Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/40

JOHN ADDISON PORTER families of the metropolis. Mr. Porter resided in Washington between 1884 and 1888, during the latter part of which period he was in close touch on matters of politics with his uncle, the late William Walter Phelps, member of Congress from New Jersey, and ex-minister to Austria and Germany. During one session of Congress he served as clerk to one of the senate committees, to which he was appointed by Senator Platt, of Connecticut; he was also engaged, during part of this time, in literary work, including the authorship of an attractive volume entitled, “Sketches of Yale Life,” a book of some three hundred pages, which was very favorably received. In 1888 Mr. Porter purchased a part interest in the Hartford (Ct.) Evening Post, an old and leading Republican newspaper of that city. Two years subsequently he secured a controlling interest in the Post, and has since conducted the paper, as editor-in-chief, on stalwart Republican lines and with an added reputation and increased circulation and patronage. Mr. Porter was chosen in 1891 to represent the town of Pomfret in the popular branch of the Connecticut general assembly, and during the famous “deadlock” legislature took an active part in the leadership of the party. He was elected as a delegate to the Republican national convention at Minneapolis, where he advocated the renomination of President Harrison. On several occasions Mr. Porter has been a candidate for the governorship of Connecticut, and in two successive campaigns has received a majority of the votes cast at the primaries. Mr. Porter was appointed Secretary to the President in February, 1897. He is a member of numerous social and fraternal organizations, including the highest grades of the Masonic order.