11 - The Disappointed Politician.--Off for Texas

Chapter 11: The Disappointed Politician.—Off for Texas
Discusses Crockett’s political setbacks and his decision to leave for Texas, setting the stage for his involvement in the Texas Revolution. Summary by Dream Audiobooks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eleven 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 eleven,

(00:24):
The disappointed Politician off for Texas. Crockett's return to his
home was a signal triumph all the way. At Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville,
crowds gathered to greet him. He was feasted, received presents,
was complimented, and was incessantly called upon for a speech.

(00:45):
He was an earnest student as he journeyed along. A
new world of wonders were opening before him. Thoughts which
he never before had dreamed of were rushing into his mind.
His eyes were ever watchful to see all that was
worthy of note. His ear was ever listening for ever
every new idea. He scarcely ever looked at the printed page,
but perused with the utmost diligence the book of Nature.

(01:07):
His comments upon what he saw indicate much sagacity. At Cincinnati,
and Louisville. Immense crowds assembled to hear him. In both
places he spoke quite at length, and all who heard
him were surprised at the power he displayed. Though his
speech was rude and unpolished, the clearness of his views
and the intelligence he manifested caused the journals generally to

(01:30):
speak of him in quite a different strain from that
which they had been accustomed to use. Probably never did
a man make so much intellectual progress in the course
of a few months as David Crockett had made in
that time. His wonderful memory of names, dates, facts, all
the intricacies of statistics was such that almost any statesman

(01:50):
might be instructed by his addresses, and not many men
could safely encounter him in argument. The views he presented
upon the subject of the Constitution, finance, internal improvements, et cetera.
Were very surprising when one considers the limited education he
had enjoyed. At the close of these agitating scenes, he
touchingly writes, in a short time I set out for

(02:13):
my own home. Yes, my own home, my own soil,
my humble dwelling, my own family, my own hearts, my
ocean of love and affection, which neither circumstances nor time
can dry up here like the wearied bird, let me
settle down for a while and shut out the world.
But hunting Bears had lost its charms for Crockett. He

(02:35):
had been so flattered that it was probable that he
fully expected to be chosen President of the United States.
There were two great parties then dividing the country, the
Democrats and the Whigs. The great object of each was
to find an available candidate, no matter how unfit for
the office. The leaders wished to elect a president who
would be, like the Queen of England, merely the ornamental

(02:57):
figurehead of the ship of state, while their energies should
propel and guide the majestic fabric for a time. Some
few thought, if possible, that in the popularity of the
great bear hunter, such a candidate might be found. Crockett,
upon his return home, resumed his dear skin leggings, his
fringed hunting shirt, his foxskin cap, and shouldering his rifle. Plunged,

(03:19):
as he thought, with his original zest, into the cheerless,
tangled marshy forest which surrounded him. But the excitements of Washington,
the splendid entertainments of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. The
flattery the speech making, which to him, with his marvelous
memory and his wonderful fluency of speech, was as easy
as breathing. The applause showered upon him, and the gorgeous

(03:43):
vision of the presidency looming up before him engrossed his mind.
He sauntered listlessly through the forest, his bear hunting energies
all paralyzed. He soon grew very weary of home and
of all its employments, and was eager to return to
the infinitely higher excitements of political life. Life. General Jackson
was then almost idolized by his party all through the

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South and West. His name was a tower of strength.
Crockett had originally been elected as a Jackson man. He
had abandoned the administration and was now one of the
most inveterate opponents of Jackson. The majority in Crockett's district
were in favor of Jackson. The time came for a
new election of a representative, Crockett made every effort in
his old style to secure the vote. He appeared at

(04:27):
the gatherings in his garb as a bear hunter, with
his rifle on his shoulder. He brought coonskins to buy
whiskey to treat his friends. A coonskin in the currency
of that country was considered the equivalent for twenty five cents.
He made funny speeches, but it was all in vain.
Greatly to his surprise, and still more to his chagrin,
he lost his election. He was beaten by two hundred

(04:50):
and thirty votes. The whole powerful influence of the government
was exerted against Crockett and in favor of his competitor.
It is said that large bribes were paid for votes.
Crockett wrote in a strain which reveals the bitterness of
his disappointment. I am gratified that I have spoken the
truth to the people of my district, regardless of the consequences.

