10 - Crockett's Tour to the North and the East

Chapter 10: Crockett’s Tour to the North and the East
Follows Crockett’s travels to the northern and eastern U.S., possibly for political or personal reasons, and his experiences there. Summary by Dream Audiobooks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of David Crockett, His Life and Adventures. This
is the 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

(00:23):
ten Crockett's Tour to the North and the East. Colonel Crockett,
having been re elected again, repaired to Washington during the
session to complete his education and the better to prepare
himself as a legislator for the whole nation. He decided
to take a short trip to the North and the East.
His health had also begun to fail, and his physicians

(00:46):
advised him to go. He was thoroughly acquainted with the
Great West, with his rifle upon his shoulder in the
Creek War, he had made wide explorations through the South,
but the North and the East were regions as yet
unknown to him. On the twenty fifth of April eighteen
thirty four, he left Washington for this northern tour. He

(01:07):
reached Baltimore that evening, where he was invited to a
supper by some of the leading gentlemen he writes, early
next morning, I started for Philadelphia, a place where I
had never been. I sort of felt lonesome as I
went down to the steamboat. The idea of going among
a new people, where there are tens of thousands who
would pass me by without knowing or caring who I was,

(01:30):
who were all taken up with their own pleasures or
their own business, made me feel small. And Indeed, if
any one who reads this book has a grand idea
of his own importance, let him go to a big
city and he will find that he is not higher
valued than a coonskin. The steamboat was the Carol of Carrollton,
a fine craft with a rum old commodore chaytor for headman,

(01:53):
a good fellow. He is all sorts of a man,
bowing and scraping to the ladies, nodding to the gentleman,
cursing the c and his right eye broadcast upon the
opposition line, all at the same time. Let's go, said
the old one, and off we walked in prime style.
Our passage down Chesapeake Bay was very pleasant. In a

(02:14):
very short run, we came to a place where we
were to get on board the rail cars. This was
a clean, new sight to me about a dozen big
stages hung on to one machine. After a good deal
of fuss, we all got seated and moved slowly off
the engine, wheezing as though she had the tizzick. By
and by. She began to take short breaths, and away

(02:35):
we went, with a blue streak after us. The whole
distance is seventeen miles. It was run in fifty five minutes.
At Delaware City, I again embarked on board of a
splendid steamboat. When dinner was ready, I set down with
the rest of the passengers. Among them was Reverend O. B.
Brown of the Post Office Department, who sat near me

(02:56):
during dinner. He ordered a bottle of wine and caught
upon me for a toast. Not knowing whether he intended
to compliment me, or abash me among so many strangers,
or have some fun at my expense, I concluded to
go ahead and give him and his like a blizzard,
so our glasses being filled, the word went round. A

(03:17):
toast from Colonel Crockett, I give it as follows. Here's
wishing the bones of tyrant kings may answer in Hell
in place of gridirons to roast the souls of tories on.
At this, the Parson appeared as if he were stumped.
I said, never heed, it was meant for where it belonged.

(03:37):
He did not repeat his invitation, and I ate my
dinner quietly. After dinner, I went up on the deck
and saw the captain hoisting three flags. Says I, what
does that mean? He replied that he was under promise
to the citizens of Philadelphia if I was on board,
to hoist his flags, as a friend of mine had
said he expected I would be along soon. We went

(03:59):
on until we came in sight of the city, and
as we advanced towards the wharf, I saw the whole
face of the earth covered with people, all anxiously looking
on towards the boat. The captain and myself were standing
on the bow deck. He pointed his finger at me,
and people slung their hats and huzzad for Colonel Crockett.
It struck me with astonishment to hear a strange people

(04:20):
huzawing from me, and made me feel sort of queer.
Took me so uncommon, unexpected, as I had no idea
of attracting attention. But I had to meet it, and
so I stepped on to the wharf, where the folks
came crowding around me, saying, give me the hand of
an honest man. I did not know what all this meant,
but some gentlemen took hold of me, and, pressing through

