jp-n^^ .' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
VTfc o n V .-n 
 
 i5<?^ 
 
 
 
 
 v^ 
 
 
 
'Ki^) ^syim^(IJ^K)i':Fi^^ 
 
 ihl.si.ej bv M .Caro i'A ll:.ri, rhil4<iclr- 
 
AN ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR 
 
 TO THE 
 
 NORTH AND DOWN EAST, 
 
 IN TUE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED 
 AND THIRTY-FOUR. 
 
 HIS ^ 
 
 OBJECT BEING TO EXAMINE THE GRAND MANUFACTURING ESTA- 
 BLISHMENTS OF THE COUNTRY ; AND ALSO TO FIND OUT 
 THE CONDITION OF ITS LITERATURE AND MORALS, 
 THE EXTENT OF ITS COMMERCE, AND 
 THE PRACTICAL OPERATION 
 
 OF 
 
 "THE EXPERIMENT." 
 
 ' When Uiou dost read a book, do not turn the leaves only, but gather 
 the fruit." 
 
 WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 
 
 PIULADELPHIA : ^•^:_ 
 
 E. L. CAKEY AND A. HART. 
 
 BALTIMORE CARKY, HART, AND CO. 
 
 llOtJTOJX 'WILLIAM i). TICK.NOR, 
 
 1835. 
 
^'tf 
 
 Ct 
 
 }l 
 
 ENTEiiED according to the actof Coiijircss, in the year 1835, by 
 
 JS. L. Carey and A. Hart, 
 
 in the Clerk's OlMce of the District Court of the Eastern District of 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 STEREOTyfED BY h. JOHNSON, 
 PillLADELPlIXA. 
 
 \ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Somebody told me once of a member 
 of Congress, I think from Philadelphia, 
 who said he found an old scrap of paper, 
 wrote by some old fellow that killed him- 
 self, or was hung, or died of starvation, or 
 some such nonsense, and spun an Indian 
 path story out of it. 
 
 Now, I don't like dead men's stories ; not 
 even old Jefferson's, that raised the bristles 
 of so many in North Carolina and else- 
 where, who thought the old man was a good 
 friend, until they found what he thought 
 on paper. 
 
 Some persons tickle up their fancies to 
 the scribbling point, and then their pen 
 goes like a fidler's elbow. I like rale life, 
 that makes a book jump out of the press 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 like «i new dollar from a mint-hopper. 
 Some likes to use up the big Fs, and write 
 all about themselves ; and 1 reckon it isn't 
 easy to quit that, particularly when one is 
 uncommon hard pushed to come out a 
 second time. 
 
 Now, this is just my case. If every one 
 has not read my book, every one ought, 
 which comes to the same thing. 
 
 Stepping into a tavern a short time ago, 
 I met a friend, who said to me, " Crockett, 
 my dear fellow, we are all as dull in this 
 empty barn of a city, as a grog-shop with- 
 out liquor ; and unless you come out with 
 another book, I do not know how we are 
 to get along." 
 
 '• Much obliged to you, major ; but may 
 be, if I do, you'll laugh at me, and not at 
 my book." 
 
 "Trust me, colonel, you are mistaken: 
 w^e are all looking to you for niusick. Al- 
 low m.e to introduce to you my friend, 
 Terrance O'Neal." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 "Sir, I am happy to have the honor of 
 an introduction to your friend." 
 
 " By my sowl the honor's done to me. 
 I'm sinsare in declarin that; for minny's 
 the day I've long'd to hiv a wag of your 
 bone. How are ye, my darhng boy, mem- 
 ber of Congress, speech-maker, book-mak- 
 er, an all? Talkin o' books, the divil a 
 book hiv I read, at all, at all, clane thro', 
 since I quat the owld records in the middle 
 of the Axes of the Aposels, barrin the life 
 of your own dear self; an a purty book it 
 is ; wrote wid all the sperret of a man of 
 honor, with all the sincerity of a man of 
 truth, and in regard of the powers that be, 
 widout even a touch of the blarney. Give 
 us something more that's new, by the 
 powers, even if you write your own book 
 over again." 
 
 " Why sartin, Mr. O'Neal, your compli- 
 ments are mighty plenty ; and if I could 
 shell out ideas as easy as you do words, I 
 could soon write another book." 
 
 A 2 
 
5 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "Ways ! is that what you want ? Well, 
 how odd it is that things are so strangely 
 managed in the makin of us up. My idays 
 run through me like an hourglass that 
 niver wants turnin ; an if I only know'd 
 how to scrawl the alphabet, I'd soon dress 
 my idays in Sunday clothes : botheration 
 to owld Jim Kelly, that chated me out of 
 my printice suit, and night school into the 
 bargain." 
 
 " Colonel, excuse me for not sooner in- 
 troducing my other friend, Monsieur Bo- 
 nafice. " 
 
 " How are you, mounsheer ?" 
 
 "Ah! monsieur Colonal, je suis very 
 appy for de satisfaction of to say I am tres 
 humble servant." 
 
 " Well, mounsheer, where did you come 
 up with that name of yours ?" 
 
 " Sare, me — Bonafice ? — from my fader, 
 Jacques Bonafice de la Vendee." 
 
 "Well, I don't like it. It sounds so 
 much like every thing here in Washington, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 office^ office; nothing goes down here but 
 officer 
 
 " Ah, sare, pardon. It is not d' ofFeece pour 
 moi — no sare. Guesta have tell to me he 
 have offeece de cuisine inde maison national 
 — but is too mush condam to conge — an 
 not de good I'argent pour service. More- 
 over dan dis, Guesta is chef cuisinier — mais 
 but dey not give him d'honeur for sit as 
 member of de cuisine — aha — kitchin cabi- 
 net. He is confine to de ragouts for de 
 bellie, and not have de grand satisfaction 
 for compound de grand buget; and so 
 soon he make reclamation for dis — vite — 
 de snap of de fingar, in de language of de 
 grand Shakeyspeer — 
 
 ' Otello' occupation, allez vous en.' 
 
 Pardon, sare, I hear from my fren you will 
 to write one leetly book. C'est bon la — 
 write him — a votre service — can I do 
 something, notting for you ?" 
 " Yes, mounsheer ; you can buy and trans- 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 late it into your parley-vous, and then they 
 will know me in France ; and" — 
 
 " Colonel, excuse me; but here is a third 
 friend just stepped in. We'll hear what 
 he thinks, and if he agrees, there's three to 
 one, and you'll have to write. This is 
 Frederick Hummelshine, but w^e generally 
 call him Old Fritz." 
 
 " Fitz, did you say ? He don't look like 
 he was kin to little Fitz, that I beat for 
 Congress." 
 
 " No, no — Fritz ; that's the short of Fre- 
 derick." 
 
 "Well, how d'ye do, any how? For 
 Fitz has got to be a good friend of mine." 
 
 " So, so, mitUn. I'm as haaty as a puck, 
 put I can't jump jist so high." 
 
 "Well, Fritz, don't you think the colo- 
 nel ought to write a book?" 
 
 "Apoutwat?" 
 
 " Why he has been travelling through 
 the cities, and among them there Yankees, 
 and saw a heap of things." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 " Was he out on te Niagarey reeverj unt 
 seen te fals ?" 
 
 " No, I didn't get that far. But I seen a 
 heap." 
 
 "Dem is all for no use. It is notting 
 like te fals, see onct. Tis Ponyfeece un me 
 we'll meet dare ; un I was so shtantin mit 
 my pipe like, un could not feel myself a 
 tinkin ; un tis Ponyfeece will cum up, un 
 he sais to me, Pong^ pong. Well, I tought 
 he was a fool ; ten I schmoke akin, un den 
 he'll com.e up, un dakes me py te arm, un 
 sais, say Pong la. Weil, I dakes mine 
 pipe out of my mout, un said to dat leedle 
 fellur, ' ko way mit you ; un if I couldn't say 
 more as Pong, by te life, I'd say notding at 
 all.' Oh, it's a cruel scarey blace dat ; un 
 if you could hav said someding apout dat, it 
 woult have peen so nice. Put every one 
 can't too every ding; so I expect you hat 
 petter write, un let all de peoples hear what 
 you dit see." 
 
 "I told you so, colonel. Three to one. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 or as they say in Latin, ' Tria junctum in 
 unum;' so we must have the hook." 
 
 "Well, I'll tell you what, gentlemen. 
 Now it is a pretty middling hard thing, this 
 here writing of a hook. A fellow sits down, 
 as he supposes, with a bushel of nuts to 
 crack, and before he goes far into the bas- 
 ket he finds the rest a'n't hulled ; but keep- 
 ing in full view my old saying, I'll 
 
 " GO AHEAD." 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 How many excuses there are in these modern 
 days for great men to travel ! 
 
 Some do it to gain popularity and power, others 
 to retain what they have ; some travel on the pub- 
 lic purse ; others, like men, on their own. 
 
 Some go abroad to serve the republic ; others 
 go to serve themselves. 
 
