Oration for Independence Day
Renée Marshall, Director of Genealogy and Research, has provided a remembrance for Independence Day with the following oration from the Society’s archives, an account of the occasion, the context of the times and a brief note on Frederick A. Porcher.
Image: Title page of a pamphlet published in 1831 of an oration delivered in Pineville, SC, on July 4, 1831.
“The 55th Anniversary of American Independence was celebrated at Pineville with a degree of ardor and enthusiasm, which a day so eminently devoted to Liberty is calculated to inspire. The inhabitants of the Village and neighboring country assembled in the Church at 11 o’clock, A. M… As soon as all the company were collected, the Declaration of Independence was read in a clear and impressive manner by Isaac Du Bose, Esq. after which an Oration was delivered by Frederick A. Porcher, Esq…The sentiments which it expressed admirably accorded with the glorious event which it was intended to commemorate.”
The oration as delivered in 1831 by Frederick A. Porcher, Esq.
Following is a transcription of the oration.
Time, in his rapid flight, has accomplished his course, and the present morning ushers in the anniversary dear to the heart of every American. Already are thousands of voices raised throughout our land, to celebrate this glorious anniversary, and millions are at this moment engaged in re-kindling the same flame, which led to the accomplishment of the brilliant event which we this day commemorate. Actuated by the same spirit of patriotism, the same holy aspirations after freedom, together with an exulting sense of national glory, (the legitimate bequest of virtuous ancestors), we also have assembled in the sanctuary; not for the purpose of inflaming party zeal; not to discourse on evils, real or imaginary; but, with united hearts and voices, to pour out our offerings of thanks, for the blessings which Heaven has permitted us to enjoy, and with the enthusiasm which the occasion so properly excites, to resolve that we will not degenerate from the noble conduct of our ancestors, but improve upon their illustrious example, and rest not, until we have discharged our duty in the holy cause of perfecting the human family.
Far different, fellow citizens, are the anniversaries which we celebrate, from those which mark the calendars of other nations. We shed no hypocritical tears at the recollection that a monarch expiated his offences upon a scaffold; we offer no heartless thanks that a crowned head with his pompous pageantry of servile noble and corrupt representatives had been saved from the dangers of a gunpowder plot: these are the adulations which self-styled freemen pay to their pampered and licentious tyrants; we pay a tribute of respect to men, who had no people to oppress, no matters to fear, who spoke but the popular will; who had no hopes of greatness, but in the exercise of great virtues; who enjoyed no higher reputation than that of being the representatives of an enlightened, a virtuous, and a confiding people.
This was the great honor of the patriots of '76; this the honor of every distinguished son of America. Not that they stood alone, solitary lights beaming in the midst of darkness; but that they were esteemed worthy to reflect the light which they derived from the people: not that they led the people by their influence, but that they enjoyed sufficiently the confidence of their countrymen to be by them chosen as the organs of their will. You may look in vain over the globe, all the records of history cannot furnish the example of a man around whom so much moral greatness is reflected, as around the faithful and trusted representative of a free, enlightened and virtuous people.
Yes, my fellow citizens, while we respect the virtues of our WASHINGTON, let us not degrade his country by styling him its Savior; while we cherish and respect the office of our chief magistrate, let us not disgrace ourselves by bestowing upon him the title of Protector of our liberties. It were not only a degradation of ourselves, but of the illustrious individual whom we should thus fatally distinguish. He would cease to be the Washington of free America, the choicest fruit of the spirit of his age, and the most brilliant light to be held out to the admiration of the world. He would thus be classed in the ranks of the elder Brutus and of the modern Rienzi, the true nobility of nature indeed, but wanting in that highest of human accomplishments, the confidence and support of an enlightened people.
It is to celebrate the virtues of that illustrious individual and those of his compatriots, that the countrymen of Washington have today spontaneously assembled in the temple. It is to have some rest from the bitter animosity of conflicting parties, to catch rays of hope for the future, from the history of the past, to forget the present in rapturous anticipation of the future, and in astonished contemplation of the sublime achievements of our ancestors. Who without emotion of unmingled awe can reflect upon the splendid events accomplished by those men? Who can properly appreciate his own inadequacy to commemorate the anniversary of a nation's birth?