(04:40):
the crowd, put me into an elegant barouche drawn by
four fine horses. They then told me to bow to
the people. I did so, and with much difficulty we
moved off. The streets were crowded to a great distance,
and the windows full of people looking out. I suppose
to see the wild man. I thought I had rather
be in the wilderness with my gun and dogs than

(05:02):
to be attracting all that fuss. I had never seen
the like before, did not know exactly what to say
or do. After some time we reached the United States
Hotel in Chestnut Street. Crowd had followed me, filling up
the street and pressing into the house to shake hands.
I was conducted upstairs and walked out on a platform,
drew off my hat and bowed round to the people.

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It cried out from all quarters A speech, A speech
Colonel Crockett. After the noise had quit so I could
be heard, I said to them the following words, gentlemen,
of Philadelphia. My visit to your city is rather accidental.
I had no expectation of attracting any uncommon attention. I
am traveling for my health without the least wish of

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exciting the people. In such times of high political feeling,
I do not wish to encourage it. I am unable
at this time to find language suitable to return my
gratitude to the citizens of Philadelphia. However, I am almost
induced to believe it flattery, perhaps a burlesque. This is
new to me. Yet I see nothing but friendship in
your faces. And if your curiosity is to hear the backwoodsman,

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I will assure you I am illy prepared to address
this most enlightened people. However, gentlemen, if this is a
curiosity to you, if you will meet me tomorrow at
one o'clock, I will endeavor to address you in my
plain manner. So I made my obeyance to them and
retired into the house. It is true that there was

(06:30):
much of a mere curiosity in the desire to see
Colonel Crockett. He was a strange and an incomprehensible man.
His manly, honest course in Congress had secured much respect.
But such developments of character, as were shown in his
rude and vulgar toast before a party of gentlemen and ladies,
excited astonishment. His notoriety preceded him wherever he went, and

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all were alike curious to see so strange a specimen
of a man. The next morning, several gentlemen called upon
him and took him in a carriage to see the
various objects of interest in the city. The gentleman made
him a present of a rich seal representing two horses
at full speed with the words go ahead. The young
man also made him a present of a truly magnificent rifle.

(07:15):
From Philadelphia. He went to New York. The shipping astonished him.
They beat me all hollow, he says, and looked for
all the world like a big clearing in the west,
with the dead trees all standing. There was a great
crowd upon the wharf to greet him, and when the
captain of the boat led him conspicuously forward and pointed
him out to the multitude, the cheering was tremendous. A

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committee conducted him to the American Hotel and treated him
with the greatest distinction. Again, he was feted and loaded
with the greatest attentions. He was invited to a very
splendid supper got up in his honor, at which there
were a hundred guests. The Honorable Judge Clayton of Georgia
was present and made a speech which, as Crockett says,
fairly made the tumbler's hop. Crockett was then called up

(08:01):
as the undeviating supporter of the Constitution and the Laws.
In response to this toast, he says, I made a
short speech and concluded with a story of the Red Cow,
which was as long as General Jackson went straight, I
followed him. But when he began to go this way,
and that way and every way, I wouldn't go after him.

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Like the boy whose master ordered him to plow across
the field to the red cow. Well, he began to plow,
and she began to walk, And he plowed all forenoon
after her. So when the master came, he swore at
him for going so crooked. Why, sir, said the boy,
you told me to plow to the red cow, And
I kept after her, but she always kept moving. His

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trip to New York was concluded by his visiting Jersey
City to witness a shooting match with rifles. He was
invited to try his hand, standing at the distance of
one hundred and twenty feet. He fired twice, striking very
near the center of the mark. Some one then put
up a quarter of a dollar in the midst of
a black spot and requested him to shoot at it.

