To Thomas Jefferson from Tench Coxe, 19 July 1802
From Tench Coxe
Philada. July 19. 1802
Sir
I am requested on the part of Robert Porter, Esqre, to mention his name to you for the vacant Commission of Bankruptcy. I have the honor therefore to represent that gentleman to be a practicing Attorney at Law of this city, of good property & character, and [with?] the habits of Business. He was a Lieutenant of Artillery at the close of the Revolutionary war, & a native of Pennsylvania, & the Son of Genl. Porter, who was lately at Washington as a Cincinnati Delegate. Mr. Porter, Junr. is an officer of that Society. He maintained his principles in the trial of 1798, and was run in that year with myself and others by the republican interest to represent this city in the state legislature of which he is at this time a member—As far as my opinion or knowledge of Mr. Porter goes, I wish to be understood, Sir, to consider him as a safe appointment, but I do not mean to depreciate other Applicants, being entirely unacquainted with their Names. I beg you will excuse this freedom which is taken, and of my usual Course for the reasons assigned.
I have the honor to be Sir, yr. respectful humble Servant
Tench Coxe
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); faint; at foot of text: “The President”; endorsed by TJ as received 25 July and “Rob. Porter to be Commr. bkrptcy” and so recorded in SJL, where it is connected by a brace with two other letters received on that date recommending Porter.
SON OF GENL. PORTER: Andrew Porter became major-general of the militia in Montgomery and Bucks counties in 1801, after the resignation of Peter Muhlenberg. On 4 July 1801, the CINCINNATI Society of the State of Pennsylvania elected Andrew Porter, William Irvine, and Muhlenberg delegates to the general meeting of the society for the ensuing year. OFFICER OF THAT SOCIETY: Robert Porter served as secretary and Irvine as president ( ., 3:534; James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory, City and County Register, for 1802 [Philadelphia, 1801], xxiv; Philadelphia Gazette, 6 July 1801; Gazette of the United States, 31 July 1801, 1 July 1802).