While he and his two brothers were preparing to enter college, there was a student "rebellion" at Princeton University and many school buildings had been burned.

He served as Adjutant General from 1824 to 1829; became a Democratic party member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1827.

Appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1831, Porter served as the Territorial Governor of Michigan[3] from 1832 until his death in 1834.

A portrait of Porter was unveiled in November 2015 and hangs on the second floor of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing.

Porter married Sarah Humes of Pennsylvania on October 31, 1816, and had at least four children, one of whom was General Andrew Porter, one of the generals at the First Battle of Bull Run, who married Margarite Biddle of the famous Biddle family.