Alexander J. Porter

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Porter, Alexander J., American jurist and senator, son of preceding, was born in Armagh in 1786. He went to the United States in 1801, and was admitted to the Bar in 1807. Settling in Louisiana in 1810, he took an active part in framing the State constitution in the following year. In 1821 he became a judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, and from 1834 to 1837 was United States Senator from that State. In Congress he favoured Calhoun's motion to reject petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and voted for the recognition of the independence of Texas; and throughout his career was a slaveholder and an upholder of the institution of slavery. He died on his plantation at Attakapas, Louisiana, 13th January 1844. To his labours is in a measure due the system of jurisprudence at present existing in Louisiana.

Sources

37a. Biographical Dictionary—American Biography: Francis S. Drake. Boston, 1876.

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