(09:06):
The bullet struck the coin, and, as Crockett says, made
sleight of hand work with it. From New York he
went to Boston. There as an opponent of some of
President Jackson's measures, which were most offensive to the New
England people, he was feted with extraordinary enthusiasm. He dined
and supped, made speeches which generally consisted of but one

(09:26):
short anecdote, and visited nearly all the public institutions. Just
before this, Andrew Jackson had received from Harvard University the
honorary title of L. L. D. Jackson was no longer
a favorite of Crockett. The new distinguished guest, the renowned
bear hunter, was in his turn, invited to visit Harvard.
He writes, there was some gentlemen that invited me to

(09:49):
go to Cambridge, where the big college or university is,
where they keep ready made titles or nicknames to give people.
I would not go for I did not know, but
they might stick in L L D on me before
they let me go. And I had no idea of
changing Member of the House of Representatives of the United
States for what stands for lazy lounging dunce, which I

(10:10):
am sure my constituents would have translated my new title
to be. Knowing that I had never taken any degree
and did not own to any except a small degree
of good sense not to pass for what I was not,
I would not go it. There had been one doctor
made from Tennessee already, and I had no wish to
put on the cap and bells told them that I
did not go to this branding school. I did not

(10:32):
want to be tarred with the same stick. One dignitary
was enough from Tennessee that as far as my learning went,
I would stand over it and spell a strive or
two with any of them from A to Crucifix, which
was where I left off at school. A gentleman at
a dinner party very earnestly invited Crockett to visit him.
He returned the compliment by saying, if you ever come

(10:53):
to my part of the country, I hope you will
call and see me, and how shall I find where
you live? The jail inquired why, Sir Crockett answered, run
down the Mississippi till you come to the Oberon River,
run a small streak up that jump ashore anywhere, and
inquire for me. From Boston, he went to Lowell. The

(11:14):
hospitality he had enjoyed in Boston won his warmest commendation.
At Lowell, he was quite charmed by the aspect of wealth, industry,
and comfort which met his eye. Upon his return to Boston,
he spent the evening with several gentlemen and ladies at
the pleasant residence of Lieutenant Governor Armstrong. In reference to
this visit, he writes, this was my last night in Boston,

(11:38):
and I am sure if I had never see the
place again, I never can forget the kind and friendly
manner in which I was treated by them. It appeared
to me that everybody was anxious to serve me and
make my time agreeable. And as a proof that comes home.
When I called for my bill next morning, I was
told there was no charge to be paid by me,
and that he was very much delighted that I had

(12:00):
made his house my home. I forgot to mention that
they treated me so in Lowell. But it is true
this was to me, at all events prove enough of
Yankee liberality, and more than they generally get credit for.
In fact, from the time I entered New England, I
was treated with the greatest friendship, and I hope never
shall forget it. And I wish all who read this

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book and who were never there, would take a trip
among them. If they don't learn how to make money,
they will know how to use it, And if they
don't learn industry, they will see how comfortable everybody can
be that turns his hands to some employment. Crockett was
not a mere joker. He was an honest man and
an earnest man, and under the tuition of Congress, had

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formed some very decided political principles, which he vigorously enforced
with his rude eloquence. When he first went to Congress,
he was merely a big boy of very strong mind,
but totally uninformed and uncultivated. He very rapidly improved under
the tuition of Congress, and in some degree awoke to
the sciousness of his great intellectual imperfections. Still he was

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never diffident. He closed one of his off hand after
dinner speeches in Boston by saying, gentlemen of Boston, I
come here as a private citizen to see you, and
not to show myself. I had no idea of attracting attention.
But I feel it my duty to thank you with
my gratitude to you, and with a gratitude to all
who have given a plain man like me so kind

(13:26):
a reception. I come from a great way off, but
I shall never repent of having been persuaded to come
here and get a knowledge of your ways, which I
can carry home with me. We only want to do
away with prejudice and give the people information. I hope, gentlemen,
you will excuse my plain, unvarnished ways, which may seem
strange to you. Here. I never had but six months

(13:48):
schooling in all my life, and I confess I consider
myself a poor tyke to be here addressing the most
intelligent people in the world. But I think it the
duty of every representative of the people when he is
called to give his opinions, and I have tried to
give you a little touch of mine. Every reader will
be interested in the perusal of the following serious speech

