09 - Adventures in the Forest, on the River, and in the City

Chapter 9: Adventures in the Forest, on the River, and in the City
Recounts various adventures Crockett had in different settings, from the forest to urban areas, showcasing his versatility and adaptability. Summary by Dream Audiobooks
  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter nine of David Crockett, His Life and Adventures. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brett W. Downey David Crockett,
His Life and Adventures by John S. C Abbott, Chapter

(00:24):
nine Adventures in the Forest, on the River, and in
the City. Crockett was very fond of hunting adventures and
told stories of these enterprises in a racy way peculiarly
characteristic of the man. The following narrative from his own
lips the reader will certainly peruse with much interest. I

(00:44):
was sitting by a good fire in my little cabin
on a cool November evening, roasting potatoes, I believe, and
playing with my children when some one hallooed at the fence.
I went out, and there were three strangers who said
they had come to take an el khunt. I was
glad to see em, invited em in, and after supper
we cleaned our guns. I took down old Betsy, rubbed

(01:07):
her up, greased her, and laid her away to rest.
She's a mighty rough old piece, but I love her,
for she and I have seen hard times. She mighty
seldom tells me a lie. If I hold her right,
she always sends the ball where I tell her. After
we were all fixed, I told em hunting stories till bedtime.
Next morning was clear and cold, and by times I

(01:30):
sighted my horn, and my dogs came howling about me,
ready for a chase. Old Rattler was a little lame.
A bear bit him in the shoulder, but sound well,
Tiger and the rest of em were all mighty anxious.
We got a bite, an saddled our horses. I went
to get a neighbor to drive for us, and off
we started for the hurricane. My dogs looked mighty wolfish.

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They kept jumpin on one another and growlin. I knew
they were run mad for a fight, for they hadn't
had one for two or three days. We were in
fine spirits and going long through very open woods when
one of the strangers said, I would give my horse
now to see a bear. Said I, well, gimme your horse,
and I pointed to an old bear about three or

(02:14):
four hundred yards ahead of us, feeding on acorns. I
had been looking at him some time, but he was
so far off I wasn't certain what it was. However,
I hardly spoke before we all strained off, and the
woods fairly echoed as we harked the dogs on. The
old bear didn't want to run, and he never broke
till we got most upon him. But then he buckled

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for it. I tell you, when they overhauled him, he
just reared up on his hind legs and he boxed
the dog's bout at a mighty rate. He hugged old
Tiger and another till he dropped him nearly lifeless. But
the others worried him, and after a while they all
come too, and they give him trouble. They're mighty apt.
I'll tell you to give a bear trouble before they
leave him. Twas a mighty pretty fight. Twould have done

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any one so good to see it, just to see
how they all rolled about. It was as much as
I could do to keep the strangers from shooting him,
but I wouldn't let em for fear they would kill
some of my dogs. After we got tired of seeing
em fight, I went in among em, and the first
time they got him down, I socked my knife in
the old bear. We then hung him up and went
on to take our elk hunt. You never seed fellows

(03:20):
so delighted as them strangers was blow me. If they
didn't cut more capers jumpin about than the old bear.
Twas a mighty pretty fight, But I believe I seed
more fun looking at them than at the bear. By
the time we got to the Hurricane, we were all
rested and ripe for a drive. My dogs were in
a better humor for the fight had taken off the

(03:40):
wiry edge. So I placed the strangers at the stands
through which I thought the elk would pass, sent the
driver way up ahead, and I went down below. Everything
was quiet, and I leaned Old Betsy again a tree
and laid down. I suppose I'd been lying there nearly
an hour when I heard Old Tiger open. He opened
once or twice. An old ratler gave a long howl.