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I would not be compelled to bow down to the
idol for a seat in Congress. During life, I have
never known what it was to sacrifice my own judgment
to gratify any party, And I have no doubt of
the time being close at hand when I shall be
rewarded for letting my tongue speak what my heart thinks.
I have suffered myself to be politically sacrificed to save

(05:32):
my country from ruin and disgrace. And if I am
never again elected, I will have the gratification to know
that I have done my duty. I may add in
the words of the man in the play Crockett's Occupations Gone.
Two weeks after this, he writes, I confess the thorn
still rankles, not so much on my own account as

(05:53):
the nations. As my country no longer requires my services,
I have made up my mind to go to Texas.
My life has been one of danger, toil, and privation.
But these difficulties I had to encounter at a time
when I considered it nothing more than right good sport
to surmount them. Now I start upon my own hook,
and God only grant that it may be strong enough

(06:14):
to support the weight that may be hung upon it.
I have a new road to hoe, a long and
rough one. But come what will, I will go ahead.
Just before leaving for Texas, he attended a political meeting
of his constituents. The following extract from his autobiography will
give the reader a very vivid idea of his feelings
at the time and of the very peculiar character which

(06:37):
circumstances had developed in him. A few days ago, I
went to a meeting of my constituents. My appetite for
politics was at one time just about as sharp set
as a saw mill, but late events have given me
something of a surfeit, more than I could well digest. Still, habit,
they say, is second nature. And so I went and

(06:57):
gave them a piece of my mind, touching the government
and the succession. By way of a codicil to what
I have often said before, I told them moreover of
my services, pretty straight up and down, for a man
may be allowed to speak on such subjects when others
are about to forget them. And I also told them
of the manner in which I have been knocked down

(07:18):
and dragged out, and that I did not consider it
a fair fight. Anyhow they could fix it. I put
the ingredients in the cup pretty strong, I tell you.
And I concluded my speech by telling them that I
was done with politics for the present, and that they
might all go to Hell and I would go to Texas.
When I returned home, I felt a sort of cast
down at the change that had taken place in my fortunes,

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and sorrow, it is said, will make even an oyster
feel poetical. I never tried my hand at that sort
of writing. But on this particular occasion, such was my
state of feeling that I began to fancy myself inspired.
So I took pen in hand, and as usual, I
went ahead. When I had got fairly through my poetry,
looking as zigzag as a worm fence, the lines wouldn't

(08:03):
tally no, how so I showed them to Peleg Longfellow,
who has a first rate reputation with us for that
sort of riding, having some years ago made a carrier's
address for the Nashville Banner. And Peleg lopped off some
of the lines and stretched out others. But I wish
I may be shot if I don't. Rather think he
has made it worse than it was when I placed

(08:23):
it in his hands. It being my first and no
doubt last piece of poetry, I will print it in
this place, as it will serve to express my feelings
on leaving my home, my neighbors, and friends and country
for a strange land as fully as I could in
plain prose. Farewell to the mountains, whose mazes to me
were more beautiful far than Eden could be. No fruit

(08:46):
was forbidden, but nature had spread her bountiful board, and
her children were fed the hills were our garners. Our
herds wildly grew, and nature was shepherd and husbandmen too.
I felt like a monarch, yet thought like a man,
as I thanked the great Giver and worshiped his plan.
The home I forsook where my offspring arose. The graves

(09:09):
I forsook where my children repose, The home I redeemed
from the savage and wild, the home I have loved
as a father his child. The corn that I planted,
the fields that I cleared, the flocks that I raised,
and the cabin I reared, the wife of my bosom.
Farewell to ye all in the land of the stranger.

