The death of Judge Martin was regretted by every one as a serious loss to the State, though he had attained very nearly to the age of fourscore.  He had failed, from the entire want of social and sympathetic attributes in the composition of his nature, to fasten himself upon the affections of any one, though he commanded the respect of all for the high qualities of his intellect, his public services, and the consistent honesty of his life.  He was followed to the grave by the entire Bench and Bar, and most of the distinguished people of his adopted city.  But I doubt if a tear was shed at his funeral.  He was without the ties in life which, sundered by death, wring tears and grief from the living who loved and who have lost the endeared one.  All that the head could give, he had—­the heart denied him all:  in life he had given it to no one, and his death had touched no heart; and no tear embalmed his bier, no flower planted by affection’s hand blooms about his grave.  Still he has left an imperishable monument to his fame in his judicial career.

Alexander Porter, the junior by many years of Matthews and Martin, his associates on the Bench, was an Irishman by birth, and came in very early life to the United States.  He was the son of an Irish Presbyterian minister of remarkable abilities and great learning.  As a chemist, he was only inferior to Sir Humphrey Davy, of his day.  During the troubles of 1798, (since known as the rebellion of ’98,) he was travelling and delivering lectures upon chemistry through Ireland.  He fell under suspicion as being an emissary of the Society of United Irishmen, who was covering, under the character of a scientific lecturer, his real mission to stir up and unite the Irish people in aid of the views of those who were organizing the rebellion.  To be suspected was to be arrested, and to be arrested was wellnigh equivalent to being executed—­sometimes with the mockery of a trial, and, where evidence was wanting to fix suspicion, even by drum-head court-martial.  This latter was the fate of the accomplished and learned Porter.  The wrath of the Government visited his family.  The brother of the sufferer collected his own and the children of his murdered brother, consisting of two sons and several daughters, and emigrated to America.  A number of emigrants from their immediate neighborhood had selected Nashville, Tennessee, as a home in the New World, and thither he came.

The education of Alexander, the eldest of the sons, had progressed considerably in Ireland, and was continued for some years at Nashville.  Being poor, he was compelled to employ some of his time in pursuits foreign to study, in order to supply him with the means of pursuing the latter.  This education was irregular, but was the foundation of that which in maturer life was most complete.  He studied law when quite young, intending at first to remain at Nashville.  The competition at the Bar in that place was formidable, and he could not hope to succeed as his ambition prompted,