 Some ingloriously stay in their own part of 
 the country ; others extend their views abroad, de- 
 sirous to know and feel the multiplied blessings 
 which are to be found in every part of this happy 
 land. 
 
 This. last object had great influence on my mind. 
 I had braved the lonely forests of the West ; I had 
 shouldered the warrior's rifle in the far South ; but 
 the North and East I had never seen. I seemed 
 to like members of Congress who came from these 
 parts, and wished to know what kind of constitu- 
 
 11 
 
12 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 ents they had. These considerations, in addition 
 to my physician's advice to travel a little for 
 my health, induced me to leave Washington on 
 the 25th day of April, 1834, and steer for the 
 North. 
 
 • At this time the House of Representatives was 
 engaged on the appropriation bills, and I knew 
 they would consume some two or three weeks , 
 and as I had determined and declared that I would 
 not vote upon an appropriation bill, until I knew 
 where the money was ; and as it had been settled 
 by the House that Andrew Jackson was the Gov- 
 ernment, and held the nation's money, I concluded 
 that the same law which authorized him to seize 
 the public treasure, and remove it from where the 
 law of the land had placed it, would, by the same 
 kind of forced construction, authorize him to dis- 
 tribute it at his will. It was of little consequence, 
 therefore, for me to remain while those bills were 
 under discussion. 
 
 Accordingly, I set out, and during my jour- 
 ney I was so agreeably disappointed in almost 
 every thing I saw, that I thought my friends 
 would be gratified in having a description of the 
 same. 
 
 I arrived the same evening at Barnum's Hotel 
 in Baltimore. Uncle Davy, as he is often called, 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 13 
 
 was right glad to see me, perhaps because we were 
 namesakes ; or may be he always likes to see folks 
 patronize his house. He has a pleasant face, any 
 how, and his acts don't belie it. No one need look 
 for better quarters : if they do, it will be because 
 they don't know when they are satisfied. 
 
 Baltimore used to be called Mob-town ; but they 
 have got a heap better now, and are more orderly 
 than some of their neighbours. Jackson's expe- 
 riment has worked wonders. His insolent an- 
 swers to their respectable committees, and their 
 nearness to Washington, which enables them to see 
 the manceuvering of the big and little captains, 
 has opened their eyes, and made clever fellows of 
 them. I love them, for they are like myself. I 
 worshiped the molten image a good while, but 
 when he begun to cut his antics, I cut loose. 
 
 Stand your ground, my honest fellows. Your 
 monuments mean something. Look at them in- 
 scriptions and memorials of your brothers who 
 fell at North Point. It was not in man-worship 
 they lost their lives. No, it was to defend our 
 country when in danger. We are again in danger 
 — not of bullets and cannon, but bribery and cor- 
 ruption. He who deserts their ranks, and with- 
 stands the reward, is twice a Hero. Look at the 
 immortal Washinirton on that lofty pillar ; that 
 B 
 
14 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 comes home good to me, and when I saw it, I could 
 not for my life help thinking of Moses, when he 
 hoisted up the golden serpent to cure the Israelites 
 of the poison and venom driven into them by the 
 reptiles that crawled among them. Look on him, 
 and imitate again and again his powerful virtues. 
 
 Shortly after I arrived, I was called upon, and 
 asked to eat supper with a number of gentlemen. I 
 went, and passed the evening pleasantly with my 
 friend Wilkes and others. 
 
 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, who are 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 he is not higher valued than a coon 
 skin. 
 
 The steamboat was the Carroll-of-Carrollton, a 
 fine craft, with the rum old commodore Chaytor 
 for head man. A good fellow he is — all sorts of 
 a man — bowing and scraping to the ladies ; nod- 
 ding to the gcullemen ; cursing the crew ; and his 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 15 
 
 right eye broad cast upon the " opposition line/' 
 all at the same time. " Let go!" said the old one, 
 and off we walked in prime style. 
 
 We immediately came past Fort McHenry, just- 
 ly celebrated for its gallant defence under Armi- 
 stead, Stewartj Nicholson, Newcomb, and others, 
 during the last war ; and shortly after we passed 
 North Point, where the British landed to make, 
 what they never dared, an attack on Baltimore. 
 
 Our passage down the Chesapeake bay was very 
 pleasant ; and in a very short run we came to the 
 place where we were to get on board of the rail- 
 road cars. 
 
 This was a clean new sight to me ; about a 
 dozen big stages hung on to one machine, and to 
 start up hill. After a good deal of fuss we all 
 got seated, and moved slowly off; the engine 
 wheezing as if she had the tizzick. By-and-by 
 she began to take short breaths, and away we went 
 with a blue streak after us. The whole distance 
 is seventeen miles, and it was run in fifty-five 
 minutes. 
 
 While I was whizzing along, I burst out laugh- 
 ing. One of the passengers asked me what it 
 was at. "Why," says I, "it's no wonder the 
 fellow's horses run off." A Carolina waggoner 
 had just crossed the rail-road, from Charleston to 
 
16 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Augusta, when the engine hove in sight with the 
 cars attached. It was growing dark, and the 
 sparks were flying in all directions. His horses 
 ran off, broke his waggon, and smashed his com- 
 bustibles into items. He run to a house for help, 
 and when they asked him what scared his horses, 
 he said he did not jist know, but it must be hell 
 in harn'ess. 
 
 At Delaware City I again embarked on board of 
 a splendid steamboat, which ran to Philadelphia. 
 
 When dinner was ready, I sat down with the 
 rest of the passengers ; among them was the Rev- 
 erend 0. B. Brown, of the Post Office Department, 
 who sat near me. During dinner the parson called 
 for a bottle of wine, and called on 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 likes a blizzard. So our glasses 
 being filled, the word went round, "a toast from Co- 
 lonel Cropkett." I gave it as follows : " Here's wish- 
 ing 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 was 
 stump't. I said, " Never heed ; it was meant for 
 where it belonged." He did not repeat his invi- 
 tation, and I eat my dinner quietly. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 17 
 
 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 on till 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 cap- 
 tain and myself were standing on the. bow-deck ; 
 he pointed his finger at me, and the people slung 
 t^eir hats, and huzzaed for Colonel Crockett. It 
 struck me with astonishment to hear a strange peo- 
 ple huzzaing for me, and made me feel sort of 
 queer. It 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 round, 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 the crowd, put me 
 up 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 ofi". 
 The streets were crowded to a great distance, and 
 ihe windows full of people, looking out, I supposed, 
 b2 
 
18 f'OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 to see the wild man. I thought I had rather be 
 in the wilderness with my gun and dogs, than to 
 be attracting all that fuss. I had never seen the 
 like before, and did not know exactly what to say 
 or do. After some time we reached the United 
 States Hotel in Chesnut street. I suppose they 
 took me there because it was opposite to the rob- 
 bed bank, and which the robbers called a " mon- 
 ster," so that the varmints might be near one 
 another. 
 
 The crowd had followed me, filling up the 
 street, and pressing into the house to shake hands. 
 I was conducted up stairs, and walked out on a 
 platform, drew off my hat, and bowed round to 
 the people. They cried 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 op PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 " My visit to your city is rather accidental. I 
 had no expectation of attracting any uncommon 
 attention. I am travelling for my health, without 
 the least wish of exciting the people in such times 
 of high political feeling. I do not wish to encou- 
 rage 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 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 19 
 
 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, I will assure you I am illy prepared 
 to address this most enlightened people. How- 
 ever, gentlemen, if this is a curiosity to you, if 
 you will meet me to-morrow, at one o'clock, I 
 will endeavour to address you in my plain man- 
 ner." So I made my obeisance to them, and retired 
 into the house. 
 
 After night, when I could walk out unknown, I 
 went up street or down, I don't know which, but 
 took good care not to turn any corners, for fear I 
 might get lost. I soon found that the streets were 
 laid off square. This I thought was queer enough 
 for a Quaker city, for they don't generally come 
 up square to nothing : even their coats have a kind 
 of slope, at least so they have cut Mister Penn's 
 coat in the capitol. This may be wrong, too, for 
 I was told that when the man who made him first 
 knocked off " the kivers" of the house where he 
 worked at him, he had cut out Mister Penn with a 
 regular built continental cocked hat on ; and it was 
 so much laughed at, to see such a hat on a Quaker, 
 that as soon as Congress rose, he cut off his head, 
 and worked on a new one, with a rale sloped broad 
 brim. Which is th^ honest George Fox hat, I 
 
20 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 leave for Philadelphia lawyers and parsons to 
 decide. 
 
 When I went to my room, and got to bed, I 
 could not sleep, thinking over all that passed, and 
 my promise also to speak next day : but at last 1 
 composed myself with the reflection that I had 
 got through many a scrape before, as those who 
 have read my other book well know, — and they 
 ought not to read this till they go through t'other, 
 — so I thought I'd trust again to good luck. 
 
 Next morning I had the honor of being called 
 on by some old friends whom I knew at Washing- 
 ton — Judge Baldwin, Judge Hemphill, John Sar- 
 geant, and others, and I took it right kind in them 
 to do so. 
 