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The balance goored in, and I knew the elk were up.
I jumped up and seized my rifle. I could hear
nothing but one continuous roar of all my dogs coming
right towards me. Though I was an old hunter, the
music made my hair stand on end. Soon after they
first started, I heard one gun go off and my
dogs stopped, but not long, for they took a little

(04:23):
tack towards where I had placed the strangers. One of
them fired and they dashed back and circled round way
to my left. I run down about a quarter of
a mile, and I heard my dogs make a bend
like they were coming to me. While I was listening,
I heard the bushes breaking still lower down and started
to run there. As I was going long, I seed
two elks burst out of the hurricane. About one hundred

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and thirty or forty yards below me, there was an
old buck and a doe. I stopped, waited till they
got into a clear place, and as the old fellow
made a leap, I raised old bet, pulled trigger, and
she spoke out. Smoke blinded me so that I couldn't
see what I did, But as it cleared away, I
caught a glimpse of only one of them going through

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the bushes, so I thought I had the other. I
went up and there lay the old buck. Kickin. I
cut his throat, and by that time Tiger and two
of my dogs came up. I thought it singular that
all my dogs wasn't there, and I began to think
they had killed another. After the dogs had bit him
and found out he was dead, Old Tiger began to
growl and curl himself up between his legs. Everything had

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to stand off then, for he wouldn't let the devil
himself touch him. I started off to look for the strangers.
My two dogs followed me. After getting away a piece,
I looked back, and once in a while I could
see Old Tiger get up and shake the elk to
see if he was really dead, and then curl up
between his legs again. Found the strangers round a doe
elk the driver had killed, and one of 'em said

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he was sure he had killed one lower down. I
asked him if he had horns. He said he didn't
see any. I put the dogs on where he said
he had shot, and they didn't go further before they
came to a halt. I went up and there lay
a fine buck elk, and though his horns were four
or five feet long, the fellow shot him was so
scared that he never saw them. We had three elk

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and a bear, and we managed to get at home.
Then butchered our game, talked over our hunt, and had
a glorious frolic Crockett served in the legislature for two years,
during which time nothing occurred of special interest. These were
the years of eighteen twenty three and eighteen twenty four.
Colonel Alexander was then the representative in the National Legislature

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of the district in which Crockett lived. He had offended
his constituents by voting for the tariff. It was proposed
to run Crockett for Congress in opposition to him. Crockett says,
I told the people that I could not stand that
it was a step above my knowledge, and I'd known
nothing about Congress matters. They persisted, but he lost. The
election for Cotton was very high, and Alexander urged that

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it was in consequence of the tariff. Two years passed away,
which Crockett spent in the wildest adventures of hunting. He
was a true man of the woods, with no ambition
for any better home than the log cabin he occupied.
There was no excitement so dear to him as the
pursuit and capture of a grizzly bear. There is nothing
on record in the way of hunting which surpasses the

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exploits of this renowned bear hunter. There is a certain
degree of sameness in these narratives of skill and endurance,
which would weary the reader. In the fall of eighteen
twenty five, Crockett built two large flat boats to load
with staves for the making of casks, which he intended
to take down the river to market. He employed a
number of hands in building the boat and splitting out

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the staves, and engaged himself in these labors till the
bears got fat. He then plunged into the woods, and
in two weeks killed fifteen. The whole winter was spent
in hunting with his son and his dogs. His workmen
continued busy getting the staves, and when the rivers rose
with the spring floods, he had thirty thousand ready for
the market. With this load, he embarked for New Orleans.

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His boats, without difficulty, floated down the Obian into the
majestic Mississippi. It was the first time he had seen
the rush of these mighty waters. There was before him
a boat voyage of nearly fifteen hundred miles through regions
to him entirely unknown. In his own account of this adventure,
he writes, when I got into the Mississippi, I found

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all my hands were bad scared. In fact, I believe
I was scared a little worst of any for I
had never been down the river, and I soon discovered
that my pilot was as ignorant of the business as myself.
I hadn't gone far before I determined to lash the
two boats together. We did so, but it made them
so heavy and obstinate that it was next akin to

(08:43):
impossible to do anything at all with them, or to
guide them right in the river. That evening we fell
in company with some Ohio boats, and about night we
tried to land, but we could not. The Ohio men
hollered to us to go on and run all night.
We took their advice, though we had a good deal
rather not, but we couldn't do any other way. In
a short distance we got into what is called the