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which he made in Boston. It is a fair specimen
of his best efforts, and will give one a very
correct idea of his trains of thought and modes of expression.
It also clearly shows the great questions which agitated the
country at that time. It can easily be perceived that
as a stump orator in the far West, Crockett might
have exercised very considerable power. This phase of his peculiar

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character is as worthy of consideration as any other gentlemen.
By the entire friendship of the citizens of Boston, as
well as the particular friendship which you have received me
this evening, I have been brought to reflect on times
that have gone by and review a prejudice that has
grown up with me, as well as thousands of my
western and southern friends. We have always been taught to

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look upon the people of New England as a selfish,
cunning set of fellows that was fed on fox ears
and things tops, that cut their wisdom teeth as soon
as they were born, that made money by their wits
and held on to it by nature, that called cheatery
mother wit, that hung on to political power because they
had numbers, that raised up manufactures to keep down the

(15:15):
south and West, and in fact, had so much of
the devil in all their machinery that they would neither
lead nor drive unless the load was going into their
own cribs. But I assure you, gentlemen, I begin to
think different of you, and I think I see a good,
many good reasons for so doing. I don't mean that
because I eat your bread and drink your liquor that

(15:35):
I feel so. No, that don't make me see clearer
than I did. It is your habits and your manners
and customs, your industry, your proud independent spirits, your hanging
on to the eternal principles of right and wrong, your
liberality and prosperity, and your patience when you are ground
down by legislation which instead of crushing you, what's your

(15:58):
invention to strike a path without a bloise on a
tree to guide you? And above all, you're never dying
deathless grip to our glorious constitution. These are the things
that make me think you are a mighty good people.
Here the speaker was interrupted by great applause. Gentlemen, I
believe I spoke the truth and not flattery. I ain't

(16:19):
used to oily words. I am used to speak what
I think of men and two men. I am perhaps
more of a come by chance than any of you
ever saw. I've made my way to the place I
now feel, without wealth and against education. I was raised
from obscurity and placed in the high councils of the
nation by the kindness and liberality of the good people

(16:41):
of my district, A people whom I will never be
unfaithful to here or elsewhere. I love them, and they
have honored me. And according as God has given me judgment,
I'll use it for them. Come of me, what may
these people once passed sentence upon me of a two
year stay at home for exercising that which I contend
belongs to every free man in this nation. That was

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for differing an opinion with the Chief Magistrate of this nation.
I was well acquainted with him. He was but a man,
And if I was not, before my constituents have made
a man of me. I had marched and countermarched with him.
I had stood by him in the wars, and fought
under his flag at the poles. I helped to heap
the measure of glory that has crushed and smashed everything

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that has come into contact with it. I helped to
give him the name of hero, which, like lightning from heaven,
has scorched and blasted everything that stood in its way.
A name which, like the prairie fire, you have to
burn against or you are gone. A name which ought
to be the first in war and last in peace.
A name which, like Jack of the lantern, blinds your

(17:49):
eyes while you follow it through the mud and mire. Gentlemen,
I never opposed Andrew Jackson for the sake of popularity.
I knew it was a hard road to hoe, but
I stood up to the rack, considering it a duty
I owed to the country that governed me. I had
reviewed the course of other presidents and came to the
conclusion that he did not of right to possess any
more power than those that had gone before him. When

(18:11):
he transcended that power, I put down my foot. I
knew his popularity, that he had come into place with
the largest majority of any one that had gone before
him who had opposition. But still I did not consider
this as giving him the right to do as he
pleased and construe our constitution to meet his own views.
We had lived the happiest people under the sun for

(18:32):
fifty years, governed by the constitution, and laws on well
established constructions. When I saw the government administered on new principles,
I objected and was politically sacrificed. I persisted in my sins,
having a clear conscience that before God and my country,
I had done my duty. My constituents began to look