It is not merely for having placed among the nations of the earth a new and powerful member of the political family, that the American Revolution is distinguished. Were this its only distinguishing trait, we would in vain inquire why its anniversary claims a more striking notice from the people, than that of other revolutions in the political world. It is chiefly, I may say wholly in a moral point of view that it claims our attention. ln this light, the day we now celebrate is equally interesting to the whole human family; in this light the Revolution loses its national character, and assumes the stupendous position of an epoch equally interesting to the world. It is as the effect of the march of intellect as well as the cause of the further progress of the mind towards perfection, that the revolution claims its peculiar distinction, and in this light I will proceed to examine it, as fully as my limits will allow.
The history of mankind is one of gloom and darkness. In vain do we look among the nations and ages distinguished in antiquity, for light. That which at a distance has dazzled the eye of the spectator, and gained for the ages of Pericles and Augustus, an enviable fame throughout the world, has proved, on a nearer examination, but the melancholy flickering of the ignus fatuus (will-o'-the-wisp), whose office appears to be to warn rather than to invite the traveler to its neighborhood. Ignorance, with all its train of concomitant evils, prejudice, superstition, bigotry and tyranny, had always held undisputed sway over both the minds and bodies of men. To a spectator of the present ago, the history of the past presents an unvaried picture of g loom and moral desolation. The Philosopher Galileo, and the Divine Luther, first made the successful, experiment of daring to think for themselves, and the Reformation begun by the latter is the first brilliant event in the history of man. To trace the consequences of that Reformation would require volumes. It is enough for our present purposes to state, that the mind having once undertaken the bold and novel attempt of thinking for itself, has from that time entered fairly into the lists with its tyrants ignorance and superstition; has never rested from the combat, has never been satisfied with its victories; religion especially, prejudice after prejudice has been so completely cast away, that her zealous but mistaken friends have endeavored to impose a limit to the progress of improvement, under the apprehension of its total annihilation. At every step as the moral world advances in its progress, we are forced to believe that it is yet in its infancy. Who can foretell how long it shall be, and how many changes we shall experience before the mind shall arrive at its legitimate goal, truth and perfection?
It was not in the religious world alone that the effects of the Reformation were felt. It had a tendency, in an indirect manner to excite a powerful influence on every subject. Its first consequence was, that education became necessary to the laity for the understanding of religion. Thenceforth it was no longer the exclusive property of priests and privileged laymen. It fled from the walls of cloisters, and as if the privilege of roaming abroad had counteracted the poisonous effects of its close confinement within the putrid cells of monks, knowledge assumed a new shape. It was no longer an acquaintance with words; it expanded into an intimate acquaintance with things; and while it assisted the young proselyte in the investigation of religion it opened to his view still richer fields of action. It led its votary to opposition to the oppression of the people by the nobles; it assisted in giving symmetry and efficiency to states by concentrating power in the hands of the sovereign, and in America it has effected the wonderful, but necessary revolution of hurling the monarch from his throne, and elevating man to his proper station in society, a perfect political equality with his fellow man.
As the cheerful flame which affords warmth and animation to all within its reach is always an object of more general interest and of more immediate good, than the spark which first gave light and heat to the fuel, so the American Revolution, the first great result of the Reformation, is the object of the world's admiration, while its great first cause is almost forgotten and lost in the contemplation of its splendid effects. The first is an object of remote speculation; its effects were powerful and sure, but its prodigious consequences were slowly exhibited; the second was a brilliant drama, acted by persons trained for the purpose, in an age when men had already begun to anticipate some powerful effort of the human mind, and before spectators, who knew how to admire, but who had neither moral courage nor skill to emulate the brilliant achievements of the actors. The consequences of the Revolution were also immediate. France glowed to emulate the glory of her younger sister, and claim for herself the proud distinction of freedom. Oceans of blood flowed in the cause; but it was not by blood alone that the disenthrallment of man was to be effected. It is he only who deserves to be free that can successfully raise the sword in the defense of liberty. The failure of regenerated France has only added a new luster to the glory of revolutionary America. There, a revolution was a brilliant spectacle, got up by a people of great enthusiasm, but little reflection, easily diverted into any current by the intrigues of designing demagogues, passing through every change, and ending at last in military despotism; here it was a fixed, steady and inflexible design in the people to be free. The failure of France has not damped the spirits of Frenchmen; again has France fought, conquered, and become free; and the world is now in arms vindicating the rights of man.