(09:05):
Devil's Elbow. And if any place in the wide creation
has its own proper name, I thought it was this. Here.
We hadn't about the hardest work that I was ever
engaged in in my life to keep out of danger,
and even then we were in it all the while.
We twice attempted to land at wood yards which we
could see but couldn't reach. The people would run out
with lights and try to instruct us how to get

(09:27):
to shore, but all in vain. Our boats were so
heavy that we could not take them much anyway except
the way they wanted to go, and just the way
the current would carry them. At last we quit trying
to land and concluded just to go ahead as well
as we could, for we found we couldn't do any better.
Some time in the night I was down in the
cabin of one of the boats, sitting by the fire,

(09:49):
thinking on what a hobble we had got into, how
much better bear hunting was on hard land and floating
along on the water. When a fellow had to go ahead,
whether he was exactly willing or not, each way of
the cabin came slapped down right through the top of
the boat, and it was the only way out except
a small hole in the side, which we had used
for putting our arms through to dip up water before

(10:10):
we lashed the boats together. We were now floating sideways,
and the boat I was in was the hindmost as
we went. All at once I heard the hands begin
to run over the top of the boat in great
confusion and pull with all their might. And the first
thing I knowed After this, we went broadside, full tilt,
against the head of an island where a large raft
of drift timber had lodged. The nature of such a

(10:31):
place would be, as everybody knows, to suck the boats
down and turn them right under this raft, and the
uppermost boat would of course be sucked down and go
under first. As soon as we struck, I bulged from
my hatchway as the boat was turning under sure enough.
But when I got to it, the water was pouring
in through a current as large as the hole would
let it, and as strong as the weight of the

(10:53):
river would force it. Fine, I couldn't get out here,
for the boat was now turned down in such a
way that it was steeper than a house top. I
now thought of the hole in the side and made
my way in a hurry for that, with difficulty, I
got to it. And when I got there, I found
it was too small for me to get out by
my own power, and I began to think that I
was in a worse box than ever. But I pulled

(11:15):
my arms through and hollered as loud as I could roar,
as the boat I was in hadn't yet quite filled
with water up to my head, and the hands who
were next to the raft, seeing my arms out and
hearing me holler, seized them and began to pull I
told them I was sinking, and to pull my arms
off or to force me through. For now I knowed
well enough it was neck or nothing, come out or sink.

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By a violent effort, they jerked me through, But I
was in a pretty pickle. When I got through. I
had been sitting without any clothing over my shirt. This
was torn off, and I was literally skinned like a rabbit.
I was, however, well pleased to get out in any way,
even without shirt or hide. As before I could straighten
myself on the boat next to the raft, the one

(11:57):
they'd pulled me out of, went entirely under, and I
have never seen it any more to this day. We
all escaped on to the raft, where we were compelled
to sit all night, about a mile from land. On
either side. Four of my company were bare headed and
three barefooted, and of that number I was one. I
reckon I looked a pretty cracklin Ever to get to congress.

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We had now lost all our loading and every particle
of our clothing except what little we had on. But
over all this While I was sitting there in the night,
floating about on the drift, I felt happier and better
off than I ever had in my life before, where
I had just made such a marvelous escape that I
had forgot almost everything else in that, and so I
felt prime. In the morning, about sunrise, we saw a

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boat coming down, and we hailed her. They sent a
large skiff and took us all aboard and carried us
down as far as Memphis. Here I met with a
friend that I never can forget as long as I
am able to go ahead at anything. It was a
major Winchester, a merchant of that place. He let us
all have hats and shoes and some money to go upon,
and so we all parted. A young man and myself

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concluded to go on down to Natchez to see if
we could hear anything of our boats. Well, we supposed
they would float out from the raft and keep on
down the river. We got on a boat at Memphis
that was going down, and so cut out. Our largest boat.
We were informed had been seen about fifty miles below
where we stove, and an attempt had been made to
land her, but without success, as she was as hard

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headed as ever, this was the last of my boats
and of my boating, for it went so badly with
me along at the first that I had not much
mind to try it any more. I now returned home again,
and as the next August was the congressional election, I
began to turn my attention a little to that matter,
as it was beginning to be talked of a good
deal among the people. Cotton was down very low. Crockett

