CIVIL WAR SLAVE CONGRESSMAN GOVERNOR INDIANA ITALY MAFIA RIOTS AMBASSA AUTOGRAPH For Sale
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CIVIL WAR SLAVE CONGRESSMAN GOVERNOR INDIANA ITALY MAFIA RIOTS AMBASSA AUTOGRAPH:
$14.99
ALBERT GALLATIN PORTER
(1824 - 1897)
19th GOVERNOR of INDIANA,
1st COMPTROLLER of the US TREASURY APPOINTED by hisformer law partner PRESIDENT RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
&
UNITED STATES MAFIA RIOTS MINISTER TO ITALY APPOINTED byPRESIDENT BENJAMIN HARRISON
HERE’SPORTER’S SIGNATURE REMOVED FROM A 19th CENTURY AUTOGRAPH ALBUM,MOUNTED TO A CARD, and SIGNED:
“Albert G. Porter
Indianapolis, Ind.”
The document card is heavy paper stock and measures 5” x 3”- it’s in VERY GOOD, CLEAN CONDITION.
A RARE ADDITION TO YOUR STATE ofINDIANA POLITICAL/PRESIDENTIAL AUTOGRAPH, MANUSCRIPT & EPHEMERA COLLECTION!
BIOGRAPHY OF ALBERTGALLATIN PORTER
Albert Gallatin Porter (April 20, 1824– May 3, 1897) was an American politician who served as the 19th Governor of Indianafrom 1881 to 1885 and as a United States Congressmanfrom 1859 to 1863. Originally a Democrat,he joined the Republican Partyin 1856 after being expelled by the pro-slavery faction of the DemocraticParty. Only the second person born in Indiana to become the state\'s governor,he reluctantly accepted his party\'s nomination to run. His term saw the startof Indiana\'s industrialization that continued for several decades. During thesecond half of his term a strong Democratic majority took control of the Indiana General Assemblyand revoked all of the governor\'s appointment powers and other authorities,weakening the governors position to its lowest state in the history of thestate.
Early lifeFamily and backgroundAlbert G. Porter was born on April 20, 1824 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana,the son of Thomas and Myra Tousey Porter. His father, a veteran of the Warof 1812, was a bank teller at the Farmer and Mechanic\'sBank. Established by the state government in 1818, the bank folded after the Panicof 1819. His father then served several years as a countyclerk until the family moved to Boone County, Kentuckyafter his mother inherited her father\'s farm. The large farm neighbored the OhioRiver at the area\'s most convenient crossing point, andPorter began managing his father\'s ferryboat, crossing wagons and passengersacross the river.
Using the money he earned from working the ferry, he enrolled in HanoverCollege in 1839, but soon ran out of money to continue hiseducation. His uncle offered to pay for the remainder of his school, providedthat he would switch to a Methodistschool. Porter agreed, and attended and graduated from AsburyUniversity (now DePauwUniversity) in 1843. The following year he moved to Indianapolis,Indianawhere he took a job in the state\'s auditors office and briefly served as aprivate secretary to Governor of IndianaJames Whitcomb. Whitcomb influencedPorter to pursue a career in law, so he began to study law in the office ofPhilip Spooner. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1845 and entered acorporate law practice in Indianapolis headed by Hiram Brown. He met andmarried Brown\'s daughter, Minerva, on November 20, 1846. The couple had fivechildren.
Porter took a secondary job writing for the Indianapolis Journal,recording Indiana Supreme Courtdecisions, and gained a good reputation with the court. He served as the cityattorney from 1851 until 1853, having run for office as a Democrat. In 1853 hewas appointed to a vacant reporter seat for the Supreme Court. He was electedto the position in 1854 by a strong majority and served until 1856. That year,he became embroiled in the ongoing political feud between the pro-slavery andanti-slavery factions of the state Democratic party. The pro-slavery factionwon, and Porter was among the anti-slavery men expelled from the party, causinghim to join the newly formed Republican Party.With his brother-in-law\'s help, Porter began to organize the Marion CountyRepublican Party, and ran for the city council on the Republican ticket. Heserved a partial term in the office but resigned in 1859 after having won the1858 congressional election.
CongressmanHe served in the United States House ofRepresentatives until 1863, having been reelectedonce. As a congressman during the American Civil War,he supported much of the wartime legislation. His primary contribution was hisown investigation of the railroads, which had accepted numerous land grantsfrom the government during the war and the years leading up to it. Hecalculated the value of the transactions, and balanced it again the amount therailroads were demanding for payment for shipping men and munitions, saving theat time cash-strapped government several million dollars. He was nominated athird time to run for Congress in 1862, but declined primarily because of theposition\'s poor salary and his need to replenish his savings.
He returned to Indianapolis where he became head of one of the state\'sleading law firms; his most famous partner was future United States PresidentBenjamin Harrison.He took on several high-profile cases, including the Exparte Milligan case, which ended before the United States Supreme Court,who ruled that Lambdin P. Milligan,who had been arrested during the war for subversive activities, and tried andconvicted by a military tribunal, should be released as the tribunal had noauthority to prosecute so long as the civil courts were still in operation.
