Despite his lack of political experience, Conway was nonetheless the Family's nominee for governor of the new state in 1836. To accomplish this, the Family manipulated the residency requirements for the office in the new constitution so as to make the popular Archibald Yell ineligible. Citing his responsibilities as Surveyor General, Conway refused to canvass the state as was the custom of the times. He still garnered 60% of the vote, thanks largely to the efforts of his kinsmen and of the Family's political organ, the Arkansas Gazette under the editorship of William Woodruff.
Considering the Jacksonian origins of the Family's power, ironically the the principal accomplishment of Conway's administration was the creation of state's first banks. Despite Andrew Jackson's notorious hostility to such institutions, the banks were initially supported in Arkansas by Whig and Democrat alike, eager to cash in on an expected frenzy of land speculation in the newly created state. The pay off never came, due in part to the Financial Panic of 1837 and to the realization that a large amount of land existed in the trans-Mississippi west. Thanks largely to the bonds issued to finance the banks, by the time Conway left office in 1840, Arkansas's accumulated debt was nearly $3 million.
However, Conway appeared oblivious to the state's financial woes. In 1837, when the federal government gave $50,000 to Arkansas as its share of the sale of federal lands, Conway called a special session of the legislature and cut the state's tax rate in half. During the next meeting of the General Assembly, he pushed through bills to build a prison and create a university. Neither took place, however, because no money was available.
When Conway stepped down, the population of Arkansas was 97,574, nearly double what it had been when he took office.
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