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could now say, to the people, you see the effects
of the tariff. There were two rival candidates for the office,
Colonel Alexander and General Arnold. Money was needed to carry
the election, and Crockett had no money. He resolved, however,
to try his chances. A friend loaned him a little
money to start with, which some Crockett, of course, expended

(14:10):
in Whiskey, as the most potent influence then and there
to secure an election. So I was able, writes Crockett,
to buy little of the creature to put my friends
in a good humor, as well as the other gentlemen,
For they all treat in that country, not to get elected,
of course, for that would be against the law, but
just to make themselves and their friends feel their keeping

(14:32):
a little. The contest was, as usual, made up of drinking, feasting,
and speeches. Colonel Alexander was an intelligent and worthy man
who had been public surveyor. General Arnold was a lawyer
of very respectable attainments. Neither of these men considered Crockett
a candidate in the slightest degree to be feared. They
only feared each other and tried to circumvent each other.

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On one occasion, there was a large gathering where all
three of the candidates were present, and each one was
expected to make a speech. It came Crockett's lot to
speak first. He knew nothing of congressional affairs, and had
sense enough to be aware that it was not best
for him to attempt to speak upon subjects of which
he was entirely ignorant. He made one of his funny speeches,

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very short and entirely noncommittal. Colonel Alexander followed, endeavoring to
grapple with the great questions of tariffs, finance, and internal
improvements which were then agitating the nation. General Arnold then,
in his turn, took the stump, posing the measures which
Colonel Alexander had left. He seemed entirely to ignore the
fact that Crockett was a candidate, not the slightest allusion

(15:37):
was made to him in his speech. The nervous temperament
predominated in the man, and he was easily annoyed. While speaking,
a large flock of guinea hens came along, whose peculiar
and noisy cry all will remember who have ever heard it.
Arnold was greatly disturbed, and at last requested someone to
drive the fowls away. As soon as he had finished

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his speech, Crockett again mounted the stump, and, ostensibly addressing Arnold,
but really addressing the crowd, said, in a loud voice,
but very jockulously, well, General, you are the first man
I ever saw that understood the language of fowls. You
had not the politeness even to allude to me in
your speech. But when my little friends, the guinea hens

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came up and began to holler, Crockett, crack it, Crockett,
you were ungenerous enough to drive them all away. This
raised such a universal laugh that even Crockett's opponents feared
that he was getting the best of them and winning
the favor of the people. When the day of the
election came, the popular bear hunter beat both of his
competitors by twenty seven hundred and forty seven votes. Thus,

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David Crockett, unable to read and barely able to sign
his name, became a member of Congress to assist in
framing laws for the grandest Republic Earth has ever known.
He represented a constituency of about one hundred thousand souls.
An intelligent gentleman traveling in West Tennessee, finding himself within
eight miles of Colonel Crockett's cabin, decided to call upon

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the man whose name had now become quite renowned. This
was just after Crockett's election to Congress, but before he
had set out for Washington. There was no road leading
to the lonely hut. He followed a rough and obstructed
path or trail, which was indicated only by blazed trees,
and which bore no marks of being often traveled. At length,
he came to a small opening in the forest, very

(17:25):
rude and uninviting in its appearance, it embraced eight or
ten acres. One of the humblest and least tasteful of
log huts stood in the center. It was truly a cabin,
a mere shelter from the weather. There was no yard.
There were no fences. Not the slightest effort had been
made towards ornamentation, it would be difficult to imagine a
more lonely and cheerless abode. Two men were seated on

(17:48):
stools at the door, both in their shirt sleeves, engaged
in cleaning their rifles. As the stranger rode up, one
of the men rose and came forward to meet him.
He was dressed in very plain homespun attire, with a
black fur cap upon his head. He was a finely
proportioned man, about six feet high, apparently forty five years
of age, and a very frank, pleasing open countenance. He

(18:11):
held his rifle in his hand, and from his right
shoulder hung a bag made of raccoon skin, to which
there was a sheath attached containing a large butcher knife.
This is Colonel Crockett's residence, I presume, said the stranger. Yes,
was the reply, with a smile as of welcome. Am
I the pleasure of seeing that gentleman before me? The