 Early after breakfast I was taken to the Water- 
 works, where I saw several of the gentlemen mana- 
 gers. This is a grand sight, and no wonder the Phi- 
 ladelphians ask every one that comes, "have you 
 seen the Water-works ?" Just think of a few 
 wheels throwing up more water than two hundred 
 thousand people can use : yes, and waste, too ; for 
 such scrubbing of steps, and even the very pave- 
 ments under your feet, I never saw. Indeed, I 
 looked close, to see if the housemaids had not 
 web-feet, they walked so well in water ; and as 
 for a fire, it has no chance at all : they just screw 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S 'lOUR. 21 
 
 on a long hollow leather with a brass nose on it, 
 dash up stairs, and seem to draw on Noah's flood. 
 
 The next place I visited was the Mint. Here I 
 saw them coining gold and silver in abundance, 
 and they were the rale "e pluribus unum ;" not 
 this electioneering trash, that they sent out to cheat 
 the poor people, telling them they would all be 
 paid in gold and silver, when the poor deceived 
 creatures had nothing coming to them. A chip 
 with a spit on the back of it, is as good currency 
 as an eagle, provided you can't get the image of 
 the bird. It's all nonsense. Andrew Jackson, 
 both cabinets and Congress to boot, can't enact 
 poor men into rich. Hard knocks, and plenty of 
 them, can only build up a fellow's self Look at 
 my other book, and see how much of the curse of 
 Adam's fall I bore, and tell me if I haven't a right 
 to speak on this poor man subject. 
 
 I asked if the workmen never stole any of the 
 coin. They said not : they got used to it. Well, 
 I thought that was what my parson would call 
 heterodox doctrine ; that the longer a man was in 
 temptation, the more he would not sin. But I let 
 it pass, for I had heard that they had got " new 
 lights" in this city, and of course, new and genuine 
 doctrines — so that the Bible-doxy stood no chance. 
 I could not help, barring the doctrine, giving these 
 
22 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 honest men great credit ; especially when I recol- 
 lected an old sanctimoniouslyfied fellow, who made 
 his negroes whistle while they were picking cher- 
 ries, for fear they should eat some. 
 
 From the Mint I was taken to the Asylum for 
 insane persons, went though different apartments, 
 saw men and women, some quite distracted, others 
 not so bad. This was a very unpleasant sight. 
 I am not able, nor do I wish I was able, to de- 
 scribe it. I felt monstrous solemn, and could 
 not help thanking God I was not one of them ; 
 and I felt grateful in their stead to that city for 
 caring for those who could not take care of them- 
 selves, and feeding them that heeded not the hand 
 and heart that provided for them. 
 
 On returning to the hotel, the hour had nearly 
 arrived when I was to visit the Exchange. I asked 
 Colonel Dorrance, the landlord, to go with me. Ho 
 is a very clever man, and made me feel quite at 
 home in his house. Whoever goes there once, 
 will go back again. So he agreed, and off we 
 started. 
 
 I had made set speeches in Congress, and es- 
 pecially on my Tennessee land bill, when all 
 my colleagues were against me ; now I believe 
 they will all go for it, whether from the force of 
 the aro;uments or the force of home opinions, 1 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 23 
 
 leave them to decide. I had made stump speeches 
 at home, in the face of all the little office yelpers 
 who were opposed to me ; but, indeed, when I got 
 within sight of the Exchange, and saw the streets 
 crowded, I most wished to take back my promise ; 
 but I was brought up by hearing a youngster say, 
 as I passed by, " Go ahead, Davy Crockett.^' I 
 said to myself, " I have faced the enemy ; these are 
 friends. I have fronted the savage red man of 
 the forest ; these are civilized. I'll keep cool, and 
 let them have it." 
 
 I was conducted to the house of a Mr. Neil; 
 where I met several gentlemen, and took some 
 refreshment, not passing by a little Dutch courage. 
 Of the latter there was plenty ; and I observed the 
 man of the house, when he asked me to drink, he 
 didn't stand by to see what I took, but turned 
 away, and told me to help myself. That's what I 
 call genteel. 
 
 Arrived at the Exchange, I crowded through, 
 went up to the second floor, and walked out on 
 the porch, drew off my hat, and made my bow : 
 speaking was out of the question, the huzzas for 
 Crockett were so loud and so long. 
 
 The time had come when my promise must be 
 kept. There must have been more than five thou- 
 sand people, and they were still gathering from 
 
24 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 all parts. I was now loudly called for from all quar- 
 ters to begin. I could not help again thinking what 
 a poor type I was to stand up before such an en- 
 lightened people ; but screwing up my fortitude, I 
 commenced as foHows. 
 
 "gentlemen and fellow citizens op 
 philadelphia, 
 
 "I have no doubt I will owe you an apology 
 before I am done, for this attempt. I make it in 
 obedience to your call, and not from self-will. 
 
 " Having been cut out of my speech in Con- 
 gress, by the ' previous question,' (which means 
 leaving the question under debate, and jirking a 
 fellow up to vote on he don't know what, or leave 
 to say why or wherefore, pro nor con, but keep 
 your eye on the fugleman,) on the great subject that 
 now agitates the nation, I have come to the conclu- 
 sion, — wise or foolish it is not for me to say, my 
 crows, of course, being as white as my neighbours, — 
 I have come to the conclusion that I owe the coun- 
 try a speech, and no matter where I make it ; and 
 as it is very probable I may not be ' called to or- 
 der' here, I will try and give you my views upon 
 the situation of our country ; and, in doing so, I 
 hope the citizens of Philadelphia will appreciate 
 my want of education to enable me to address you 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 25 
 
 in the language which is becoming a representative 
 of this great nation. You shall have it in my own 
 plain way ; and of one thing I assure you — you 
 will be at no loss to understand me, if I under- 
 stand myself : for of all the despisable creatures 
 on the face of this here God's globe, I despise 
 most your non-committal skulking politician, whe- 
 ther he be high, or low, or middle way. He 
 a'n't worth the powder that would kill him, and 
 he ought to be stoned to death, like a mischevious 
 stray. 
 
 " In the first place, then, gentlemen, I will call 
 your attention back to a period only nine months 
 ago. We saw our country blessed with the best 
 currency, the best circulating medium in the world; 
 our commerce flourishing, and our manufactories 
 all prosperously engaged ; the labouring commu- 
 nity receiving the rewards of their toil, from the 
 humblest to the highest ; and the products of the 
 earth bearing back a generous reward to the man 
 who watered her dust with the sweat of his brow. 
 View the present time ; make the comparison ; and 
 you will see our circulating medium destroyed, our 
 commerce blasted, and our whole manufacturing 
 interest paralyzed ; and for what ? Just to gratify 
 the ambition of one superannuated old man ; that 
 he might wreak his vengeance upon the United 
 C 
 
26 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 States Bank ; and for what ? Just because it re- 
 fused to lend its aid in upholding his corrupt 
 party. 
 
 The truth is, I may have misunderstood this 
 government, as I am from far back in the woods ; 
 but agreeable to my understanding, it was to re- 
 deem us from the government of one man, that so 
 many of our brave patriots perished before the 
 British arms during our revolutionary war. They 
 sacrificed their lives and fortunes in obtaining a 
 constitution and government of laws. We did 
 gain them, and have lived the most happy people 
 under the sun for fifty years ; but, alas! in 1834^ 
 we again see one man seize the sword in one hand, 
 and the purse in the other, and saying, * I am the 
 government — my will shall be the law of the 
 land.' 
 
 " Sirs, what has he not done ? Has he not seized 
 upon the treasury of the nation, setting Congress 
 and the people at defiance, and removed it from 
 where the law had placed it, with violence and 
 precipitancy, and yet with impunity ? And what 
 is worse, to see a set of hirelings sustaining him 
 in his lawless act, is disheartening to every lover 
 of his country. 
 
 "Let us go back, and review his pledges while 
 he was seeking the office he now holds, and com- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 27 
 
 pare them with his course since he has been in 
 power, and see how they tally as to consistency. 
 
 "You have seen or heard of his famous letter to 
 Mr. Munroe in 1823, when he said to him to de- 
 stroy the monster party, and be the president of 
 the people. From this the American people had 
 a right to expect Andrew Jackson to destroy party 
 and party feelings, as he had recommended ; but 
 what did we see when he came into power ? His 
 course was widely different. It blasted and cursed 
 the country, and dried up the hopes of every libe- 
 ral man. He drew his office sword, and the first 
 inquiry was, who has had the audacity to vote 
 against the * greatest and best.' The man that 
 has done so must go down ; he is not fit for office, 
 his services are no longer wanted. The next was, 
 who has huzzaed loudest^ not longest — for he was 
 even ungrateful to his old ffiends — for Andrew 
 Jackson ; that man is qualified to fill any station 
 in the government ; and we saw worthy men, who 
 had grown grey in honorable service of their 
 country, hurled from office to make way for one 
 of these yelpers. 
 
 " Gentlemen, what kind of republicanism do 
 you call this ? I had always thought that the true 
 republicanism was, for every man in this boasted 
 land of liberty to vote for whom he pleased, and 
 
28«^ COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 no man had a right to censure his motives. There 
 is not the shadow of republicanism in sentiments 
 or conduct different from this. 
 