He was nominated as a Republican candidate to run for governor in 1876,but he declined. In 1878, Porter was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayesas Comptroller of the United StatesTreasury. As Comptroller he oversaw the settlement ofnumerous treasury disputes dating back to the Civil War. In 1880, while Porterwas still in Washington, his party again nominated him to run for Governor,without his knowledge. By the time he received word, his party was alreadyprinting campaign posters and the party leaders were able to convince him torun for the good of the party. He reluctantly accepted, and returned toIndianapolis.
GovernorRepublican legislatureOne of the most notable thing about the campaign was Porter\'s suddenchange in attire. In Washington he was well known for his style and manner ofdress, but upon accepting the nomination he began dressing like a farmer,including wearing a straw hat. The campaign was \"vigorous\", andPorter traveled to all but five of the state\'s counties to stump and deliverspeeches . Because he had supported the strikers in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877,he was able to gain the endorsement of the Knightsof Labor, who turned out a large labor vote in his favor.Porter narrowly won the election by about seven thousand votes. He was thefirst Republican to win the governorship in twelve years, and along with astrong Republican majority elected to the Indiana General Assembly,he began a period of Republican dominance that would continue for a generation.Shortly after his term began, his party nominated him as a candidate for the United States Senate,but he declined.
Porter\'s term focused primarily on the continuing industrial developmentin the state, and internal improvements.Porter had the Great Kankakee Swampin northwestern Indiana surveyed and plans drafted for its draining. The swampwas at the time one of the largest wetlands in the United States andencompassed nearly a tenth of Indiana, and a large part of Illinois.The plans were submitted to the General Assembly who approved of the plan,leading the reclamation of more than 800,000 acres (3,200km2)of land. To implement the project, the governor also advocated the creation ofthe Department of Geology and Natural History, the forerunner of the Indiana Department ofNatural Resources.
Among Porter\'s other successful projects included the creation of theState Board of Health, the institution of mining regulations that significantlyimproved working conditions for miners in the state, and advocacy for women\'srights. In 1881, he delivered a speech to the General Assembly urging them togrant suffrage to women. Although no action was taken on his advice, it renewedthe debate which had seen little advancement since Governor JamesD. Williams had issued a similar request several years earlier.Porter used his appointment powers to advance the women\'s cause, appointingwomen to a variety of positions in state agencies, but primarily to boardpositions overseeing the state\'s benevolent institutions, like hospitals andorphanages. He also successfully forced out many of the non-expert members ofimportant state boards, and replaced them with field experts.
Democratic legislatureAfter several months of debate, the General Assembly finally agreed to acompromise to grant women the right to vote by agreeing to also enactprohibition legislation. They proposed an amendment to the state constitutionthat would both grant women the right to vote, and enact statewide prohibition.The two issues were to much for the electorate to consider at once, and in themid-term election of 1882, the amendment was overwhelming defeated, and so werethe Republicans as a large Democratic majority came to power.
The second half of Porter\'s term was one of the uncommon times inIndiana\'s history where the legislature was completely controlled by a partyhostile to the governor. Typical to such occasions, the assembly began to reignin the governor whose weak constitutional position made it difficult to resist.One of their first acts was to revoke all of the governor\'s appointment powers.He vetoed the bill on its first passage, but the assembly quickly overrode it,taking the responsibility for appointing all board members in the state, apower the governor had held since the Civil War. They also began to enactlegislation designed to weaken Republican power across the state, first bycreating a state board to manage the newly formed Indianapolis metropolitanpolice department, taking away control from the Republican-controlled citygovernment. Along with other restrictive measures placed on the governor, theyweakened the executive office to its lowest point in the history of the state.Nearly fifty years would pass before governors began to regain their formerpower.
The only significant legislation the governor was able to have passedduring this time was a bill to fund a relief program following a flood thatdevastated the Wabash River and OhioRiver areas in 1883. At the time the flood was the worstin the state\'s recorded history, and destroyed and damaged many towns andcities were in significant need of assistance. Consecutive terms being bannedby the state constitution, Porter left office in 1884 and returned to his lawpractice.
Final years and legacyPorter\'s wife had died in 1875, and on January 5, 1881 he remarried toCornela Stone. The marriage was brief, and she died in 1886. His partyattempted to nominate him to run for governor again 1888, but he declined. Hedid serve as a delegate to the 1888 Republican NationalConvention where he delivered a speech and nominated his oldlaw partner Benjamin Harrison to run for president. Harrison won the nominationand campaign and appointed Porter as Minister to Italyin 1889. During his time there, he oversaw negotiations with Italy concerningthe lynching of eleven Italians in the 1891 Mafia Riotsfollowing a highly publicized mafiatrial in New Orleans.
He resigned in 1892 and returned to Indianapolis where he spent the finalyears of his life working on a book on the history of Indiana. He never finishedthe book, which remains unpublished. He suffered a hard fall from which hishealth never recovered, leading to his death on May 3, 1897 and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.
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