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I rise or I fall. Farewell to my country. I
fought for thee well when the savages rushed forth like
the demons from Hell, in peace or in war, I
have stood by thy side my country, for thee I
have lived would have died. I am cast off. My
career now is run, and I wander abroad like the

(09:50):
prodigal sun, where the wild savage roves and the broad
prairies spread. The fallen, despised will again go ahead. A
party of American adventurers, then called filibusters, had gone into Texas,
in the endeavor to rest that immense and beautiful territory,
larger than the whole Empire of France, from feeble, distracted,

(10:12):
miserable Mexico to which it belonged. These filibusters were generally
the most worthless and desperate vagabonds to be found in
all the Southern States. Many Southern gentlemen of wealth and ability,
but strong advocates of slavery, were in cordial sympathy with
this movement and aided it with their purses and in
many other ways. It was thought that if Texas could

(10:34):
be wrested from Mexico and annext to the United States,
it might be divided into several slave holding states, and
thus checked the rapidly increasing preponderance of the free states
of the North to join in this enterprise. Crockett now
left his home, his wife, his children. There could be
no doubt of the eventual success of the undertaking, and
in that success Crockett saw visions of political glory opening

(10:57):
before him. I determined, he said, to quit the states
until such time as honest and independent men should again
work their way to the head of the heap. And
his eyes should probably have some idle time on hand
before that state of affairs would be brought about, I
promised to give the Texans a helping hand on the
high road to freedom. He dressed himself in a new

(11:19):
deerskin hunting shirt, put on a foxskin cap with the
tail hanging behind, shouldered his famous rifle, and cruelly, leaving
in the dreary cabin his wife and children, whom he
cherished with an ocean of love and affection, set out
on foot upon his perilous adventure. A day's journey through
the forest brought him to the Mississippi River. Here he

(11:40):
took a steamer down that majestic stream to the mouth
of the Arkansas River, which rolls its fast flood from
regions then quite unexplored in the far west. The stream
was navigable fourteen hundred miles from its mouth. Arkansas was
then but a territory two hundred and forty miles long
and two hundred and twenty eight broad. Sparsely scattered population

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of the territory amounted to but about thirty thousand. Following
up the windings of the river three hundred miles, one
came to a cluster of a few straggling huts called
Little Rock, which constitutes now the capital of the state.
Crockett ascended the river in the steamer, and, unencumbered with
baggage save his rifle, hastened to a tavern, which he

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saw at a little distance from the shore, around which
there was assembled quite a crowd of men. He had
been so accustomed to public triumphs that he supposed that
they had assembled in honor of his arrival. Strange as
it may seem, he says, they took no more notice
of me than if I had been Dick Johnson, the
wool grower. This took me somewhat aback, and he inquired

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what was the meaning of the gathering. He found that
the people had been called together to witness the feats
of a celebrated juggler and gambler. The name of Colonel
Crockett had gone through the nation, and gradually it became
noised abroad that Colonel Crockett was in the crowd. I
wish I may be shot, Crockett says, if I wasn't
looked upon as almost as great a sight as a

(13:06):
punch and judy. He was invited to a public dinner
that very day. As it took some time to cook
the dinner, the whole company went a little distance to
shoot at a mark. All had heard of Crockett's skill.
After several of the best sharpshooters had fired with remarkable accuracy,
it came to Crockett's turn. Assuming an air of great carelessness,

(13:26):
he raised his beautiful rifle, which he called Betsy, to
his shoulder, fired, and it so happened that the bullet
struck exactly in the center of the bull's eye. All
were astonished, and so was Crockett himself, But with an
air of much indifference, he turned upon his heel, saying,
there's no mistake in Betsy, one of the best marksmen
in those parts. Chagrined at being so beaten, said Colonel

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that must have been a chance shot. I can do it,
Crockett replied, five times out of six any day in
the week I knew, he adds in his autobiography it
was not altogether as correct as it might be. But
what a man sets about going the big figure half
way measures won't answer no. How it was now proposed

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that there should be a second trial. Crockett was very
reluctant to consent to this, for he had nothing to
gain and everything to lose. But they insisted so vehemently
that he had to yield. As what ensued does not
redound much to his credit. We will let him tell
the story in his own language. So to it again
we went. They were now put upon their metal and

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fired much better than the first time, and it was
what might be called pretty sharp shootin'. When it came
to my turn, I squared myself, and turning to the
prime shot, I gave him a knowing nod by way
of showing my confidence, and says, I look out for
the bull's eye, stranger. I blazed away, and I wish
I may be shot if I didn't miss the target.

