South with a recognition that industrial capitalism was the wave of the future." Following his tenure as governor, Porter remained active in the New South economy. He succeeded Edmund William Cole as the president of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway from 1880 to 1884. He also served on the board of directors of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. In 1885, Porter was appointed Assistant Secretary of State by President Grover Cleveland. He served under Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard. In 1893, during Cleveland's second term, Porter was appointed as U.S. Minister to Chile. He served there until a change in administrations in the Spring of 1894. Porter spent the latter part of his life promoting and raising funds for his alma mater, the University of Nashville (from which he had been granted an honorary LL.D. in 1877), and its affiliated Peabody College. He was appointed a trustee of the Peabody Education Fund in 1883, and became president of the Board of Trustees for the University of Nashville in 1890. Porter became chancellor of the University of Nashville in 1901, and president of Peabody College in 1902. He supported the construction of Confederate Memorial Hall. In the latter part of the decade, he oversaw the liquidation of the University of Nashville's assets and their transfer to the Peabody fund for the reestablishment of Peabody College. The fund chose to locate the reorganized college at Vanderbilt's campus, however, leaving Porter embittered. He resigned from the fund's board in 1909. In 1899, Porter published a book, The Military History of Tennessee, War of 1861-65, which became Volume VIII of Clement Evans's 12-volume series, Confederate Military History. He was also active in the Tennessee Historical Society, at one point serving as its president. Porter died in 1912, and is buried in the Paris City Cemetery. Family In 1851 Porter married Susannah Dunlap in Paris, Tennessee. She was the daughter of his law mentor, John H. Dunlap. They had six children together, three of whom died at a young age. References External links Confederate Military History Volume VIII: Tennessee – Porter's book on the Civil War in Tennessee John Henry Dunlap Governor James Davis Porter Papers, 1875 - 1879, Tennessee State Library and Archives. |- 1828 births 1912 deaths Democratic Party governors of Tennessee United States Assistant Secretaries of State 19th-century American diplomats Ambassadors of the United States to Chile