(18:52):
at both sides, and finally, at the end of two years,
approving of my course, they sent me back to Congress,
a circumstance which was truly gratifying to me. Gentlemen. I
opposed Andrew Jackson in his famous Indian Bill, where five
hundred thousand dollars were voted for expenses, no part of
which has yet been accounted for. As I have seen,

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I thought it extravagant as well as in politic I
thought the rights reserved to the Indians were about to
be frittered away, and events proved that I thought correct.
I had considered a treaty as the sovereign law of
the land, but now saw it considered as a matter
of expedients or not as it pleased the powers that be.
Georgia bid defiance to the treaty making power and set

(19:35):
at naught the Intercourse Act of eighteen o two. She
trampled it under foot. She nullified it, and for this
she received the smiles and approbation of Andrew Jackson. And
this induced South Carolina to nullify the tariff. She had
a right to expect that the President was favorable to
the principal. But he took up the rod of correction
and shook it over South Carolina and said, at the

(19:56):
same time to Georgia, you may nullify, but South Carolina
shall not. This was like his consistency in many other matters.
When he was a senator in Congress, he was a
friend to internal improvements and voted for them. Everything then
that could cement the states together by giving them access
the one to the other was right. When he got

(20:17):
into power, some of his friends had hard work to
dodge and follow and shout, called off my dogs and
quit the hunt. Yes, gentlemen, Pennsylvania and Ohio and Tennessee
and other states voted for him as a supporter of
internal improvements. Was he not a tariff man who dared
deny it? When did we first hear of his opposition?

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Certainly not in his expression that he was in favor
of a judicious tariff that was supposed to be a
clincher even in New England, until after power lifted him
above the opposition of the supporters of a tariff. He
was for putting down the Monster Party and being the
president of the people. Well, in one sense, this he
tried to do. He put down everyone he could who

(20:59):
was opposed to him, either by reward or punishment, and
could all have come into his notions and bowed the
knee to his image. I suppose it might have done
very well so far as he was concerned. Whether it
would have been a fair reading of his famous letter
to mister Monroe is rather questionable. He was to reform
the government. Now, if reformation consists in turning out and
putting in, he did it with a vengeance. He was

(21:22):
last of all to retrench the expenditures. Well in time,
I have no doubt this must be done. But it
will not consist in the abolishing useless expenditures of former administrations. No, gentlemen,
the spoils belonged to the victor, and it would never
do to lessen the teats. When the litter was doubled,
the treasury trough had to be extended, and the pap

(21:42):
thickened kin were to be provided for and if all
things keep on as they are, his own extravagances will
have to be retrenched, or you will get your tariff
up again. As high as you please. I recollect a
boy once who was told to turn the pigs out
of the cornfield. Well he made a great noise, hallooing
and calling the dogs, and came back by and by

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His master said, Jim, you rascal. You didn't turn out
the pigs, Sir said he, I called the dogs and
set them a barkin. So it was with that big
retrenchment report in eighteen twenty eight, Major Hamilton got Chilton's
place as chairman and called the dogs. Ingham worked honestly
like a beaver. Wickliffe was as keen as a cutworm.

(22:25):
All of them worked hard, and they did really, I suppose,
convinced themselves that they had found out a great deal
of iniquity, or what was more desirable, convinced the people
that Andrew Jackson and his boys were the only fellows
to men's shoes for nothing and find their own candles. Everton,
sergeant who made the minority report, were scouted. At what

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has come of all this? Nothing worse than nothing. Jackson
used these very men like dogs. They knew too much
and must be got rid of. Well, they would stop
his profligacy too. They were greased and swallowed, and he
gave them up to the torments of an anti Jackson conscience. Yes, gentlemen,
as long as you think with him very well, But
if not, clear out, make way for some fellow who

(23:08):
has saved his wind. Because he has just begun to us,
all has more wind to spare. General Jackson has turned
out more men for opinion's sake than all other presidents
put together, five times over. And the broom sweeps so
low that it reaches the humblest officer, who happens to
have a mean neighbor, to retail any little story which
he may pick up. I voted for Andrew Jackson because