(18:32):
stranger added, if it be a pleasure? Was the courtly reply,
You have, sir well, colonel, responded the stranger. I have
ridden much out of my way to spend a day
or two with you and take a hunt. Get down, sir,
said the colonel cordially, I am delighted to see you.
I like to see strangers, and the only care I

(18:54):
have is that I cannot accommodate them as well as
I could wish. I have no corn, but my little
boy will take your horse over to my son in laws.
He is a good fellow and will take care of him.
Leading the stranger into his cabin, Crockett very courteously introduced
him to his brother, his wife, and his daughters. He
then added, you see, we are mighty rough here. I'm

(19:15):
afraid you will think at hard times, but we have
to do the best we can. I started mighty poor
and have been rooting long ever since. But I hate apologies.
What I live upon always I think a friend can
do for a day or two. I have but little,
but that little is as free as the water that runs.
So make yourself at home. Missus. Crockett was an intelligent

(19:38):
and capable woman for one in her station in life.
Cabin was clean and orderly, and presented a general aspect
of comfort. Many trophies of the chase were in the
house and spread around the yard. Several dogs, looking like
war worn veterans, were sunning themselves in various parts of
the premises. All the family were neatly dressed in home

(19:58):
made garments. Missus Brockett was a grave, dignified woman, very
courteous to her guests. The daughters were remarkably pretty, but
very diffident. Though entirely uneducated, they could converse very easily,
seeming to inherit their father's fluency of utterance. They were
attractive and efficient in aiding their mother in her household work.

(20:19):
Colonel Crockett, with much apparent pleasure, conducted his guest over
the small patch of ground he had grubbed and was cultivating.
He exhibited his growing peas and pumpkins, and his little
field of corn, with as much apparent pleasure as an
Illinois farmer would now point out his hundreds of acres
of waving grain. The hunter seemed surprisingly well informed. As

(20:39):
we have mentioned, nature had endowed him with unusual strength
of mind and with a memory which was almost miraculous.
He never forgot anything he had heard. His electioneering tours
had been to him very valuable schools of education. Carefully,
he listened to all the speeches and the conversation of
the intelligent men he met with John Quincy Adams, was

(21:00):
then in the presidential chair. It was the year eighteen
twenty seven. Nearly all Crockett's constituents were strong Jackson men. Crockett,
who afterward opposed Jackson, subsequently said, speaking of his views
at the time, I can say on my conscience that
I was, without disguise the friend and supporter of General Jackson,

(21:21):
upon his principles, as he had laid them down and
as I understood them before his election as president. Alluding
to Crockett's political views at the time, his guest writes,
I held in high estimation the present administration of our country.
To this he was opposed. His views, however, delighted me,
and were they more generally adopted, we should be none

(21:42):
the loser. He was opposed to the administration, and yet
conceded that many of its acts were wise and efficient,
and would have received his cordial support. He admired mister Clay,
but had objections to him. He was opposed to the tariff,
yet I think a supporter of the United States Bank.
He seemed to have the most horrible objection to binding
himself to any man or set of men, He said,

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I would as leave be an old coon dog, as
obliged to do what any man or set of men
would tell me to do. I will support the present
administration as far as I would any other. That is,
as far as I believe its views to be right.
I will pledge myself to support no administration. I'd rather
be politically damned than hypocritically immortalized. In the winter of

(22:26):
eighteen twenty seven, Crockett emerged from his cabin in the
wilderness for a seat in Congress. He was so poor
that he had not money enough to pay his expenses
to Washington. His election had cost him one hundred and
fifty dollars, which a friend had loaned him. The same
friend advanced one hundred dollars more to help him on
his journey. When I left home, he says, I was happy, devilish,

(22:48):
and full of fun. I bade adieu to my friends,
dogs and my rifle, and took the stage, where I
met with much variety of character, and amused myself when
my humor prompted. Being fresh from the backwoods, my stories
amused my companions, and I passed my time pleasantly. When
I arrived at Raleigh. The weather was cold and rainy,
and we were all dull and tired. Pon going into

(23:10):
the tavern, where I was an entire stranger, the room
was crowded, and the crowd did not give way that
I might come to the fire. I was rooting my
way to the fire, not in a good humor, when
some fellow staggered up towards me and cried out, Hooray
for it, Ums, said I, stranger, you had better hurrah
for hell and praise your own country. And here are you?

