On reaching home, his health seemed for a short time to rally; but he began again to sink.  Finding it impossible to lie down to sleep, he anticipated speedy dissolution.  As a politician, he had been greatly harassed by a dissolute press, and, as a lawyer and prominent man, he had made some enemies.  Among these was Thomas H. Lewis, a distinguished lawyer of Opelousas, who, of all his enemies, he hated most, and he was an honest hater.  A clergyman was spending some time with him, and apprehending that he might pass suddenly away, remained, in company with Mr. James Porter, his brother, almost constantly with him.  Only a day or two anterior to his death, after some conversation upon the subject of the great change, leaning back in his reclining easy-chair, he seemed to forget the presence of these two, and, after remaining for more than an hour entirely silent, without moving or opening his eyes, he commenced to speak, as if communing with himself.  “I have,” he said, “retrospected all my life, and am satisfied.  Many things I have done I should not; but they were never from a bad motive.  I have accomplished more than my merits were entitled to.  To the inconsiderate generosity of the people of Louisiana I owe much of the success of my life.  I have filled the highest offices in their gift, the duties of which I have faithfully discharged to the best of my abilities, and, I believe, to the satisfaction of the people of the State.  I have differed with many of my fellow-citizens, and some of them are my enemies; but from my heart I have forgiven them all, as I hope to be forgiven by them, and by my God, before whom I must in a few hours appear.”  He paused many minutes, and then emphatically added:  “Yes, Lord, even Tom Lewis.”

The opinions of Judge Porter in the reports of the decisions of the Supreme Court are magnificent specimens of learning, logic, and eloquence.  Of every question he took a bold and comprehensive view, and the perspicuity of his style and the clearness of his ideas made all he wrote comprehensible to the commonest capacity.  In his decisions he was merciless toward a suitor where he discovered fraud, or the more guilty crime of perjury.  His wit was like the sword of Saladin:  its brilliancy was eclipsed by the keenness of the edge.  In debate he was brilliant and convincing; in argument, cogent and lucid; in declamation, fervid and impassioned, abounding in metaphor, and often elucidating a position with an apposite anecdote, both pointed and amusing.  His memory was wonderful, and his reading extensive and diversified.  He had so improved the defective education of his youth as to be not only classical, but learned.  Impulsive and impetuous, he was sometimes severe and arrogant toward his inferiors who presumed too much upon his forbearance.  In his feelings and social associations he was aristocratic and select.  He could not tolerate presumptuous ignorance; but to the modest and unobtrusive he was respectful and tolerant.  For the whining