Porter was a Major in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. He also went to law school in Litchfield, Connecticut and had a practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania before becoming a Democratic party member of the Pennsylvania state legislature in 1827. He was appointed Governor of Michigan Territory by President Andrew Jackson in 1831. He died while in office in 1834 during a choleraepidemic in Detroit, Michigan. He is interred at Elmwood Cemetery, in Detroit.
He was married to Sarah Humes of Pennsylvania, and had at least four children.
He was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, the brother of David Rittenhouse Porter, Pennsylvania Governor, 1839-1845, and James Madison Porter, Secretary of War, 1843-1844, and the uncle of Horace Porter, U.S. Ambassador to France, 1897-1905.
Porter was a Major in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812.