 " Have you a government of laws, or have you 
 the government of one man? — a unit — a solitary 
 ^responsibility;' one who consults, but takes no 
 advice ; who calls his secretaries together for a 
 sham, to make them think big of themselves, and 
 the moment their backs are turned, are supplanted 
 with the interested advice of one who, like Judas, 
 stays behind to betray ; or, having hid his dirty 
 basket behind the curtains, only pulls out, when 
 the others have gone, what offal he has scavengered 
 during the day, sprinkled with the chloride of 
 flattery and falsehood. Be him secretary, auditor, 
 district attorney, or who he may, afraid of the 
 light and of investigation, he lurks and prowls at 
 night, in secret and alone, solely to save himself 
 or hangers on, or to glut his vengeance on some 
 one within whose atmosphere of patriotism and 
 integrity he cannot breathe. 
 
 "Go down to Washington, gentlemen, not to 
 seek office, but to be a calm observer of passing 
 scenes, if you want to find out what Jacksonism is. 
 
 "Let there be any question to be decided, which 
 the old fellow has set his heart on, and sworn by 
 the Eternal how it should go, and you w^ill see all 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 29 
 
 the small-fry as busy as pismires, and the big bugs 
 drumming up the drones, and cursing them by 
 their god, Andrew, if they don't do so and so. 
 And then let this supposed measure be carried, 
 and what a farce it is to see them pitch off to the 
 white house, and praise themselves, not for the 
 good tliey have done, but for maneuvering to bring 
 about his high and mighty will! 
 
 "Many other like scenes might be witnessed, 
 all going to convince you of the humbling truth, 
 that if we have a government, Andrew Jackson 
 is it. 
 
 "When Caesar undertook to overthrow the Ro- 
 man republic, he demanded the keys from the secre- 
 tary ; and he refused, and said that no person had 
 a right to demand that except the Roman senate. 
 Then Csesar shook his finger at the secretary, and 
 said, 'Caesar could as easy take your life, as he 
 could will it.' The secretary knew that if Csesar 
 was to take a sword, and sever his head from his 
 body, the Roman people were so wrapped up in 
 Caesar, that they believed he could not err — just 
 like the American people is wrapped up in An- 
 drew Jackson. They believe he cannot err. 
 
 " Just view his course when he ordered William 
 J. Duane to remove the deposites. He answered 
 his conscience did not approve of it, nor did his 
 c2 
 
30 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 duty require it. In a few hours he got his walking 
 ticket that his services were no longer wanted, 
 and he was compelled to be off; with the frowns 
 of a tyrant at his back, with all the litter of ve- 
 nomous pups barking at his heels. But he saw 
 ahead of him the smiles and approving faces of 
 honest men ; and I warrant you he sleeps sounder 
 than him who came in after him. 
 
 " Then Jackson took his Taney, and said, ' I take 
 the responsibility.' Ah, gentlemen, that word 
 ^responsibility' has but little terror on his mind, 
 when he can uproot our best institutions, and hurl 
 the best men in our country from office, at his will, 
 for daring to do their duty, and exercise their 
 liberty. Yet the people have said it is right — 
 Jackson done it. 
 
 " Our forefathers' toils and struggles are all for- 
 gotten, and we have returned to the good old days 
 of '76 — to the government of one man. 
 
 " Upon this great question, gentlemen, I stand 
 alone from my state in Congress ; and I rejoice 
 that I had fortitude to serve my country, in- 
 stead of worshipping an idol. I would rather 
 be politically damned than hypocritically immor 
 tali zed. 
 
 " I have told my colleagues that the time and 
 the questions would come when I would not stand 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 31 
 
 alone in opposition to Andrew Jackson. More 
 than one of them has had reason to feel his venom ; 
 and, if we live, we will see them at him, open 
 mouthed, like my bear-dogs ; for there a'n't a bit 
 of love between them. 
 
 "I was one of the first men that fired a gun 
 under Andrew Jackson. I helped to throw around 
 him that blaze of glory, that is blasting and blight- 
 ing every thing it comes in contact with. I know 
 I have equal rights with him, and so has every 
 man that is not a slave ; and when he is violating 
 the constitution and the laws, I will oppose him, 
 let the consequences to me be what they may. 
 
 " Thank God, I have constituents who think I 
 am honest in my opposition to the present pro- 
 ceedings. They know how to think for them- 
 selves, and scorn the dictation of any man, be him 
 of high or low degree. I am willing to trust 
 them ; and we will see whether I will not count 
 my hundreds of majorities, where others, who feel 
 as I do, but do not come out, will only boast of 
 their tens. 
 
 " Gentlemen, the question is decided that the 
 law of the land is Andrew Jackson's will, and 
 when we are beaten, I suppose we must surrender ; 
 but I still cling to one hope. It is said, and truly, 
 that all power is in tlie people 5 and if so, the time 
 
22 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 is shortly coming when they must and will show 
 their power, by sustaining the laws and the con- 
 stitution. The stars and stripes must never give 
 way to the shreds and patches of party. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I hope you will excuse my plain 
 manner of speaking. I must close. I thank you 
 for your patience and polite attention." 
 
 Three times three cheers closed the concern, 
 and I came down to the door, where it appeared as 
 if all the world had a desire to shake hands with 
 me. I stood on the door-step, and, as major Jack 
 Downing said, shook hands as hard as I could 
 spring for near an hour. After this I returned to 
 the hotel, and remained until night, when I was 
 asked to visit the theatre in Walnut street. The 
 landlord, Dorrance, and others were to go with me, 
 to see Jim Crow. While we were talking about 
 it, one of them said he could go all over the world 
 " Tu crow juicy." Some laughed very hearty, 
 and others did not. I was among the latter, for I 
 considered it a dry joke, although there was some- 
 thing juicy in it. Some of them said it was 
 Latin ; and that proved to me the reason why I did 
 not laugh — I was tired of the " old Roman." 
 But these Philadelphians are eternally cutting up 
 jokes on words j so I puts a conundrum to them; 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 33 
 
 and says I, " Can you tell me why the sacking 
 of Jerusalem was like a cider mill?" Well, they 
 all were stump t, and gave it up. " Because it made 
 the Jews fly." Seeing them so much pleased with 
 this, says I, "Why is a cow like a razor-grinder?" 
 No one could answer. " Well," says I, " I thought 
 you could find that out, for I don't know myself." 
 
 We started for the theatre, and found a very full 
 house, and Jim a playing for the dear life. Jim 
 makes as good a nigger as if he was clean black, 
 except the bandy-legs. 
 
 Everybody seemed pleased, particularly when I 
 laughed ; they appeared to act as if I knew ex- 
 actly when to laugh, and then they all followed. 
 
 What a pity it is that these theatres are not so 
 contrived that everybody could go ; but the fact 
 is, backwoodsman as I am, I have heard some 
 things in them that was a leetle too tough for good 
 women and modest men ; and that's a great pity, 
 because there are thousands of scenes of real life 
 that might be exhibited, both for amusement and 
 edification, without offending. Folks pretend to 
 say that high people don't mind these things. 
 Well, it may be that they are better acquainted 
 with vice than we plain folks ; but I am yet to live 
 and see a woman polished out of the natural feel- 
 
2^ COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 mgs, or two high not to do things that a'n't quite 
 reputable in those of low degree. 
 
 Their fiddling was pretty good, considering 
 every fellow played his oAvn piece ; and I would 
 have known more about it, if they had played a 
 tune, but it was all twee-wee-tadlum-tadlum-tum- 
 tum,tadle-leedle-tadle-leedle-lee. " The twenty-se- 
 cond of February,'^ or the "Cuckoo's Nest," would 
 have been a treat. 
 
 I do not think, however, from all I saw, that the 
 people enjoyed themselves better than we do at a 
 country frolic, where we dance till daylight, and 
 pay off the score by giving one in our turn. It 
 would do you good to see our boys and girls 
 dancing. None of your stradling, mincing, sady- 
 ing; but a regular sifter, cut-the-buckle, chicken- 
 flutter set-to. It is good wholesome exercise ; and 
 when one of our boys puts his arm round his 
 partner, it's a good hug, and no harm in it. 
 
 Next morning I was waited on by some gentle- 
 men, who presented me with a seal for my watch- 
 chain, wiiich cost forty dollars. I told them I 
 always accepted a present, as a testimony of friend- 
 ship. The engraving on the stone represents the 
 great match race, two horses in full speed, and 
 over them the words "Go ahead." It is the 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 35 
 
 finest seal I ever saw ; and when I returned to 
 Washington, the members ahnost used it up, mak 
 ing copies to send all over the country. 
 
 I was hardly done making my bow to these 
 gentlemen, before Mr. James M. Sanderson inform- 
 ed me that the young whigs of Philadelphia had a 
 desire to present me with a fine rifle, and had 
 chosen him to have her made agreeably to my 
 wishes. I told him that was an article that I knew 
 somewhat about, and gave him the size, weight, &c. 
 
