Robert Lewis Dorr Potter (February 5, 1833 – November 2, 1893) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer.
[1] In 1860, he was elected district attorney for Waushara County, running on the Republican Party ticket.
[1] While serving as district attorney, in 1867, Potter became the owner and publisher of the Waushara Argus, a Republican partisan newspaper.
[1] During Potter's first year in the Senate, an economic panic set off calls for reform, resulting in a political upheaval that saw Democrats gain control of the Wisconsin State Assembly and the governor's office for the first time in a generation.
During the subsequent 1874 session, Potter worked with his new Democratic colleagues to pass his signature railroad regulation law, titled, An Act relating to railroads, express and telegraph companies, in the state of Wisconsin (1874 Wisc.
[3] Two of the largest railroad operators in Wisconsin openly ignored the requirements of the new law, initiating months of litigation.
In March 1876, he was appointed special assistant U.S. attorney general to represent the United States government in a number of lawsuits that had resulted from flooding caused by federal improvements on the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers.