CAMDEN — By Ken Bridges
S.A. Historical Foundation
William S. Fulton accomplished much for Arkansas in his short life. He served as the fourth territorial governor and the first U. S. Senator. Through Fulton’s leadership, he made the difficult transition from territory to state and from economic ruin to recovery possible.
Fulton was born in June 1795 in Cecil County, Maryland. His father was an Irish immigrant, and his mother from an old, wealthy Maryland family. A tutor provided Fulton’s early education. He later enrolled at Baltimore College and graduated by 1813.
The War of 1812 dominated his young adult years. He and his father both volunteered for a local militia unit, the Baltimore Fencibles, in 1813, where the younger Fulton rose to the rank of corporal. In September 1814, the British struck the Chesapeake Bay area, burning Washington and then turned their attention to Baltimore, 30 miles away. Marylanders quickly rallied thousands of troops to defend Baltimore. On the night of September 13, Fulton helped defend Ft. McHenry as the Royal Navy unleashed its withering attack. The American defenders held their ground during the night; and the American flag never bowed to the English invaders, a feat which inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star-Spangled Banner.
In 1815, Fulton was hired by Andrew Jackson as personal secretary as he waged his campaign against the Seminoles in Florida. Afterward, Fulton became a lawyer, eventually moving to Alabama, where he became a defender of Jackson. By the mid-1820s, he had won election as a local judge. Impressed, in 1829, Jackson, now president, appointed him secretary of the Arkansas Territory.
Fulton proved quite adept as secretary, often running Arkansas while Gov. John Pope was absent. In 1835, President Jackson appointed Fulton as territorial governor. As it turned out, Fulton would be the last as Arkansas was in a frenzy with the possibility of statehood. The territory was growing and farms and plantations were prospering.
Fulton, however, studied the issue very closely. With statehood, Arkansas would be entirely on its own for its finances. Arkansas had no education system, few roads, and no financial infrastructure. Although the prospects for Arkansas looked bright, Fulton stated that Arkansas did not yet have the population or economy to be the self-sustaining, prosperous state that it could become.
Many Arkansans were furious with Fulton for his stand. A number of residents feared that if Arkansas missed this opportunity for statehood, then it could be years until it had another chance. Statehood allies pressed for admission, and on June 15, 1836, Arkansas was admitted as the twenty-fifth state in the Union.
In the end, the controversy over statehood did little damage to Fulton politically as the newly-elected state legislature selected him and Ambrose Sevier as the state’s first US Senators.
Unfortunately, Fulton was proven correct in his misgivings about statehood. One year after Arkansas was admitted, a massive economic depression swept the nation. The fragile economy of Arkansas could not withstand the disaster, and the state fell into bankruptcy. Fulton put all of his energies into helping Arkansas recover and prosper. By the early 1840s, the population of the state again saw new economic growth and the state’s finances recovered.
While in the Senate, he came to chair the Committee on Public Buildings, responsible for the maintenance of the Capitol, all federal buildings, and federally-financed roads. The legislature re-elected him in 1840. In 1842, Arkansas legislators honored him by naming Fulton County after him on the Arkansas-Missouri border. Yet his life was cut tragically short. In August 1844, he died suddenly while at his home in Little Rock. He was only 49 years old.
Bridges, a History Professor at South Arkansas Community College in El Dorado, can be reached at [email protected]. The South Arkansas Historical Foundation is dedicated to educating the public about the state’s rich history. The SAHF can be contacted at PO Box 144, El Dorado, AR, 71730, at(870) 862-9890 or at http://soarkhistory.com