 You can't imagine how I was crowded to get 
 through every thing. Colonel Pulaski called to 
 take me in his carriage to the Naval Hospital, 
 where they stow away the old sailors on dry land, 
 and a splendid building it is ; all made of marble. 
 I did not like the situation ; but I suppose it was 
 the best they could get, with so much ground to it. 
 
 From there we went to the Navy Yard, and 
 examined the largest ship ever made in the United 
 States. She was what they call "in the stocks," 
 and I then thought we would never have any use 
 for her. In this I may be mistaken. If Congress 
 takes Andrew Jackson at his word, and lets him 
 loose, God help the poor parley vous : he'd grin 
 them to death while we were getting that big ship 
 and all the little ones to rights. 
 
 I then surveyed the artillery, and the balance 
 
36 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 of the shipping, not forgetting to pay my respects 
 to the officers of the yard, and then returned home 
 with tlie colonel, where I was kindly treated, both 
 in eating and drinking ; and so ended another day. 
 
 Next morning the land admiral, Colonel Ree- 
 side, asked me to call on him, and take a ride. I 
 did so ; and he carried me out to the rail-road and 
 Schuylkill bridge. I found that the rail-road was 
 finished near a hundred miles into the interior of 
 the state, and is only one out of many ; yet they 
 make no fuss about it. I suppose it is because 
 there is no speculating in the stocks ; no regency 
 banks, to hoist them up with one lie, and then sell 
 out ; and then turn round and knock them down 
 with another, and all to buy in again. Never 
 mind ; God can't prosper the people that do so. 
 What is got over the devil's back, is sure to be 
 spent under his bellie. 
 
 We drove in past the Girard school — that old 
 man that give so many millions to Philadelphia, 
 and cut out his kin with a crumb. Well, thinks I, 
 blood is thicker than water, and the remembrance 
 of friends better than a big name. I'd have made 
 them all rich, and give away the balance. But, 
 maybe, French people don't think like me. 
 
 This being my last night in Philadelphia, Dor- 
 i-ance gave me what they call a "pick knick" sup-2i 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 37 
 
 per ; which means as much as me and all my com- 
 pany could eat and drink, and nothing to pay. 
 
 I forgot to say that I had spent part of the even- 
 ing before this with Colonel Saint. 
 
 Next morning, Wednesday the 29th, I was in- 
 vited by Captain Jenkins, of the steamboat New 
 Philadelphia, to go on with him to New York. I 
 accepted his offer, and started. I saw nothing very 
 particular along the Delaware river, except the 
 place where all the hard stone-coal comes to, from 
 the interior of Pennsylvania ; where, I am told, 
 they have mountains of it. After some time, we 
 got upon a rail-road, where they say we run twen- 
 ty-five miles to the hour. I can only judge of 
 the speed by putting my head out to spit, which I 
 did, and overtook it so quick, that it hit me smack 
 in the face. We soon arrived at Amboy, and 
 took the water again ; and soon came in sight of 
 the great city of New York, and a bulger of a 
 place it is. The number of the ships beat me all 
 hollow, and looked for all the world like a big 
 clearing in the West, with the dead trees all 
 standing. 
 
 When we swung round to the wharf, it was 
 covered with people, who inquired if I was on 
 board ; and when the captain told them I was, 
 they slung their hats, and gave three cheers. 
 
 *4 "^ 
 
38 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Immediately a committee came on board, repre- 
 senting the young whigs, and informed me they 
 were appointed to wait upon me, and invite me to 
 the American Hotel. I accepted their offer, and 
 went with them to the hotel, where I was friendly 
 received ; conducted to a large parlour, where I 
 was introduced to a great many gentlemen. 
 
 I was invited to visit the new and elegant fire 
 engine, and took some refreshment with the ma- 
 nagers, and returned in time to visit the Park 
 theatre, and see Miss Fanny Kemble play in grand 
 style. The house was better filled, and the fixings 
 looked nicer, than the one in Philadelphia ; but 
 any of them is good enough, if they have such 
 pretty play-actors as Miss Kemble. In fact, she is 
 like a handsome piece of changeable silk ; first one 
 colour, then another, but always the clean thing. 
 
 I returned home, as I am told all great folks do, 
 after the lady actor was done ; and, sitting with my 
 friends, the cry of '"'nrc, fire," struck my ear. I 
 bounced from my chair, and ran for my hat. " Sit 
 down, colonel," said one of the gentlemen, "it's 
 not near us." — " A'n't you going to help to put it 
 out?" — "No," said he, laughing, "we have fire 
 companies here, and we leave it to them." Well, 
 to me this seemed queer enough, for at home I 
 would have jumped on the first horse at hand, and 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 39 
 
 rode full flight bare-backed, to help put out a 
 fire. 
 
 I forgot that I was in a city where you may live, 
 as they tell me, years, and not know who lives 
 next door to you ; still, I felt curious to see how 
 they managed ; and Colonel Jackson went with 
 me. As it was late, the engines were only assem- 
 bling when we got there ; but when they began to 
 spirt, they put out a four-story house that was all 
 in a blaze, in less than no time. I asked the 
 colonel where they got so much water from. He 
 said it was raised by the Manhattan Bank, out of 
 a charter got by Aaron Burr. I could not help 
 thinking it was well the Regency did not get hold 
 of such a monopoly, and put it down : but I re- 
 collected that same Burr was said to be kin, or sort 
 a kin, of the "Magician ;" or, at all events, brung 
 him up, and showed him all the tricks of the cards : 
 and then I recollected in the Taney report, that 
 this was a pet bank, and its cashier brother to a 
 mighty clever member of Congress : so I just con- 
 cluded in my own mind, that they kept up this 
 water to squirt on people's houses, and the people 
 let them manage the money as they pleased. 
 
 Next morning I was invited by Colonel Mapes 
 to walk down to some of the newspaper offices. I 
 
40 COL. CROCKETT'B TOUR. 
 
 proposed to go to the Courier and Enquirer and 
 Star offices : we did so. I like Webb, for he 
 comes out plump with what he has to say. Mr. 
 Noah has another way of using a fellow up : he 
 holds him uneasy; laughs at him, and makes other 
 folks do so ; teazes him ; roasts him, until he don't 
 know what ails him, nor what hurt him, but he 
 can't help limping. 
 
 We went into Pearl street ; and I could not help 
 wondering if they had as many boxes and bags 
 and things inside of the houses as they had out. 
 Elegant place for a lame man to walk, for every 
 one is like him — first up, then down ; then one 
 side, then another, like a pet in a squirrel box. 
 Shortly VvO came to the Exchange — the place 
 where the merchants assemble every day at one 
 o'clock, to hear all they can, and tell as little as 
 possible ; and where two lines from a knowing 
 correspondent, prudently used, may make a for- 
 tune. 
 
 I had not been lon^ here before I was surround- 
 ed, and called on for a speech. I made many apolo- 
 gies, but none seem'd to hit right ; and was so hard 
 pressed, that I had no corner to get into : so, taking 
 my stand upon the steps above them, I spoke as 
 follows, to w^it : 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 41 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 '^ My object was not to attract attention ; I 
 am travelling to see your country and improve 
 my health, and had no wish to speak in this 
 great city. New York is the London of America, 
 the Big Prairie of the north, the Mississippi 
 of commerce ; and I assure you my opportunities 
 have not been such as should permit me to address 
 such an enlightened audience of people as I sup- 
 pose myself surrounded with. However, I find it 
 would be hard to get off; and as my motto is, 
 * Go ahead,' I will therefore give you my views 
 upon the great question that has shook this once 
 happy government to its centre. 
 
 '' I see you all in a state of excitement ; and what 
 is the cause of it ? We have had a government 
 for fifty odd years, administered by a Washington, 
 an elder Adams, a Jefferson, a Madison, a Monroe, 
 a younger Adams, and a hero of two wars ; and 
 1 venture to say, that never was there a time when 
 this country was in such excitement as at present. 
 There must be something wrong in the political 
 affairs of the nation : yes, gentlemen, and you are 
 beginning to feel it here. 
 
 "I am truly sorry that my abilities are not such 
 
 ^as enable me to explain this matter to my own 
 
 satisfaction. One thing I will say, that our govern- 
 d2 
 
42 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 meiit, that is, Andrew Jackson, has begun a change 
 that has brought alarm upon our best men. 
 
 " It has been common to petition our legislative 
 councils for relief ; and some respect was paid to 
 the voice of the people thus constitutionally ex- 
 pressed. But is this the case now ? Have not the 
 citizens of your country memorialized Congress 
 for relief — and to what effect ? None. Your peti- 
 tions are unheard, or at least not attended to. 
 Your petitions have been conveyed away to a 
 committee-room, never again to be lieard from. 
 Even your bearers of petitions are forbid, as such, 
 to enter the palace, or appear before his majesty's 
 presence. Has this been usual ? No, sirs ; it is 
 entirely new, and ought to be alarming to every 
 lover of our republican government. 
 
 " We are completely under the government of 
 one man. He wields both sword and purse ; and 
 yet a majority of the House of Representatives 
 say Amen. 
 
