Finding it impossible to lie down to sleep, he
anticipated speedy dissolution. As a politician, he had been greatly
harassed by a dissolute press, and, as a lawyer and prominent man, he
had made some enemies. Among these was Thomas H. Lewis, a
distinguished lawyer of Opelousas, who, of all his enemies, he hated
most, and he was an honest hater. A clergyman was spending some time
with him, and apprehending that he might pass suddenly away, remained,
in company with Mr. James Porter, his brother, almost constantly with
him. Only a day or two anterior to his death, after some conversation
upon the subject of the great change, leaning back in his reclining
easy-chair, he seemed to forget the presence of these two, and, after
remaining for more than an hour entirely silent, without moving or
opening his eyes, he commenced to speak, as if communing with himself.
"I have," he said, "retrospected all my life, and am satisfied. Many
things I have done I should not; but they were never from a bad
motive. I have accomplished more than my merits were entitled to. To
the inconsiderate generosity of the people of Louisiana I owe much of
the success of my life.
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