“‘O mon dieu! mon dieu!’ he exclaimed, in agony.  ’Vell, I shall give you one thousand dollar.’

“I immediately wrote a note for the amount, payable when the suit was determined; but it was with great difficulty I could induce him to sign it.  At length he did, however, and I gained his case for him.  He came punctually to pay his note.  When I had the money in hand, I told him I had charged him five hundred dollars for attending to his case, and five hundred for setting his dogs on me.

“‘I been tink dat all de time,’ he said, as he left the office.”

There were then several men of eminence at the Bar in the Opelousas and Attakapas country—­Brent, Baker, Bowen, and Bronson.  The superior abilities of Porter soon began to be acknowledged.  His practice increased rapidly, and when a convention was called to form a constitution for the State of Louisiana, Porter was elected from Opelousas as a delegate.  Still very young, and scarcely known in the city or along the coast parishes, he came unheralded by any extraordinary reputation for abilities.  Very soon, however, he was taking the lead amid the best talent in the State.

In every feature of this Constitution the mind of Porter is apparent; and to-day, to one who has witnessed the forming and passing away of many constitutions, and their effect upon public morals and the general interests of the country, it appears the best that was ever given to a State in this Union.  To those who were most active in the formation of this Constitution, and who had most at heart the protection of every interest in the State, the judicial system was most interesting.  The preserving of the civil law as the law of the land, and which was guaranteed by the treaty of cession, and at the same time to engraft American ideas upon that system, was a delicate and difficult matter.  The French and the French Creoles were desirous of retaining as much of French law and French ideas as possible.  To these they had always been accustomed:  they thought them best, and were very loath to permit innovations.  A written constitution was to these people entirely a new thing.  Accustomed to almost absolute power in the hands of their Governors, with his council—­these being appointed by the Crown, to which they owed allegiance—­they could hardly comprehend a constitutional representative form of government, and, naturally distrustful of the Americans, they feared every move on their part.  Porter was an Irishman, and they distrusted him and Henry Johnson less than any others of the convention speaking the English language.  Where a difference of opinion seemed irreconcilable between the two interests, Porter was generally the referee, and he was always successful in reconciling these disputes, and bringing both parties to the support of his own views, which were those generally between the two extremes.  In this way he succeeded in having a constitution framed as he wished it, upon the organization of the State Government.  Under this Constitution, with Matthews and Martin, he was placed upon the Bench of the Supreme Court.  Here he remained for many years; but his ambition sought distinction in the councils of the nation, and he resigned his seat to become a candidate for the Senate of the United States.