 " I thank God for giving me fortitude enough to 
 stand firm, and support the constitution and the 
 laws. I stand alone from my state ; but I glory 
 in what they consider my sin and shame. I have 
 been the true and honest supporter of Andrew 
 Jackson. I have fought under him, and was proud 
 that my statesman was the choice of the American 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 43 
 
 people to wield the distinies of this nation. I sup- 
 ported him because I liked his professed princi- 
 ples, not because his name was Andrew Jackson. 
 Name is nothing but an empty sound. I have sup- 
 ported principles, and will stick to them : and when 
 the best interests of my country is threatened, I 
 will sound the alarm, be it in New York or else- 
 where. This I consider to be the duty of a public 
 servant ; and this is what stimulates me to speak 
 in your presence. I know I speak the truth ; and 
 you know it too. Is it come to this, that our happy 
 country is to be destroyed, to gratify the ambition 
 of one man ? Has it come to this, that our legisla- 
 tive body shall be a nuisance, and the people cry 
 Amen? 
 
 " Sirs, Andrew Jackson says that he will veto 
 any law that passes Congress, and does not pass by 
 two-thirds, and does not meet his notions. This is 
 virtually saying, ' My will shall be the law of the 
 land ; I care not what my predecessors have said 
 or done ; I care not what the supreme court has 
 decided, if I don't think so too.' 
 
 '' It is not to be expected that we can get two- 
 thirds of Congress to hardly any bill ; and there- 
 fore, this power, thus construed by him, is almost 
 unlimited. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have said more than I intended, 
 
44 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 and must close, thanking you for your polite at- 
 tention to me, a stranger among you." 
 
 I returned to the hotel, where I found a great 
 many gentlemen waiting to see the wild man from 
 the far West. After spending some time with them, 
 I was taken to Peale's museum. I shall not attempt 
 to describe the curiosities here ; it is above my 
 bend. I could not help, however, thinking what 
 pleasure or curiosity folks could take in sticking 
 up whole rows of little bugs, and such like var- 
 mints. I saw a boy there that had been born with- 
 out any hands or arms ; and he took a pair of scis- 
 sors in his toes, and cut his name in full, and gave 
 it to me. This I called a miracle. 
 
 From thence I went to the City Hall, and was 
 introduced to the mayor of the city and several of 
 the aldermen. The mayor is a plain, common- 
 sense-looking man. I was told he had been a tan- 
 ner : that pleased me ; for I thought both him and 
 me had clum up a long way from where we start- 
 ed : and it is truly said, ^ Honour and fame from 
 no condition rise.' It's the grit of a fellow that 
 makes the man. 
 
 On my return, I received an invitation from 
 Colonel Draper to dine with him, informing me 
 also, that the rale Major Jack Downing was ex- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 45 
 
 pected, to be there. When the hour arrived, I 
 started to walk there, as it was but a short distance. 
 On my way I saw a white man, who was in a great 
 rage, cursing a white man-servant. I stopped, and 
 said to him, " Hellow, mister ! if you was to talk 
 that way to a white man in my country, he'd give 
 you first-rate hell." He looked at me, and said 
 nothing, but walked off. Sure enough, when I got 
 to Colonel Draper's, I was introduced to the ma- 
 jor. We sat down to a splendid dinner, and amused 
 ourselves with some good jokes. But as this was 
 a private party, I don't think it gentlemanly to tell 
 what was said at this time, and especially as this 
 was not the only communication I had with the 
 major. One observation, however, was made by 
 him, and I gave him an answer which could not 
 offend anybody. " Colonel," says he, " what d'ye 
 sort o' think about gineral matters and things in 
 purticlur?" Knowing him to be a yankee, I tried 
 to answer him in his own way. So, says I, " Ma- 
 jor, the G inneral's matters are all wrong ; but some 
 purticklar things are very well : such, for instance, 
 as the honour I have in dining with you at Colonel 
 Draper's." — " Good!" says the major, "and we'll 
 talk about them there matters some other time." — 
 "Agreed," says I, " major, always at your sarvice." 
 I found a large company waiting for me when I 
 
46 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 got back to the hotel, and an invitation to sup with 
 the young Whigs. Well, now, thinks I, they had 
 better keep some of these things to eat for some- 
 body else, for Pm sure I'm as full as a young cub. 
 But right or wrong, I must go in. There I met 
 the honourable Augustine S. Clayton, of Georgia, 
 and was right glad to see him, for I knew I could 
 get him to take some of the speaking off of me. 
 He speaks prime, and is always ready, and never 
 goes off half-cock. 
 
 Gulian C. Verplanck was also there — an honest 
 man, that was badly treated ; but I hope still he 
 will be honoured as he deserves. 
 
 Upwards of one hundred sat down to supper. 
 They were going to toast me, but I told some of 
 them near me to toast Judge Clayton first ; that 
 there should be more rejoicing over one that was 
 lost and found again, than over ninety-and-nine 
 such as me, that had never strayed away. They 
 did so : and he made a speech that fairly made the 
 tumblers hop. He rowed the Tories up and over 
 Salt river. 
 
 Then they toasted me as " the undeviating sup- 
 porter of the constitution and laws." I made a 
 short speech, and concluded with the story of " the 
 Red Cow," which was, that as long as General 
 Jackson went strait, I followed him ; but when 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 47 
 
 he began to go this way, and that way, and 
 every way, I wouldn't go after him : like the 
 boy whose master ordered him to plough across 
 the field to the red cow. Well, he began to plough, 
 and she began to walk 5 and he ploughed all fore- 
 noon after her. So when the master came, he 
 swore at him for going so crooked. " Why, sir," 
 said the boy, " you told me to plough to the red 
 cow, and I kept after her, but she always kept 
 moving." 
 
 Next morning, being the first day of May, I 
 went to some of the newspaper offices, read the 
 news, and returned to take a ride with Colonel S. 
 D. Jackson, in an elegant barouche. We drove up 
 the city, and took a view of the improvements and 
 beautiful houses in the new part. By the time we 
 returned down Broadway, it seemed to me that 
 the city was flying before some awful calamity. 
 " Why," said I, " colonel, what under heaven is 
 the matter ? Everybody appears to be pitching 
 out their furniture, and packing it ofi'." He laugh- 
 ed, and said this was the general " mooving day." 
 Such a sight nobody ever saw, unless it was in this 
 same city. It seemed a kind of frolic, as if they 
 were changing houses just for fun. Every street 
 was crowded with carts, drays, and people. So the 
 world goes. It would take a good deal to get me 
 
48 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 out of my log house j but here, I understand, many 
 persons " moove" every year. 
 
 Having alighted, and taken some refreshment, I 
 asked Colonel Webb to go with me to the " Five- 
 points," a noted place near the centre of the city. 
 This is the place where Van Buren's warriors came 
 from during the election, when the w^ild Irish, 
 with their clubs and bludgeons, knocked down 
 every one they could find that would not huzza for 
 Jackson. However, I had a great curiosity to see 
 them; and on we went, the major and me, and in 
 the midst of that great city we came to a place 
 where five streets all come together ; and from this 
 it takes the name of the " Five-points." The 
 buildings are little, old, frame houses, and looked 
 like some little country village. The houses all had 
 cellars; and as that day was fashionable to moove, 
 they were mooving too. The streets looked like 
 a clearing, in my part of the world, as they were 
 emptying and burning the straw out of their beds. 
 It appeared as if the cellars was jam full of people ; 
 and such fidling and dancing nobody ever saw be- 
 fore in this world. I thought they were the true 
 " heaven-borns." Black and white, white and 
 black, all hug-em-snug together, happy as lords 
 and ladies, sitting sometimes round in a ring, with 
 a jug of liquor between them : and I do think I 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 49 
 
 saw more drunk folks, men and women, that day, 
 than I ever saw before. This is part of what is 
 called by the Regency the "glorious sixth ward" — 
 the regular Van Buren ground-floor. I thought 1 
 would rather risque myself in an Indian fight than 
 venture among these creatures after night. I said 
 to the colonel, " God deliver me from such consti- 
 tuents, or from a party supported by such. In my 
 country, when you meet an Irishman, you find a 
 first-rate gentleman ; but these are worse than 
 savages ; they are too mean to swab hell's kitchen." 
 He took me to the place where the election was 
 held. It appeared to me that all the place round 
 was made ground, and that there was more room 
 in the houses under-ground than above : and I sup- 
 pose there must have been a flood of rain during 
 the election, which forced those rats out of their 
 holes. There is more people stowed away together 
 here than any place I ever saw. I heard a story, 
 and it is asserted to be true, that about here, some 
 years ago, a committee visited all the houses, to 
 see how they were coming on. One house, that 
 was four stories high, and four rooms on a floor, 
 had sixteen families in it, and four in the garret, 
 which was divided into four parts by a streak of 
 charcoal. An old lady, that was spinning up there, 
 was asked how they made out. She said, pretty 
 E 
 
50 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 well ; and that they would be quiet enough if it 
 was not for the old woman in the opposite corner, 
 and she took boarders, and they often made a noise. 
 I believe it is true. What a miserable place a city 
 is for poor people : they are half starved, poorly 
 clothed, and perished for fire. I sometimes won- 
 der they don't clear out to a new country, where 
 every skin hangs by its own tail : but I suppose 
 they think an hour's indulgence in vice is sweet 
 enough for the bitter of the rest. 
 