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They examined it all over and could find neither hair
nor hide of my bullet, and pronounced it a dead miss.
Wind says, I stand aside and let me look, and
I warrant you I get on the right trail of
the critter. They stood aside, and I examined the bull's
eye pretty particular, and at length cried out, here it
is there is no snakes if it hadn't followed the

(15:13):
very track of the other. They said it was utterly impossible,
but I insisted on their searching the hole, and I
agreed to be stuck up as a mark myself if
they did not find two bullets there. They searched for
my satisfaction, and sure enough it all come out just
as I told them, for I picked up a bullet
that had been fired and stuck it in deep into
the hole without anyone perceiving it. They were all perfectly

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satisfied that fame had not made too great a flourish
of trumpets when speaking of me as a marksman. And
they all said they had had enough of shooting for
that day, and they moved that we adjourned to the
tavern for liquor. The dinner consisted of bear's meat, venison,
and wild turkey. They had an uproarious time over their whiskey.
Cronqett made a coarse and vulgar speech which was neither

(15:57):
creditable to his head nor his heart, but it was
received with great applause. The next morning, Crockett decided to
set out to cross the country in a southwest direction
to Fulton on the upper waters of the Red River.
The gentleman furnished Crockett with a fine horse, and five
of them decided to accompany him. As a mark of
respect to the river Washata, fifty miles from Little Rock,

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Crockett endeavored to raise some recruits for Texas, but it
was unsuccessful. When they reached the Washata, they found a clergyman,
one of those bold hearty pioneers of the wilderness who,
through the wildest adventures, were distributing tracks and preaching the
gospel in the remotest hamlets. He was in a condition
of great peril. He had attempted to ford the river

(16:40):
in the wrong place, and had reached a spot where
he could not advance any farther, and yet could not
turn his horse around. With much difficulty, they succeeded in
extricating him and in bringing him safe to the shore.
Having bid adieu to his kind friends who had escorted
him thus far, Crockett crossed the river and, in company
with the clergyman, continued to his journey about twenty miles

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farther west towards a little settlement called Greenville. He found
his new friend to be a very charming companion. In
describing the ride, Crockett writes, we talked about politics, religion,
and nature, farming and bear hunting, and the many blessings
that in all bountiful providence had bestowed upon our happy country.
He continued to talk upon this subject, traveling over the

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whole ground, as it were, until his imagination glowed and
his soul became full to overflowing, and he checked his horse,
and I stopped mine also, and a stream of eloquence
burst forth from his aged lips, such as I have
seldom listened to, came from the overflowing fountain of a
pure and grateful heart. We were alone in the wilderness,

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but as he proceeded, seemed to me as if the
tall trees bent their tops to listen. That the mountain
stream laughed out joyfully as it bounded on like some
living thing. That the fading flowers of the autumn smiled
and sent forth fresher fragrance, as if conscious that they
would revive in spring. And even the sterile rocks seemed
to be endued with some mysterious influence. We were alone

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in the wilderness, but all things told me that God
was there. The thought renewed my strength and courage. I
had left my country felt somewhat like an outcast, believed
I had been neglected and lost sight of But I
was now conscious that there was still one watchful eye
over me. No matter whether I dwelt in the populous
cities or threaded the pathless force alone. No matter whether

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I stood in high places among men, or made my
solitary lair in the untrodden wild, that eye was still
upon me. My very soul leaped joyfully at the thought.
I never felt so grateful in all my life. I
never loved my God so sincerely in all my life.
I felt that I still had a friend. When the
old man finished, I found that my eyes were wet

(18:51):
with tears. I approached and pressed his hand and thanked him,
says I, now let us take a drink. I set
him the example, and he followed it, and in a
style too that satisfied me that if he had ever
belonged to the Temperance Society, he had either renounced membership
or obtained a dispensation. Having liquored, we proceeded on our journey,
keeping a sharp lookout for mill seats and plantations as