(23:30):
I believed he possessed certain principles, and not because his
name was Andrew Jackson or the Hero or Old Hickory.
And when he left those principles which induced me to
support him, I considered myself justified in opposing him. This
thing of man worship I'm a stranger to. I don't
like it. It taints every action of life. It is

(23:50):
like a skunk getting into a house long after he
is cleared out, you smell him in every room and closet,
from the cellar to the garret. I know nothing by
experience of party discipline. I would rather be a raccoon
dog and belong to a negro in the forest than
to belong to any party, further than to do justice
to all and to promote the interests of my country.

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Time will and must come when honesty will receive its reward,
and when the people of this nation will be brought
to a sense of their duty and will pause and
reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves from
the government of one man. It cost the lives and
fortunes of thousands of the best patriots that ever lived. Yes, gentlemen,
hundreds of them fell in sight of your own city.

(24:32):
I this day walked over the great battle ground of
Bunker's Hill and thought whether it was possible that it
was moistened with the sacred blood of our heroes in vain,
and that we should forget what they fought for. I
hope to see our once happy country restored to its
former peace and happiness, and once more redeemed from tyranny
and despotism, which I fear we are on the very

(24:52):
brink of we see the whole country in commotion. And
for what Because, gentlemen, the true friends of liberty see
the laws Constitution blotted out from the heads and hearts
of the people's leaders, and their requests for relief are
treated with scorn and contempt. They meet the same fate
that they did before King George and his Parliament. It

(25:12):
has been decided by a majority of Congress that Andrew
Jackson shall be the government, and that his will shall
be the law of the land. He takes the responsibility
and vetoes any bill that does not meet his approbation.
He takes the responsibility and seizes the treasury and removes
it from where the laws had placed it, and now
holding purse and sword, has bid defiance to Congress and

(25:34):
to the nation. Gentlemen, if it is for opposing those
high handed measures that you compliment me, I say I
have done so, and will do so now and forever.
I will be no man's man, and no Parti's man,
other than to be the people's faithful representative. And I
am delighted to see the noble spirit of liberty retained
so boldly here where the first spark was kindled, and

(25:56):
I hope to see it shine and spread over our
whole country. Gentlemen, I have detained you much longer than
I intended. Allow me to conclude by thanking you for
your attention and kindness to the stranger from the far West.
The following extract also shows the candor of his mind,
his anxiety to learn, and the progress his mind was
making in the science of political economy. I come to

(26:20):
your country to get a knowledge of things which I
could get in no other way, but by seeing with
my own eyes and hearing with my awful ears information
I can't get, and nobody else from book knowledge. I
come fellow citizens to get a knowledge of the manufacturing
interest of New England. I was over persuaded to come
by a gentleman who had been to Lowell and seen

(26:41):
the manufactories of your state, by General Thomas of Louisiana.
He persuaded me to come and see. When I was
first chose to Congress, I was opposed to the protecting system.
They told me it would help the rich and hurt
the poor, and that we in the West was to
be taxed by it for the benefit of New England.
I supposed it was so but when I come to

(27:02):
hear it argued in the Congress of the Nation, I
begun to have a different opinion of it. I saw
I was opposing the best interest of the country, especially
for the industrious poor man. I told my people who
sent me to Congress, that I should oppose it no longer,
that without it we should be obliged to pay a
tax to the British government and support them stead of
our own labor. And I am satisfied of it the

(27:23):
more since I have visited New England. Only let the
southern gentleman come here and examine the manufactories and see
how it is, and it would make more peace than
all the legislation in Congress can do. It would give
different ideas to them who have been deluded and spoke
in strong terms of dissolving the Union. Crockett returned to
Washington just in time to be present at the closing scenes,

(27:46):
and then set out for home. So much had been
said of him in the public journals, of his speeches
and his peculiarities, that his renown now filled the land.
End of chapter recording by Brett Downey