 Coming home, I took notice that the rear of the 
 City Hall was of brown stone, while the front and 
 sides were of white marble. I asked the colonel 
 why that was so. He said the Poor-house stood 
 behind when they built the Hall. That is like 
 many a great man : if he gets a fine breast to his 
 jackett, he'll make the back of fustian — and like 
 thousands of great people, who think that any thing 
 will do for poor folks to look at, or eat, or wear. 
 Another thing seemed queer to me, and that was a 
 bell hanging outside of the steeple of the Hall. It 
 was so big they could not get it in, and rather than 
 lose the money, they hung it outside ; never re- 
 flecting that even a backwoodsman must laugh at 
 such a Dutch blunder. 
 
 On the same walk I was introduced to the ho- 
 nourable Albert Gallatin. He had an old straw 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 51 
 
 hat in his hand, and, like everybody else, was 
 *^^mooving," and said he was sorry not to have 
 more time to be acquainted with me. He pointed 
 to the house he was leaving, and said it and seve- 
 ral others were to be torn down to build a big 
 tavern. It was a very fine house, fit for any man 
 to live in ; but in a few hours I saw men on top 
 of it, and before the next evening, the daylight was 
 through it. This tavern is to be near the park, 
 and is building by John Jacob Astor. It is to cost 
 seven hundred thousand dollars, and covers a whole 
 square. Mr. Astor, I am told, begun business in 
 New York as a dealer in furs, and is now worth 
 millions. Lord help the beavers and otters! they 
 must have most got used to getting skinned by 
 this time. And what a meeting of friends and kin 
 there must have been in his warehouse. "Farewell," 
 said the otter to the beaver, " I never expect to see 
 you again, my dear old friend." " Never mind, my 
 dear fellow," said the beaver, " don't be too much 
 distressed, we'll soon meet at the hatter's shop." 
 
 This day a new flag was to be hoisted, down on 
 Battery, and I was invited to attend. The artil- 
 lery, under command of General Morton, paraded; 
 and he invited many of his friends to be present: 
 among the rest, the mayor, Gideon Lee, was there, 
 and addressed the people. Among other things, 
 
52 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 he told them that that flag-staff was placed where 
 the old one stood when the British evacuated New 
 York; that they left the flag flying, and greased 
 the pole, so that it could not he dim up ; but at 
 Isist a sailor got up and tore it down, and hoisted 
 the American flag in its place; and when he came 
 down, the people filled his hat with money. 
 
 General Morton is a revolutioner, and an ofiicer 
 in the society of old soldiers called the " Cincin- 
 nati Society," and wears its badge on his breast. 
 He gave an entertainment to his friends on this 
 occasion; for you must know that nobody thinks 
 any thing well done in this place, without eating 
 and drinking over it. 
 
 This Battery a'n't a place, as its name looks like, 
 for keeping and shooting off cannon. It might 
 have been so, long ago; but it is a beautiful mea- 
 dow of a place, all measured oflT, with nice walks 
 of gravel between the grass plats, full of big shade- 
 trees, and filled with people and a great many chil- 
 dren, that come there to get the fresh air that comes 
 off the water of the bay. This is a beautiful place; 
 and you can see Long Island, and Staten Island, 
 and many others from it. Here is likewise Castle 
 Garden, and the bridge that Van Buren wanted to 
 drownd the president off of, when him and Major 
 Jack most fell in. The fact is, the plan was well 
 
OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 53 
 
 enough, but General Jackson did not know of it. 
 It was concluded, you see, that the president should 
 make all his big secretaries and Colonel Reeside 
 go before, and him come after 5 and then slam 
 should go the bridge, with the old fellow on it. 
 But he went foremost, and when it fell, they didn't 
 catch any but Governor Cass, secretary of warj 
 and he only lost his hat and wig, which they say 
 the porpusses carried off and give to the sea-sar- 
 pent, so that he might be on their side in the next 
 oyster war. 
 
 After all this, I went that same day to see my 
 young friend Walden, and enjoyed myself with 
 some friends till evening. 
 
 When I got back to the hotel, I found the bill 
 for the Bowery theatre 5 and it stated I was to be 
 there. Now I knew I had never given the ma- 
 nagers any authority to use my name, and I deter- 
 mined not to go. After some time, I was sent for, 
 and refused; and then the head manager came him- 
 self. I told him I did not come for a show; I did 
 not come for the citizens of New York to look at; 
 I come to look at them. However, my friends 
 said it would be a great disappointment, and might 
 harm the managers; and so 1 went, and was friendly 
 received. I remained a short time, and returned. 
 So ended the first day of May, 1834; and I should 
 E 2 
 
54 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 like to see anybody who saw more sights in once 
 waking up. In fact, when I got to bed and begun 
 to think them over, I found it would take me to 
 daylight ; so I just broke off, and went to sleep. 
 
 Next morning. Colonel Mapes told me he was 
 requested to invite me over to Jersey City, to see 
 some shooting with a rifle. In the mean time, I 
 had been very kindly invited by Captain Comstock 
 to go that day, at half-past three o'clock, with him 
 to Boston. I concluded to go, as I might never 
 have another opportunity, and it took only eighteen 
 hours to go there. 
 
 I went with the colonel to see little Thawburn's 
 seed store : and a great place it is, for he has got 
 all kind of things there ; and for fear his bird-seed 
 should not be fresh, he keeps a few hundred birds 
 to eat it up in short order : and to prove that his 
 flower-seed is prime, he keeps thousands of little 
 pots growing, and mostly gits five times as much 
 for the proof as he does for the seed. He is a little, 
 old, weezened-up man, talks broad Scotch, and is 
 as active as a tarrier dog. 
 
 I now started to Jersey City, where I found a 
 great many gentlemen shooting rifles, at the dis- 
 tance of one hundred yards, with a rest. One gen- 
 tleman gave me his gun, and asked me to shoot. 
 I raised up, oflf-hand, and cut within about two 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 55 
 
 inches of the centre. I told him my distance was 
 forty yards, off-hand. He loaded his gun, and we 
 walked down to within forty yards, when I fired, 
 and was deep in the paper. I shot a second time, 
 and did the same. Colonel Mapes then put up a 
 quarter of a dollar in the middle of a black spot, 
 and asked me to shoot at it. I told him he had 
 better mark the size of it, and put his money in 
 his pocket. He said, " Fire away." I did so, and 
 made slight-of-hand work with his quarter. 
 
 It was now time to return, and prepare for my 
 trip to Boston. 
 
 At three o'clock I left the hotel, and went over 
 to where the steamboat lay. When I went on 
 board, the captain showed me into a splendid state- 
 room, which I was to occupy for the voyage. So, 
 when I had made my toilet (as great folks say), 
 that is, combed my hair and taken a glass of bran- 
 dy and water, I went on deck. There I saw almost 
 as many people as were when I landed ; and they 
 kept gathering until the whole ground was cover- 
 ed ; and when we started, they cheered me for 
 some time ; and all I could do was to stand and 
 bow to them. This brought me into new trouble ; 
 for the passengers found I was on board, and came 
 round me, so that I missed seeing the city until we 
 got past it 
 
56 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Soon, however, we came to the place called 
 Hell's Gate ; so called, I suppose, because the wa- 
 ter boils, and foams, and bounces about as if it was 
 in a pot. I don't think, however, that this is a 
 good name for it, because we are told in the good 
 book that hell's gate is a mighty slick place, and 
 easy to get into. Here I first saw a larg& square- 
 sailed British merchant-ship, under full sail. She 
 was coming in through this channel ; and I was 
 glad to see that, for when we were voting for an 
 appropriation for a fort to defend this place, I heard 
 it said that no foreign ship ever attempted coming 
 in that way. But these are the kind of arguments 
 used most generally by those who oppose internal 
 improvements, harbours, &c. &c. : they fancy 
 things, and speak them for truth. 
 
 We went on very pleasantly till night ; and the 
 captain told me, if I would rise at daylight, we 
 would be out of sight of land. So I went to bed, 
 and rose as soon as I could see. I walked out on 
 deck, and sure enough, there was no land to be 
 seen. We were coming near Point Juda, a place 
 where, the captain informed me, people on board 
 was very often sea-sick. So I set myself down for 
 a case ; but was disappointed : it was quite calm, 
 and a clear fine morning ; and when the sun rose, 
 it come up like a ball of fire out of the water, and 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 57 
 
 looked, for all the world, as if it had been made 
 for the first time. We went round Point Juda, 
 and kept in sight of land on our left hand. There 
 was very little timber to be seen ; the whole coun- 
 try appeared to be laid off in fields, divided by 
 stone fences. These were a great curiosity to me; 
 and I could not help thinking that their cattle 
 must be well schooled here ; for one of my cows 
 would pitch over a dozen such fences, witliout 
 flirting her tail. 
 