The American Revolution is an event so unexampled in history, and so beneficial to mankind in general in its consequences that we feel ourselves compelled here to pause awhile and reflect on the character of the people who effected it, and of the means employed in the accomplishment of this brilliant event.
The seeds of the Revolution had been sown by the original inhabitants of the country. The Puritans of England were too fond of power themselves, ever to submit patiently to subjection when a fair opportunity was afforded of throwing off the yoke. A thrust for arbitrary power had yielded to the impressions of education and to the improving spirit of the age, and had been softened into a laudable desire for rational liberty. The Quakers of Pennsylvania externally professed the doctrines of passive obedience, but they cultivated a thirst for knowledge which surmounted the difficulties opposed by a theoretical doctrine, and taught them practically how to resist the progress of despotism. The Huguenots of France, who settled in this State, and who are entitled to the filial veneration of every one who hears me, had instilled into their descendants the same love of liberty which they had brought with them into this country, and their moral influence silently prevailed over the whole State, to lay down without a sigh the fairest inheritance the world ever presented to the view of avaricious man, in exchange for the holier, nobler, loftier, but less palpable state of freedom and independence.
In these different sections of North-America were planted, as if by the direction of Providence, the three moral agents who were to diffuse over the whole, education and the love of freedom. Besides, it was a new country, where most of the forms and ceremonies of the old world were useless and cumbrous, and in consequence were generally laid aside. It is a great step towards a revolution to accustom the mind to reject old prejudices and attachments; and accordingly having lost sight of that which was formerly held sacred, or, having perceived the inutility of that which was once deemed indispensable the mind was led gradually to inquire without horror into the expediency of rejecting consequences, that we feel ourselves compelled here to pause awhile and reflect on the character of the people who effected it, and of the means employed in the accomplishment of this brilliant event.
The seeds of the Revolution had been sown by the original inhabitants of the country. The Puritans of New England were too fond of power themselves, ever to submit patiently to subjection when a fair opportunity was afforded of throwing off the yoke. A thirst for arbitrary power had yielded to the impressions of education and to the improving spirit of the age, and had been softened into a laudable desire for rational liberty. The Quakers of Pennsylvania externally professed the doctrines of passive obedience, but they cultivated a thirst for knowledge which surmounted the difficulties opposed by a theoretical doctrine, and taught them practically how to resist the progress of despotism. The Huguenots of France, who settled in this State, and who are entitled to the filial veneration of every one who hears me, had instilled into their descendants the same love of liberty which they had brought with them into this country, and their moral influence silently prevailed over the whole State, to lay down without a sigh the fairest inheritance the world ever presented to the view of avaricious man, in exchange for the holier, nobler, loftier, but less palpable state of freedom and independence.
In these different sections of North-America were planted, as if by the direction of Providence, the three moral agents who were to diffuse over the whole, education and the love of freedom. Besides, it was a new country, where most of the forms and ceremonies of the old world were useless and cumbrous, and in consequence were generally laid aside. It is a great step towards a revolution to accustom the mind to reject old prejudices and attachments; and accordingly having lost sight of that which was formerly held sacred, or, having perceived the inutility of that which was once deemed indispensable the mind was led gradually to inquire without horror into 'the expediency of rejection, the whole system. An elevated tone of morality also pervaded the society, but it was of an active, not of a passive nature. It enhanced the dignity of man, for it taught him that real virtue can never breathe the air of despotism. The virtue which passively submits is misnamed - it has none of the elements of real virtue - it is baseness.
Formed as the society of America had been by education and habit, it was impossible that it could long have remained in colonial bondage. It was not the eloquence of Henry or of Adams which gave birth to the Revolution. It was not the conduct or the wisdom of Washington alone, which led our armies successfully through the period that tried men's souls. No! it is praise enough to say of those gifted spirits, that they were foremost in the ranks of a virtuous and determined people. He who truly understands the character of the American people will exculpate from the charge of diminishing the glory of those illustrious individuals, the man, who feels too proud of them and of his countrymen generally, to place them in the catalogues of men such as those who led the savage hosts of Greece and Rome. They may have hastened, and in all probability did hasten an event which would, in the course of time, have been effected without their interference. They had the moral courage to hear themselves reviled as traitors and rebels, by those who were too firmly wedded to ancient prejudices, or too much afraid of possible consequences to risk the hazard of a change. Their example proved that treason itself with all its odious associations, may claim the name and honors of patriotism, and that the rebellious traitor while he causes kings and despots to tremble at his name, may acquire the gratitude and confidence of the people. They heeded not the fears of honest friends, who with all their better feelings enlisted in the cause, yet listened to the cold dictates of prudence and anxiously entreated them to wait. Their more enlightened prudence made them fear to wait, for it taught them that oppression having once made its appearance among them, would fasten itself forever upon its deluded victims who had not moral courage to offer instant and determined resistance. They had waited long enough - they had waited to see the result of peaceable remonstrances, of dignified protests, of respectful petitions. They had seen them heedlessly, contemptuously, scornfully laid aside and rejected. They then saw the necessity of more efficient resistance. Reason and prudence alike taught them that when their countrymen began to use the language of insult towards them, the relation of citizenship in fact had ceased, they were henceforward to be freemen or slaves.