(19:15):
we rode along. I left the worthy old gentleman in Greenville,
and sorry enough I was to part with him, for
he talked a great deal, and he seemed to know
a little about everything. He knew all about the history
of the country, was well acquainted with all the leading men,
knew where all the good lands lay in most of
western states. He was very cheerful and happy, though to

(19:35):
all appearances very poor. I thought that he would make
a first rate agent for taking up lands, and mentioned
it to him. He smiled, and, pointing above, said, my
wealth lies not in this world. From Greenville, Crockett pressed
on about fifty or sixty miles through a country interspersed
with forests and treeless prairies, until he reached Fulton. He

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had a letter of introduction to one of the prominent
gentlemen here, and was received with marked distinction. After a
short visit, he disposed of his horse took a steamer
to descend the river several hundred miles to Nacatosh, a
small straggling village of eight hundred inhabitants on the right
bank of the Red River, about two hundred miles from
its entrance into the Mississippi. In descending the river, there

(20:19):
was a juggler on board who performed many skillful juggling tricks,
and by various feats of gambling, won much money from
his dupes. Crockett was opposed to gambling in all its forms.
Becoming acquainted with a juggler and finding him at heart
a well meaning, good natured fellow, he endeavored to remonstrate
with him upon his evil practices. I told him, says Crockett,

(20:41):
that it was a burlesque on human nature that an
able bodied man, possessed of his full share of good
sense should voluntarily debase himself and be indebted for subsistence
to such a pitiful artifice. But what's to be done, colonel,
says he. I'm in the slough of despond up to
the very chin, a myrie and slippery path to travel.

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Then hold your head up, says I, before the slough
reaches your lips. But what's the use, says he. It's
utterly impossible for me to wade through, And even if
I could, I should be in such a dirty plight
that it would defy all the waters in the Mississippi
to wash me clean again. No, he added, in a
desponding tone, I should be like a live eel in

(21:22):
a frying pan, Colonel, sort of out of my element.
If I attempted to live like an honest man at
this time of day that I deny. It is never
too late to become honest, said I. But even admit
what you say to be true, that you cannot live
like an honest man. You have at least the next
best thing in your power, and no one can say
nay to it. And what is that? Die like a

(21:45):
brave one? And I know not whether in the eyes
of the world a brilliant death is not preferred to
an obscure life of rectitude. Most men are remembered as
they died, and not as they lived. We gazed with
admiration upon the glories of the setting sun, yet scarcely
bestow a passing glance upon its noonday splendor. You are right,

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But how is this to be done? A company meeted Texas,
cut aloof from your degrading habits and associates here, and
in fighting for the freedom of the Texans, regain your own.
The man seemed much moved. He caught up his gambling instruments,
thrust them into his pocket, with hasty strides, traversed the
floor two or three times, and then exclaimed by Heaven,

(22:26):
I will try to be a man again. I will
live honestly or die bravely. I will go with you
to Texas. To confirm him in his good resolution, Crockett
asked him to liquor at Nacatosh. Crockett encountered another very
singular character. He was a remarkably handsome young man of
poetic imagination, a sweet singer, and with innumerable scraps of

(22:48):
poetry and of song. Ever at his tongue's end. Honey trees,
as they were called, were very abundant in Texas. The
prairies were almost boundless parterres of the richest flowers, from
which the bees made large quantities of the most delicious honey.
This they deposited in the hollows of the trees. Not
only was the honey valuable, but the wax constituted a

(23:10):
very important article of commerce in Mexico, and brought a
high price, being used for the immense candles which they
burned in their churches. The bee hunter, by practice, acquired
much skill in coursing the bees to their hives. This
man decided to join Crockett and the juggler in their
journey over the vast prairies of Texas. Small but very

(23:30):
strong and tough Mexican ponies called mustangs, were very cheap.
They were found wild in droves of thousands grazing on
the prairies. The three adventurers mounted their ponies and set
out on their journey due west, a distance of one
hundred and twenty miles to Nacodocus. Their route was along
a mere trail, which was called the Old Spanish Road.

