He edited a pro-Democratic newspaper which criticized the state's Republican government for failures regarding canal construction and other internal improvement projects.

[3] Democratic Governor James Whitcomb nominated Perkins to the Indiana Supreme Court to replace Justice Jeremiah Sullivan.

Perkins finally was able to join the court after his nomination was blocked by the state senate on two separate occasions.

In 1872, he left IU to serve three years as a judge in the Marion County superior court.

[5][6] Perkins returned to the court in 1877, succeeding Justice John Pettit, but died shortly after in 1879.