Such was the spirit which pervaded the great body of the American people. I cannot insult your memories by recounting to you tales of courage, of fortitude, of hope, all created and supported by that invincible love of freedom. You all know their various distresses, their scanty means, their almost hopeless condition. Yet may I be excused for seizing this opportunity of giving a practical illustration of the bold spirit which inspired them to undertake, and enabled them to accomplish objects, before which, men guided by a less holy principle would have shrunk with apprehension. And I do it with the more pleasure because it is a historical fact, untold in any of the various works which records the gallant conduct of our ancestors; and related to me by the only surviving son of the late Captain John Palmer, of Marion's Brigade, and father of this village. It is stated on the authority of that officer, who on that occasion was Aid to the Brigadier, that after the action of the Eutaw Springs, the American line was left without a round of ammunition. Who can sufficiently appreciate the unquenchable thirst for freedom, which could thus inspire men to know no alternative between liberty and death! Who that justly reflects upon the glorious example of our ancestors, can throw an unworthy imputation upon those sons of liberty, who fear the consequences of oppression too much, to run the apparently prudent, though really hazardous course of allowing time for it to gain strength and consistency!!
At every step as we advance in the history of the world, we behold the consequences of oppression too much, to run the apparently prudent, though really hazardous course of allowing time for it to gain strength and consistency!! At every step as we advance in the history of the world, we behold the consequences of our revolution, exhibiting themselves in a beneficial light. The mind, freed from the yoke of old prejudices, had acquired a new impulse, and seemed to delight in forgetting all traces of the past, by soaring into new, and higher-to-untried regions of experiments. The church, which and from the earliest periods of antiquity, been united in an unholy alliance with the state was divorced from her unnatural spouse and forced to stand or fall by her own intrinsic merits.
The people were no longer the instruments of the despot's will; no longer listened at court to learn the language of loyalty; no longer feared the imputation of disloyalty; but assumed the elevated position of being their own rulers, and of examining rigidly into the conduct of their public servants.
The theory and nature of government became better understood. Formerly government was considered good in proportion to its strength; now the reverse of the proposition has been shown to be true. There was once a charm in the very name of government, it was supposed to diffuse good order, peace and propriety throughout the range of its influence - now, it was better viewed as a necessary evil, only to be tolerated in its mildest shape and only so long as it discharged the negative but necessary duties committed to its care; always to be resisted when it travelled beyond its jurisdiction, and attempted the crime of corruption by interfering, even in the most indirect manner, with the private concerns of individuals.
Society exhibited improvements clearly demonstrating the existence of a better age. The equal distribution of property among the heirs of a deceased proprietor, prevents the accumulation of large fortunes, and compelled every man to become an active and useful member of society: a more natural and healthy state pervaded all orders, and man ceased to be respectable in proportion to his inactivity.
Woman too assumed her proper station in society, and the character of American matrons has added a new lustre to the sex. She is no longer the vain, idle and intriguing character which flutters in the presence of crowned heads, and in the assemblies of self-constituted nobles. She is no longer allowed to remain unemployed an object of affected admiration, but of real contempt, in the great work of advancing the cause of man. The ignorant European may assert that she is here neglected, and allowed no influence in society; but the son of an American mother can easily refute the scandalous assertion. Great is the influence of woman here. She forms the future citizen – from her lips are caught the sentiments of virtue which characterize the American patriot. Oh! Do we not all know, how, rejecting as vain and unbecoming the dignity of her sex, the frivolous amusements which constitute the duty of woman elsewhere, she has devoted herself wholly and resolutely to her important task? Can we look at the moral picture of our country and ask where the influence of woman is to be felt? The moral character of the American people is the splendid result of the moral influence of American mothers.