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Said he? I replied, I am that same David Crockett,
fresh from the backwoods, half horse, half alligator, and a
little touched with a snapping turtle. I can wade the Mississippi,
leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and
slip without a scratch down a honey locust. I can
whip my weight in wildcats, And if any gentleman pleases

(23:54):
for a ten dollar bill, he can throw in a panther.
I can hug a bear too close for comfort, and
eat any man opposed to General Jackson. All eyes were
immediately turned towards this strange man, for all had heard
of him. Place was probably made for him at the fire.
He was afterward asked if this wondrous outburst of slang
was entirely unpremeditated. He said that it was that it

(24:15):
had all popped into his head at once, and that
he should never have thought of it again had not
the story gone the round of the newspapers. I came
on to Washington, he says, and drawled two hundred and
fifty dollars and purchased with it a check on the
bank in Nashville, and enclosed it to my friend. And
I may say, in truth, I sent this money with

(24:36):
a mighty good will, for I reckon nobody in this
world loves a friend better than me, or remembers a
kindness longer. Soon after his arrival at Washington, he was
invited to dine with President Adams, a man of the
highest culture whose manners had been formed in the courts
of Europe. Crockett, totally unacquainted with the usages of society,

(24:56):
did not know what the note of invitation meant, and
inquired of a friend, the honorable mister Verplank. He says,
I was wild from the backwoods and didn't know nothing
about eating dinner with the big folks of our country,
and how should I, Having been a hunter all my life,
I had eat most of my dinners on a log
in the woods, and sometimes no dinner at all. I

(25:17):
knew whether I ate dinner with the President or not
was a matter of no importance, for my constituents were
not to be benefited by it. I did not go
to court the President, for I was opposed to him
in principle and had no favors to ask at his hands.
I was afraid, however, I should be awkward, as I
was so entirely a stranger to fashion, And in going along,

(25:38):
I resolved to observe the conduct of my friend mister Verplank,
and to do as he did. And I know that
I did behave myself right. Well. Some cruel wag wrote
the following ludicrous account of this dinner party, which went
the round of all the papers as veritable history. The
writer pretended to quote Crockett's own account of the dinner.
The first thing I did, said Davy, after I got

(26:00):
to Washington, was to go to the President's I stepped
into the President's house. Thinks, I who's a feared If
I didn't, I wish I may be shot, says I,
mister Adams. I am mister Crockett from Tennessee, So says he,
how'd you do, mister Crockett? And he shook me by
the hand, although he knowed I went the whole hog

(26:21):
for Jackson. If you didn't, I wish I may be shot.
Not only that, but he sent me a printed ticket
to dine with him. I've got it in my pocket yet.
I went to dinner, and I walked all around the
long table looking for something that I liked. Last, I
took my seat beside a fat goose, and I helped
myself to as much of it as I wanted. But

(26:41):
I hadn't took three bites when I looked away up
the table at a man they called tash at Tachet.
He was talking French to a woman on the other
side of the table. He dodged his head and she
dodged hers, and then they got to drinking wine across
the table. When I looked back again, my plate was gone,
goose and all. So I just cast my eyes down

(27:02):
to the other end of the table, and sure enough
I see the white man walking off with my plate.
I says, hello, mister, bring back my plate. He fetched
it back in a hurry, as you may think. And
when he set it down before me, how do you
think it was licked as clean as my hand? If
it wasn't, I wish I may be shot, says he.

