Peter Buell Porter

Male

August 14, 1773

March 20, 1844

Salisbury, CT

Black Rock, NY
Canandaigua, NY
Niagara Falls, NY

Letitia Breckenridge Porter (1818)

Peter Buel Porter was the son of Colonel Joshua and Abigail Buell Porter. Born in Connecticut in 1773 and educated at Yale College, Porter trained in the law with Judge Tapping Reeve in 1791. After attending the Litchfield Law School, he moved to Black Rock, which is now a part of Buffalo, New York, where he practiced law and conducted several businessnes, including one that was involved in building the Erie Canal.

In 1802 he served as a State Representative, a position he would hold again in 1828. From 1809 until 1813, and again in 1815 and 1816 he represented the state of New York in the U.S. Congress. While in Congress, Porter made a speech in favor of national support for the construction of the Erie Canal and was appointed by the New York legislatiure in 1810 to a commission ...which was to study plans for a canal between the Hudson River and Lake Erie.

In November 1811, as Chairman of the Congressional Committee on Foreign Relations, he prepared and introduced a Report which recomended war with Great Britain. Porter was known as a "War Hawk" who wanted the conquest of Canada, and was also a member of Clay's committee which considered American complaints against the British and recommended the 1812 Declaration of War.

During the War of 1812, he served as a Colonel in the New York State Militia. He recruited a brigade of volunteers from Pennsylvania and New York which was active on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. When Black Rock was captured by the British and his house became a British headquarters, Porter raised troops to expel them. During July of 1813, he was appointed by Governor Tompkins as the Brigadier General of the New York Militia and advanced to the rank of Major General.

At the conclusion of the war, President Madison offered him an appointment as Commander-in-Chief that Porter declined. On November 3, 1814 he received the Gold Medal from Congress for his military services. In 1815 and 1816 he served as Secretary of State, and in 1817 he ran for Governor of New York, but was defeated by DeWitt Clinton. In 1816, he was appointed the commissioner to determine Northwestern boundary line.

His wife Letitia was the daughter of U.S. Senator from Kentucky, John Breckenridge, and his wife Mary Cabell Breckenridge. Letitia's brother John attended the Litchfield Law School in 1821.

From 1824 to 1830, Porter worked as the Regent of the State University of New York. In his position of Secretary of War from 1828 until 1829, Porter's chief job was to oversee the removal of Indians from their homes to areas west of the Mississippi River. During his flourishing political and military career, Porter's home in Washington was a popular gathering place. At the end of his long career in public office, Porter worked as a presidential elector in 1841. He died at his Niagara Falls residence at the age of seventy-one.
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1791

Graduated from Yale College in 1791.

Lawyer; Business; Military; Political Office

Republican

U.S. Representative (NY) 1809-1813, 1815-1816
Secretary of War 1828-1829

State Representative (NY) 1802, 1828
Secretary of State (NY) 1815-1816

Clerk for the County (Ontario County, NY) 1797-1804

Handwritten list on loose papers of LLS Students "prior to 1798," inside Catalogue of Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849), LHS - Notes him as having atttended in 1793

Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske. Appleton’s Cyclpedaedia of American Biography, Vol. 5. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1888.

Andrews, H.P. The Descendants of John Porter of Windsor, Conn. 1635-9. Saratoga Springs: G.W. Bull, Book and Job Printer, 1893.

Robinson, C.M. "The Life of Judge Augustus Porter" Buffalo Historical Society Publications, v. 7, 1904.

Grande, Joseph A. “The Political Career of Peter Buell Porter, 1797-1829.” Ph.D. diss., University of Notre Dame, 1971.

Roland, Daniel Dean. ‘’Peter Buell Porter and Self-Interest in American Politics.” Ph.D. diss., Claremont Graduate School, 1990.