Human greatness is more truly estimated than it was of old. We no longer regard with admiration and delight the characters of Alexander, or of Caesar. We have been taught that there is a greatness surpassing all that gives to warriors their fame. We have had too many examples of moral greatness, to degrade ourselves by adulating the characters of those, whose fame has increased only in proportion to the amount of human misery caused by them. Our own Washington, the leader of our revolutionary armies, would have had but a sorry passport to immortality, had he possessed no other credentials, than such as have served to embalm the memories of Caesar or Napoleon. But he possessed a moral splendor of character, which shone with such intensity and with such invariable brightness, that the fame of the hero is completely lost, and the mind wrapt in almost painful admiration of the naked yet dazzling simplicity that adorns the character of that truly great man. His was a brilliant reflection of all the virtues which constituted the character of his country men. In him was concentrated and personified the character of the people whom he represented. In any other country in the world, virtue like his would have been unknown and inactive, amidst the splendid vices that characterize the most enlightened. It was here only that he could assume the place assigned to him by nature, and shine before the world, a brilliant example of the real dignity of human nature.
Military glory can never be the lot of any American, for the proper duty of man, and his appropriate pursuits, are too highly appreciated, and too sacredly respected. It was the boast of the ancient republics that every citizen was a soldier, and we have every evidence to believe that the feelings of the citizen were merged in those of the soldier. While in America every soldier is also a citizen, the American soldier never forgets that he has assumed the character only to preserve his citizenship. We have rejected standing armies as engines hostile to liberty, and have left the defence of our possessions entirely to the proprietors.
We covet not the national glory which forms the boast of the willing and deluded slaves of Europe. We have an individual character too proud to borrow distinction from the conduct of others. It is here alone that the proposition seems to be generally admitted, that it is the man who adorns his country, and not the country which gives distinction to the man. The glory of other nations is indeed dazzling, but the keen and penetrating eye of reason discovers that its basis is individual misery. The Frenchman was proud of his country - but that country was embraced within the narrow limits of the person of his sovereign. The English man will complacently expatiate upon the glory of the British nation - but that nation consists of a corrupt aristocracy and a starving people. Nor is the American regardless of national glory - but his country comprises every individual within its limits-
"Men-high-minded men,
Who know their duty, and their rights pursue "
Men who have been taught to regard their liberty as the dearest gift of heaven to man - who will maintain it at every hazard, and who whether attacked by foe or by friend will disregard all consequences, and sacrifice all that they have hitherto held sacred, in the holy cause of preserving this their best, their most sacred inheritance.
In reference to the quote selected by Porcher, its origin is found in “An ode in imitation of Alceus” a poem by Sir William Jones, published in 1781, which explores the concept of what constitutes a state.
Image: Poulson's American Daily Advertiser
Sat, Jun 21, 1783 ·Page 2
Later the poem would serve as a source for a quote from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Taylor in May 1816.
Click Here to read the complete letter.
It would require volumes were we to dwell fully and minutely upon the consequences of the Revolution. He would be rash indeed who would venture to impose a limit to their progress. We live but in the dawn of a better age; it is the dawn of a day which shall have no end. At every moment as time is hurried onward in his course, he will be followed by a corresponding progress of the human mind. The ages of darkness are to us forever past: and the example and moral influence of the American people will quickly dispel the mists which hover over less enlightened nations. There can be no resisting the truth of this proposition. The moral revolution of the world is as certain and as necessary a consequence of the moral agents at work here, as the physical revolution of the globe, is of the laws established by the great Author of Nature. To us, who are foremost in the ranks of freedom, is committed the sacred charge of setting others the example, and of encouraging them in the great cause of liberty. If we grow weary in the cause for which our ancestors fought and bled; if an overweening attachment to the institutions founded by our ancestors, should cause us to forget our duty to ourselves; if a fear of pecuniary loss, or an unmanly unwillingness to be disturbed, shall ever prevail upon us to yield a tittle of that liberty we boast, then may the world in despair cease from the contest, for as liberty drew here her first breath here also would be her grave.
