Gilchrist Porter

Gilchrist Porter (November 1, 1817 – November 1, 1894) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served two non-consecutive terms as a U.S. Representative from Missouri from 1851 to 1853, then again from 1855 to 1857. He was born in Windsor, near Fredericksburg, Virginia, on November 1, 1817. Porter received only a limited formal schooling in his youth, a common circumstance in rural Virginia in the early nineteenth century, and he turned at an early age to the study of law as his principal avenue of advancement.

After reading law, Porter was admitted to the bar and moved west to Missouri, where he commenced the practice of law in Bowling Green. Establishing himself as an attorney on the Missouri frontier, he built a legal career that would later support his entry into public life. Like many members of the Southern political class of his era, he owned slaves, a fact that situated him within the prevailing social and economic order of the slaveholding border states before the Civil War.

Porter’s growing prominence in his adopted state led to his election to the United States House of Representatives. He was elected as a Whig to the Thirty-second Congress and served from March 4, 1851, to March 3, 1853, representing Missouri. During this first term he participated in the legislative process at a time of mounting sectional tension in the United States, taking part in debates and votes that reflected the complex political alignments of the early 1850s. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1852 to the Thirty-third Congress, ending his initial period of congressional service.

After a brief interval out of office, Porter returned to national politics. He was elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress and served from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1857. In contemporary terms he was also associated with the Independent Party in Missouri, and he was regarded as an Independent member while in Congress. As a member of the Independent Party representing Missouri, Gilchrist Porter contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, as the nation moved closer to sectional crisis, and he participated in the democratic process while representing the interests of his constituents. During his second term he served as chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims in the Thirty-fourth Congress, overseeing matters related to the adjudication and confirmation of land titles, an important issue in a period of westward expansion and contested property claims.

Following his congressional service, Porter continued his public career in the judiciary. From 1866 to 1880 he served as a Missouri circuit judge, presiding over a wide range of civil and criminal matters during the turbulent Reconstruction era and its aftermath. His fourteen years on the bench reflected the confidence placed in his legal judgment and contributed to the development of Missouri’s judicial system in the post–Civil War period.

After leaving the bench in 1880, Porter resumed the private practice of law. He continued to work as an attorney in Missouri until his death. Gilchrist Porter died in Hannibal, Missouri, on November 1, 1894, his seventy-seventh birthday. He was interred in Riverside Cemetery in Hannibal, closing a long career as a lawyer, legislator, and judge who had been active in Missouri’s legal and political life for more than half a century.