Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/95

Rh Valparaiso, 6 June, 1837. He acquired his educa- tion in the College of San Carlos, and in 1817 ob- tained the place of assayer of the mint, but went to Peru in 1821! and entered commerce. He returned to Chili in 1824, and, being discontented on account of heavy losses in a contract with the Chilian gov- ernment, from whom he had obtained the monopoly of tobacco, joined the opposition, attacking the government in the paper " El Hambriento '" in 1827. In April, 1830, he was appointed by the general junta minister of the interior, foreign affairs, war, and the navy ; but, on account of politi- cal disturbances, he resigned his charges in 1831, and retired to Valparaiso, where he engaged again in business. On 17 Aug., 1832, he was elected vice- president of the republic, and at the end of the same year he was appointed governor of Valparaiso, where he organized the civic militia. In September, 1835, President Prieto appointed him again min- ister of war. When in 1836 the Peru-Bolivian con- federation was established, Portales strongly op- posed it. Owing to his efforts, in October of that year a Chilian fleet left Valparaiso for C'allao under Admiral Blanco Encalada (q. v.), to protest against the confederation, and, not receiving a satisfactory answer, the Chilian government declared war on 11 Nov., 1836. Meanwhile, Portales was organizing an expeditionary force in Quillota, giving the com- mand of one of the best regiments to Col. Jose Antonio Vidaurre, who was his special favorite. .Soon afterward a mutiny, led by Vidaurre and other officers, was organized, while Portales was at Valparaiso, and when the latter returned to Quillota and was reviewing his troops, he was made a pris- oner by Vidaurre. The mutineers marched on Valparaiso, but they encountered a determined resistance from the civic militia. Portales was left under custody of a lieutenant, who, seeing the de- feat of his party, ordered him to be shot. In Sep- tember, 1861, a statue of Portales was erected in front of the mint, in Santiago.

PORTER, Albert Gallatin, statesman, b. in Lawrenceburg, Ind., 20 April, 1824; d. in Indian- apolis, 3 May, 18'J7. He was graduated at Asbury university, was admitted to the bar in 1845, and began to practise in Indianapolis, where he was councilman and corporation attorney. In 1853 he was appointed reporter of the supreme court of Indiana. He was elected to congress as a Republi- can, holding his seat from 5 Dec., 1859, till 3 March, 1863, and serving on the judiciary committee and on that on manufactures. He was a nominee for presidential elector on the Hayes ticket in 1876. On 5 March, 1878, he was appointed first comp- troller of the U. S. treasury, but he resigned to become governor of Indiana, which office he held from 1881 till 1884. He had published " Decisions of the Supivmi' Court of Indiana " (5 vols., Indian- apolis, 18o:j-'6). Prom 1889 to Sept., 1892, Judge Porter was American minister to Italy. PORTER, Alexander, jurist, b. near Armagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1796; d. in Attakapas, La., 13 Jan., 1844. His father, an Irish Presbyte- rian clergyman and chemist, while lecturing in Ireland during the insurrection of 1798, fell under suspicion of being an insurgent spy, and was seized imil executed. His son came to this country in 1801 with his uncle, and settled in Nashville, Tenn., where, after serving as clerk, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1807. By the advice of Gen. Andrew Jackson, he removed" to St. Mar- tinsville. La., and was elected to the State consti- tutional convention of 1811. In 1821-'33 he was judge of the state supreme court, and rendered service by establishing with others a new system of jurisprudence. He was elected a U. S. senator as a Whig, in place of Joseph S. Johnston, deceased, serving from 6 Jan., 1834, till 5 Jan., 1837, and during his term voted to censure President Jack- son for the removal of the deposits from the U. S. bank, and favored John C. Calhoun's motion to reject petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In Maivh, ls:)6, he made an elaborate reply to a speech of Thomas II. Ben- ton upon the introduction of his ' expunging resolutions." He also opposed Benton's bill for compelling payments for public lands to be made in specie, and advocated the division of surplus revenue among the states, and the recognition of the independence of Texas. He was again elected to the senate in 1843, and served till his death. For many years before his death he resided on his estate, " Oak Lawn," of 5,000 acres, on Bayou Teche, and the large mansion, where Henry Clay was a frequent visitor, is still (1898) standing in the cen- tre of an extensive park.

PORTER, Andrew, soldier, b. in Worcester, Montgomery co., Pa., 24 Sept., 1743; d. in Harris- burg, Pa., 16 Nov., 1813. His father, Robert, emi- grated to this country from Londonderry, Ireland, in 1720, settled in Londonderry, N. H.. and af- terward bought land in Mont- gomery county. Pa. In early years the son manifested a tal- ent for mathe- matics, and un- der the advice of Dr. David Rit- tenhouseopened. in 1767. an Eng- lish and mathe- matical school in Philadelphia, in which he taught until 19 June, 1776, when he was appointed by congress a captain of marines and ordered to the frigate " Effingham." He was soon transferred to the artillery, in which he served with efficiency. He was captain until 13 March, 1782, and then became major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel of the 4th Pennsylvania artillery, which post he held at the disbanding of the army. He participated in the battles of Newton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown, where nearly all his company were killed or taken prisoners, and where he received on the field personal commendation from Gen. Washington for his conduct in the action, and at his request he was sent to Philadelphia to prepare material for the siege of Yorktown. In April, 1779, he was detached with his company to join Gen. John Sullivan's expedition against the Indians, and suggested to Gen. James Clinton the idea of damming the out- let of Otsego lake, by which means the water was raised sufficiently to convey the troops by boats to Tioga point. In 1783 he retired to the cultivation of his farm, and declined the chair of mathematics in the University of Pennsylvania, saying that "as long as he commanded men he would not return to flogging boys." In 1784-'7 he was engaged as commissioner to run the boundary-lines of Pennsylvania, and he was also interested in the completion of the western termination of the Mason and Dixon line, although he was not a commis-