The signs of the times throughout the world are portentous. Kings have fallen from their thrones and the people are in arms against their oppressors. Our own land, the asylum of the oppressed, the cradle and the home of liberty, is at this very moment the scene of violent party animosity. Spirits as pure as ever breathed are in hostile array against each other, and the prudent are fearful lest the consequences result in the destruction of our liberty by the annihilation of its charter, and the dissolution of its cement.
For ourselves we have no such fears. With reason for our guide, and truth for our lamp, we shall stand unhurt amid the shock of revolutions, and like gold, come out of every fiery trial, more pure than when we entered it. The political union formed by our fathers, and venerated by their sons, may be dissolved. Imperfect and ambitious man, with his mania for legislation, can scarcely hope to preserve long under the same government a country whose territory is daily increasing, and whose inhabitants are free and reflecting men. A thousand causes are at work, whose tendency may be to dissolve this confederacy. But what though the broken fragments of our union be seen each steering its own solitary course through the political zodiac, is that a cause why the friends of rational liberty should repine? Oh! no, Let our political state assume what aspect it may, a holier, a purer, a more irresistible tie than parchment will forever unite the countrymen of Washington. It is the sacred spirit of liberty - her dwelling is not necessarily with political confederacies - her confidence is not in written constitutions. Her habitation and her hope are in the bosom of free men, and the people of America, whatever may be their political relation to each other, will be always united, in preserving, purifying, and perfecting her Temple.
Image: inside the pamphlet, on page ten, is written Philip E. Porcher (Philip Edward Porcher of St. Stephens Parish) with a portion regarding the battle at Eutaw Springs underlined. “Pineville was first settled in 1794, by Capt. John Palmer, Peter Gaillard, John Cordes, Philip Porcher, Samuel Porcher, and Peter Porcher.” (Source of quote: Reminiscences of St. Stephen's Parish, Craven County, and Notices of Her Old Homesteads, Samuel DuBose, p. 81.) The references noted are available in the archives of the Society.
About the author, Frederick A. Porcher
Frederick A. Porcher was only 22 years old when he gave this Oration in Pineville. The great, great grandson of Huguenot immigrants Isaac Porcher and Claude de Cherigny, Frederick was born in 1809 in the parish of St. John’s Berkeley. In his Memoir, he recalled giving this speech as a young man, writing that “soon after I arrived in Pineville my friends paid me the compliment of inviting me to deliver an oration on the next 4th of July…It required no little address to compose an oration which should steer clear of politics….I was to appear before the sovereign people of Pineville as an untried orator indeed.” He described how on the day of the event, “I felt excessively frightened, while Isaac DuBose who was scarcely less so, read the Declaration in Independence. I then ascended the pulpit, and after a few words had been uttered I got over all diffidence and acquitted myself well.”
The context of the times in 1831
The period ironically dubbed the Era of Good Feelings (1815-1825) was at best an era of mixed feelings as nationalism was slowly eroded by sectionalism. The United States had emerged from the War of 1812 on a tide of unified nationalist feeling, a unity that was reinforced by the one-party system created by the collapse of Federalism in 1815. The economic Panic of 1819 saw the beginning of a national division based on the geographic location of manufacturers and agricultural production. The Northeast, the mid-Atlantic, the West and the South each envisioned a different future for the nation.
Federal tariffs on imported goods were a major bone of contention. The specific political issue that Frederick tried so hard to avoid was the so-called Tariff of Abominations of 1828 and the resulting nullification controversy. The tariff was extremely unpopular in the South, not only because of the increased cost of imported goods, but because it indirectly reduced foreign demand for Southern agricultural exports.
If you would like to read more about the national politics of the early 1830s, the American Battlefield Trust has an excellent article: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/nullification-crisis\
To learn more about the crisis in South Carolina, see the South Carolina Digital Newspaper Program: https://digital.library.sc.edu/blogs/newspaper/topic-guides/nullification-crisis-in-south-carolina/
A happy union was ignited
On a happier note, on July 4th, 1831, not only did Frederick Porcher avoid any political landmines, he met his future wife at a ball given that evening. “When the dancing was about to begin, being desirous of paying some attention to the only lady in the room who was a stranger to me…I requested Mrs. Philip Broughton, of whose party she was one, to present me. Thus I made the acquaintance July 4th, 1831, of Miss Rebecca Branford Rhodes…when we separated for the night I felt that I had seen the woman who was to control my destiny.” They were married on 2 Feb 1832.
If you would like to read more about Frederick A. Porcher, his Memoir was published in the South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, volumes 44-48.