to help him through
college. He entered Asbury University, at
Greencastle, and graduated at me age OF
nineteen.
CAM TO INDIANAPOLIS.
He came to indianapolis without money
or influential friends, but secured temper
airy clerical work in the office of the audi
tor of state. While there he came in con-
tact with Governor Whitcomb and per-
forme4 some clerical work in his office.
The strong character of Whitcomb I'M
pressed him very greatly, particularly as
the Governor took something of a fancy
to the young man and gave him much en-
enlargement and advice. After a few
months in Indianapolis he returned to his
l1-.o - 7 n nomenclature and GtndiNH law in
the office of Philip Spooner, the father of
ex-senator Spooner, of Wisconsin. After a
year and a half of study he again came, to
indianapolis. to begin the practice of his
profession. Though he had neither money
nor business. he had faith in the future
and married Minerva V. Brown, an estima-
BILE young woman he had met mere during
his former stay. They settled in life very
modestly and he eked out a slender liveli-
hood at first, supplementing his work at
law with writing digests of the opinions
Journal, He made friends rapidly and
handled such cases as came to him with
eonscientlous care ana not q nttee aplnly.
tice, and in 1851 was chosen city attorney,
an office he filled with credit for two years.
Just about the close Of his term Horace
Carter, the reporter of the Supreme Court,
died and so creditable had been the work of
Porter in writing the digests for the news
papers that the court without solicitation
unanimously him to Gov
ernor Wright, who appointed him to fill
the Oltc6 ulIl the H6AL tlSSLlOIl, All
occurred that autumn. The Democratic
party, to which he then belonged, nomi-
mated him to fill out the uneXpired term
of two years and he was elected. Return
ing to the practice of law, he formed a
partnership with Judge David Mcdonald.
At this time the anti-slavery agitation
had reached an acute stage and Mr.. Porter
found himself unable longer to act with
the Democratic party after the Missouri
compromise. In 1856 the agitation resulted
in the birth of the Republican party and
Porter, with many other Democrats of
prominence, cut loose from the old party
mont campaign. Porter had earned the
reputation of a persuasive orator, not only
at the bar, but on the stump and had ac-
CURED much political strength.
ELECTED TO CONGRESS.
In 1858 he was made the Republican nomi-
nee for Congress and elected by a majority
of over 1000 in q district that had gone
over 5000 Democratic two years before. In
Congress he acquired the respect of his col
leagues and was assigned to important
work on the judiciary committee. He was
renominated and reelected in 1860, but in
1862 the necessity of making some provision
for the future of his family compelled him
to decline a third nomination, and he re-
tired to the practice of law in 1863. He
formed a firm in which Harrison, Hines and
Fishback were members at various times,
and it was one of the few leading law firms
had from the first taken high rank as a
Ia VVNpr He nrppa rod hiG ne with 10