Charles William Fulton

Charles William Fulton (August 24, 1853 – January 27, 1918) was an American lawyer and Republican politician who represented Oregon in the United States Senate from 1903 to 1909. Over the course of his career he played a prominent role in Oregon state politics, serving multiple terms in the Oregon State Senate, including service as president of that body, before his election to the federal Senate. His single term in Congress coincided with a significant period in American history marked by the Progressive Era and expanding federal regulatory power, during which he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Oregon constituents.

Fulton was born in Lima, Allen County, Ohio, on August 24, 1853, to Jacob and Eliza A. Fulton. In 1855 his family moved west to Iowa, settling in Magnolia in Harrison County. He attended the common schools there and spent his boyhood on the Midwestern frontier. In 1870 he moved again, this time to Pawnee City, Nebraska, where he continued his education at the Pawnee City Academy. While in Nebraska he supported himself by teaching school and simultaneously studying law, a common path to the profession in the nineteenth century. He was admitted to the bar in Nebraska in April 1875, and three days after passing the bar examination he departed for the Pacific Northwest.

Fulton arrived in Portland, Oregon, on April 20, 1875. Shortly after his arrival he took a teaching position in Linn County, instructing students in the small community of Waterloo for several months while establishing himself in his new state. In July 1875 he moved to Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, where he entered private legal practice. Astoria would remain his principal home and political base for much of his life. As his law practice grew, he became increasingly involved in local affairs and the Republican Party, building a reputation as an able attorney and advocate.

In 1878 Fulton was elected as a Republican to the Oregon State Senate, representing Clatsop, Columbia, and Tillamook counties. He served a four-year term and participated in the 1878 and 1880 legislative sessions. While still a young legislator he also took on municipal responsibilities, serving as city attorney of Astoria from 1880 to 1882. After several years focused on his legal practice, he returned to state politics and in 1890 was again elected to the Oregon State Senate for another four-year term. During the 1893 legislative session he was chosen president of the Senate, reflecting his growing influence within the state Republican organization. In 1894 he sought the Republican nomination for governor of Oregon, but the party convention selected William Paine Lord instead, and Fulton remained in the legislature rather than moving to the executive branch.

Although he did not sit in the next two regular legislatures, Fulton returned to the Oregon Senate during the 1898 special session. He won yet another four-year term in 1900 and again served as president of the Senate during the 1901 legislature. He also participated in the 1903 legislative session. During these years Oregon politics were increasingly shaped by what became known as the “Oregon System” of direct democracy, including the initiative and referendum, and Fulton was active in the state’s evolving political landscape as a senior Republican leader. His long tenure and leadership roles in the state senate helped position him for higher office when the Oregon Legislative Assembly turned to the selection of a United States senator.

In 1903 the Oregon Legislature elected Fulton to the United States Senate, and he entered federal office on March 4, 1903. He served a single term, leaving office on March 3, 1909. As a member of the Republican Party in the Senate, he participated in the democratic process during a period of national debate over regulation, conservation, and economic reform. Fulton served as chairman of the Committee on Canadian Relations during the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses, where he dealt with issues involving cross-border relations and trade with Canada. He also served on the Committee on Claims during the Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Congresses, considering petitions and financial claims against the federal government. Despite his active participation in Senate work, he failed to secure reelection in 1908 and thus completed only one term representing Oregon in Congress.

After leaving the Senate, Fulton remained a figure of some national prominence. In 1909 President William Howard Taft sought to appoint him as United States ambassador to China, a significant diplomatic post at a time of growing American involvement in East Asia. However, following opposition from Chinese-American communities in Portland and San Francisco, Fulton declined the nomination and did not take up the ambassadorship. He instead returned to private life and resumed the practice of law, this time based in Portland, while maintaining his connections to Astoria and to Oregon public affairs.

In his personal life, Fulton married Ada M. Hobson in 1886. The couple had one child, a son. Politics ran in the family: his brother, Elmer Lincoln Fulton, later served as a United States Representative from Oklahoma, extending the family’s involvement in national public service beyond Oregon. Charles William Fulton continued to practice law and remain engaged in civic matters until his death. He died on January 27, 1918, at the age of 64. He was buried in Ocean View Cemetery in Astoria, Oregon, the coastal city where he had first established his legal career and from which he rose to state and national office.