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It led over vast prairies where there was no path
and where the bee hunter was their guide, and through
forests where their course was marked only by blaze trees.
The bee hunter, speaking of the state of society in Texas,
said that at San Philippe he had set down with
a small party at the breakfast table, where eleven of
the company had fled from the States, charged with the

(24:12):
crime of murder. So accustomed were the inhabitants to the
appearance of fugitives from justice that whenever a stranger came
among them they took it for granted that he had
committed some crime which rendered it necessary for him to
take refuge beyond the grasp of his country's laws. They
reached Nacodotus without any special adventure. It was a flourishing
little Mexican town of about one thousand inhabitants, situated in

(24:35):
a romantic dell about sixty miles west of the River Sabine.
The Mexicans and the Indians were very nearly on an
intellectual and social equality. Groups of Indians, harmless and friendly,
were ever sauntering through the streets of the little town.
Crockett's horse had become lame on the journey. He obtained another, and,
with his feet nearly touching the ground as he bestrode

(24:57):
the little animal, the party resumed its long and weary journey,
directing their course two or three hundred miles farther southwest
through the very heart of Texas to San Antonio. They
frequently encountered vast expanses of cane brakes, such canes as
Northern boys used for fishing poles. There is one on
the banks of Caney Creek seventy miles in length, with

(25:17):
scarcely a tree to be seen for the whole distance.
There was generally a trail cut through these, barely wide
enough for a single mustang to pass. The reeds were
twenty or thirty feet high and so slender that, having
no support over the path, they drooped a little inward
and intermingled their tops. Thus a very singular and beautiful
canopy was formed beneath which the travelers moved along, sheltered

(25:41):
from the rays of a Texas sun. As they were
emerging from one of these arched avenues, they saw three
black wolves jogging along very leisurely in front of them,
but at too great a distance to be reached by
a rifle bullet. Wild turkeys were very abundant, and vast
droves of wild horses were cropping the herbage of the
most beautiful and richest pastures to be found on earth.

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Immense herds of buffaloes were also seen. These sights, says Crockett,
awakened the ruling passion strong within me, and I longed
to have a hunt on a large scale. For though
I had killed many bears and deer in my time,
I had never brought down a buffalo, and so I
told my friends, But they tried to dissuade me from it,
telling me that I would certainly lose my way and

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perhaps perish, for though it appeared a garden to the eye,
it was still a wilderness. I said little more upon
the subject until we crossed the Trinidad River, but every
mile we traveled I found the temptation grow stronger and stronger.
The night after crossing the Trinidad River, they were so
fortunate as to come across the hut of a poor woman,
where they took shelter until the next morning. They were

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here joined by two other chance travelers, who must indeed
have been rough specimens of humanity. Crockott says that though
he had often seen men who had not advanced far
over the line of civilization, these were the coarsest samples
he had ever met. One proved to be an old
pirate about fifty years of age. He was tall, bony,
and in aspect seemed scarcely human. The shaggy hair of

(27:08):
his whiskers and beard covered nearly his whole face. Had
on a sailor's round jacket and tarpaulin hat. The deep scar,
apparently of a sword cut, deformed his forehead, and another
similar scar was on the back of one of his hands.
His companion was a young Indian wild as the wolves,
bare headed and with scanty deerskin dress. Early the next

(27:29):
morning they all resumed their journey, the two strangers following
on foot. Their path led over the smooth and treeless
prairie as beautiful in its verdue and its flowers, as
the most cultivated park could possibly be. About noon, they
stopped to refresh their horses, and, dying beneath a cluster
of trees in the open prairie, they had built their fire,

(27:49):
were cooking their game, and were all seated upon the grass,
chatting very sociably. When the bee hunter saw a bee
which indicated that a hive of honey might be found
not far distant, he leaped upon his mustang, and without
saying a word, started off like mad and scoured along
the prairie. We watched him, says Crockett, until he seemed
no larger than a rat, and finally disappeared in the distance.

(28:13):
End of chapter Recording by Brett Downey