(27:23):
What will you have, sir? And says I, you may
well say that after stealing my goose? And he began
to laugh. Then says I, mister, laugh if you please,
But I don't half like sich tricks upon travelers. I
then filled my plate with bacon and greens, and whenever
I looked up or down the table, I held on
to my plate with my left hand. When we were

(27:44):
all done eating, they cleared everything off the table and
took away the tablecloth. And what do you think there
was another cloth under it? If there wasn't, I wish
I may be shot. Then I saw a man coming
along carrying a great glass thing with a glass handle below,
something like a candlestick. It was stuck full of little
glass cups with something in them that looked good to eat.

(28:06):
Says I, mister, bring that thing here, thinks I let's
taste them first. They were mighty sweet and good, so
I took six of them. If I didn't I wish
I may be shot. This humorous fabrication was copied into
almost every paper in the Union. The more respectable portion
of Crockett's constituents were so annoyed that their representative should

(28:27):
be thus held up to the contempt of the nation
that Crockett felt constrained to present a reliable refutation of
the story. He therefore obtained and published certificates from three
gentlemen testifying to his good behavior at the table. Honorable
mister Verplank of New York testified as follows, I died
at the President's at the time alluded to in company

(28:49):
with you, and I had I recollect a good deal
of conversation with you. Your behavior there was I thought
perfectly becoming and proper, and I do not recollect or
believe that you said or did anything resembling the newspaper account.
Two other members of Congress were equally explicit in their testimony.
During Crockett's first two sessions in Congress, he got along

(29:12):
very smoothly, co operating generally with what was called the
Jackson Party. In eighteen twenty nine, he was again re
elected by an overwhelming majority. On the fourth of March
of this year, Andrew Jackson was inaugurated President of the
United States. It may be doubted whether there ever was
a more honest, conscientious man in Congress than David Crockett.

(29:33):
His celebrated motto be sure that you are right and
then go ahead, seemed ever to animate him. He could
neither be menaced or bribed to support any measure which
he thought to be wrong. Ere long he found it
necessary to oppose some of Jackson's measures. We will let
him tell the story in his own truthful words. Soon
after the commencement of this second term, I saw, or

(29:56):
thought I did, that it was expected of me that
I would bow to the name of it Andrew Jackson,
and follow him in all his motions and windings and turnings,
even at the expense of my conscience and judgment. Such
a thing was new to me, and a total stranger
to my principles. I'd knowed well enough, though, that if
I didn't hurrah for his name, the hue and cry

(30:17):
was to be raised against me, and I was to
be sacrificed, if possible. His famous, or rather, I should say,
his infamous Indian Bill was brought forward, and I opposed
it from the purest motives in the world. Several of
my colleagues got around me and told me how well
they loved me, and that I was ruining myself. They
said this was a favorite measure of the President, and

(30:37):
I ought to go for it. I told them I
believed it was a wicked, unjust measure and that I
should go against it. Let the cost of myself be
what it might. That I was willing to go with
General Jackson in everything that I believed was honest and right,
but further than this, I wouldn't go for him or
any other man in the whole creation. I had been
elected by a majority of three thousand, five hundred and

(30:58):
eighty five votes, and I believe they were honest men
and wouldn't want me to vote for any unjust notion
to please Jackson or any one else. At any rate,
I was of age and determined to trust them. I
voted against this Indian bill, and my conscience yet tells
me that I gave a good, honest vote, and one
that I believe will not make me ashamed in the
day of judgment. I served out my term, and though

(31:20):
many amusing things happened, I am not disposed to swell
my narrative by inserting them. When it closed and I
returned home, I found the storm had raised against me
sure enough, and it was echoed from side to side
and from end to end of my district that I
had turned against Jackson. This was considered the unpardonable sin.
I was hunted down like a wild varment. And in

(31:41):
this hunt, every little newspaper in the district, and every
little pinhook lawyer was engaged. Indeed, they were ready to
print anything and everything that the ingenuity of man could
invent against me. In consequence of this opposition, Crockett lost
his next election, and yet by a majority of but
seventy votes. For two years he remained at home hunting bears.

(32:03):
But having once tasted the pleasures of political life and
the excitements of Washington, his silent rambles in the woods
had lost much of their ancient charms. He was again
a candidate at the ensuing election, and after a very
warm contest, gained the day by a majority of two
hundred and two votes. End of chapter recording by Brett

(32:24):
Downey