James Madison Porter, to whom more than to
any one person, Lafayette College owes its origin, was born near
Norristown, Pa., January 6th 1793. His early education was carefully
conducted up to this preparation for the junior class, with the intention
of entering the College of New Jersey, at Princeton.
This purpose, however, he abandoned, and
read law in Reading, Pa., with his brother, then President Judge of the
Third District, and was admitted to the bar April 23d, 1813. He
first located in Philadelphia, remaining till 1818, after which until his
death, he resided at Easton.
In a few years, he stood at the head of the
bar in legal and forensic ability, although still comparatively a young
man. In 1837-38 he was one of the foremost members of the convention
for revising the Constitution of Pennsylvania.
He was President Judge of the Twelfth
Judicial District from June, 1839 till July, 1840. Under President
Tyler's administration, he was for some time a member of his Cabinet as
Secretary of War. In 1849 he was elected a member of the State
Legislature. In the spring of 1853, he was elected President Judge
of the Twenty-second District, but on account of ill health he was obliged
to resign early in 1855. From this time he pursued the practice of
law until his death, November 11th, 1862.
In 1843 he received from Marshall College
the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was for twenty-five years President
of the Board of Trustees of Lafayette College, and for many years, also,
Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Economy. His reputation as
a man of great learning and eminent legal ability drew many young men
whose names appear in the catalogues of that period as students of law.
Source:
"The Men of Lafayette, 1826-1893, Lafayette College, Its
History, Its Men, Their Record" by Selden J. Coffin, published
in 1891.