 We went by the great fort at the Naraganset 
 bay, and landed at Newport for a short time. 
 From thence we took our way again to Provi- 
 dence. There I met a large number of the citi- 
 zens. They cheered me on my arrival, and wanted 
 me to stay and partake of a dinner with them : I 
 declined, and took my seat in the fast stage. The 
 driver was ordered to go ahead ; and sure enough, 
 he did. It was forty miles to Boston, and we run 
 it down in four hours. 
 
 What mighty hard land it is on this road, and 
 seems as if the whole face of the earth had been 
 covered over with stones, as thick as Kentuck land 
 titles : but they have got them strung up into 
 fences, as many as they can, by picking of them 
 off ; but they won't stay picked ; for every time 
 they plow, a new crop comes up. 
 
58 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 It was somewhere away along here that the pil- 
 grims landed at Plymouth, and begun to people 
 this part of the world : and a hard time they must 
 have had of it in this barren country : and it seems 
 odd that they should come all the way across the 
 sea, and not look out for good land. However, I 
 suppose it was all right, or God would have given 
 them better pilots. If they had had fine land, 
 they would not have ventured so much on the 
 ocean, and would have had less necessity to work 
 hard, and bring up their children to industry, and 
 give them such cute teaching as makes them know 
 how to make ducks and drakes of us out yonder, 
 when they come among us. 
 
 You would be as much struck as I was with the 
 handsome houses and nice, f^rms ; but when I 
 came to find all out, I didn't wonder so much. 
 This was Captain A., and that B.'s house; and they 
 made money on sea, and spent it on land ; that's 
 the truth ; for Adam himself could not have made 
 it out of the land. So I found out that most of 
 them owned a little plantation on shore, and the 
 run of the sea to work on besides. 
 
 One of the passengers, who came from beyond 
 Boston, while we were talking over these things, 
 asked me if I knew Captain Silsbee. I told him 
 no. " I guess you do," says he, " he's our senator 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 5g 
 
 in Congress ; but to home, we old folks call him 
 captain." I told him, certainly, I did, but never 
 knew him by that title. "Well, we know that 
 none on 'em boxed a compass longer nor better : 
 and he made a power of money j and during the 
 last war planked up more gold and silver to lend 
 the government than Benton ever counted." 
 
 But I must quit philosophy, and tell you where 
 I stopped in Boston — and that was just where any 
 one that has plenty of cash, and plenty of good- 
 will for pleasure, would like — in a clean street, 
 with a tavern on one side, and the theatre on the 
 the other, and both called Tremont. Mr. Boyden 
 did not know me, nor me him : but when I 4old 
 my name, where they put it on the bar-book, he 
 treated me like an old friend, and continued to do 
 so all the time I was there. He gave me a good 
 room and nice bed ; and did not, like many land- 
 lords, let a stranger take care of himself, but at- 
 tended to me the kindest in the world. I had 
 seen a great many fine taverns ; but take this out 
 and out, and Tremont-house is a smart chance 
 ahead. It is lately built, and has every new ar- 
 rangement ; and for a house with a couple of hun- 
 dred people about it, is the quietest I ever was in. 
 His head man of the gap, in the bar, has eyes all 
 round him ; and Will Scarlet, as he is called by a 
 
60 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 friend of mine; has the sound of every bell in the 
 house by heart. 
 
 When I arrived, I knew no one , but in a short 
 time I made many acquaintances, and, indeed, was 
 very kindly treated by every person I met. There 
 is a great deal of friendly feeling with the eastern 
 people ; and folks need not go out o£ Boston to 
 find rale hospitality. 
 
 Next morning I was invited by Mr. Harding to 
 visit his gallery of paintings, where he had a great 
 many specimens of the fine arts; and finally he 
 asked me to sit for him until he could get my 
 likeness, which I did, during my stay, and he has 
 it now, hung up among the rest of the fine arts. 
 From there I went to Fanuell Hall, where Gene- 
 ral Davis showed me all the accoutrements of war 
 for several companies of infantry and riflemen, 
 that was deposited in it. These are in snug rooms 
 on each side of the second story; and in the mid- 
 dle is the parade-room, where, summer and winter, 
 the companies meet to drill. This is doing things 
 in true style, that is all for use, and no show 
 about it. So, instead of hearing a great fuss with 
 volunteers, and drilling, and all that, wheeling and 
 marching, handle catridge, eyes right — you see a 
 squad of fine soldiers coming out of this same 
 place, and squared up as if they were the rale breed. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. Qi 
 
 General Davis informed me this was the house 
 that was called the " cradle of liberty." I reckon 
 old king George thought they were thundering 
 fine children that was rocked in it, and a good 
 many of them ; and that no wonder his red-coats 
 were licked, when the children came out with 
 soldier clothes on, and muskets in their hands. 
 God grant that the liberty -tree bough on which 
 this cradle rocks may never break. 
 
 From here I went to the market, which is a 
 small circumstance ahead of any thing I ever saw, 
 and just where it should be. Now, in Philadel- 
 phia, it looks like a long feeding-trough, stuck up 
 in the middle of the city. And how d'ye think 
 it was done? Why, they put a man of head 
 in, as mayor, who laid all his plans, counted the 
 cost, cyphered out the profits, and so forth, and 
 then made one pitch right " ahead ;" and before 
 the ninnies and scarey folks had half done telling 
 their long stories about the dreadful expense, 
 mayor Quincey's hammers were keeping time on 
 the big granite stones, and the beautiful pillars 
 were rising up as if he had just ordered them. 
 In this market-house every thing looks like so 
 many different shops or stores, and you are quite 
 in-doors, instead of sellers and buyers both being 
 exposed to wet, heat, and cold. The market ap- 
 
Q2 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 peared to be abundantly supplied, but, as I thought, 
 rather dear. 
 
 After returning home, I was invited over to 
 Roxborough, where they make the Indian-rubber 
 clothing, shoes, &c. This is done by dissolving 
 the rubber, and putting it on silk or other cloth, 
 which entirely turns the rain, and still is pliable, 
 and not heavy. The proprietor made me a pre- 
 sent of a hunting coat, which I have tried, and 
 would risk my powder under it for forty days and 
 nights. It was a great curiosity to see the young 
 ladies cutting out the clothes, and sticking them 
 together without sewing them. I went also through 
 the shoe factory, where they make shoes in the 
 same way, without stitching them. I could not 
 help thinking of the Philadelphia girls — thought 
 they ought to have them, to keep their feet dry. 
 
 We often wonder how things are made so cheap 
 among the yankees. Come here, and you will see 
 women doing men's work, and happy and cheerful 
 as the day is long : and why not ? Is it not much 
 better for themselves and families, instead of sit- 
 ting up all day busy about nothing ? It a'n't hard 
 work, neither, and looked as queer to me as it 
 would to one of my countrywomen to see a man 
 milking the cows, as they do here. 
 
 After I had seen all that was to be seen here, I 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. g3 
 
 was taken to Colonel Perkins' carpet factory. 
 There I saw the widest web I ever saw, and they 
 were glossing and stamping it in handsome style. 
 I was quite friendly received by the colonel. He 
 is said to be a very rich man ; is quite old, but 
 firm and healthy in his appearance ; and uses his 
 riches in the best possible way — by keeping a 
 great many people busy. And he is not one of 
 those foolish people, neither, that strive all their 
 days to see how rich they can die : for he gives 
 with his hands open. I saw one house in Boston 
 which he gave to keep the blind in, and was told 
 it was worth fifty thousand dollars. What a com- 
 fort the old gentleman must have when he looks 
 at his great possessions, and is calculating, not how 
 much he can hoard up, but how much he can give 
 away. God never made such men to be envied, 
 or I could begrudge him a few of his blessings 
 from the poor and the destitute. 
 
 At the invitation of the owners of the Indian- 
 rubber factory, I met a number of the citizens of 
 Roxborough, and passed a short time with them 
 very pleasantly. 
 
 When I returned to Tremont, I received an in- 
 vitation from the young Whigs, to sup with them 
 at eight o'clock. I accepted their invitation, and 
 then went over to the Navy Yard, at Charlestown. 
 
64 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 I saw many fine ships, and among them was the 
 splendid old Constitution. She was lying in dry 
 dock, and had been new timbered in grand style. 
 The likeness of Andrew Jackson was placed on 
 her for a figure-head. I was asked if it was a good 
 likeness. I said I had never seen him misrepre- 
 sented ; but that they had fixed him just where he 
 had fixed himself, that was — before the Constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 We then went up to the old battle-ground on 
 Bunker's hill, where they are erecting a monument 
 to those who fell in that daybreak battle of our 
 rising glory. I felt as if I wanted to call them up, 
 and ask them to tell me how to help to protect the 
 liberty they bought for us with their blood ; but as 
 I could not do so, I resolved, on that holy ground, 
 as I had done elsewhere, to go for my country, 
 always and everywhere. 
 
 When I came back from Bunker's hill, I received 
 about half a dozen invitations from distinguished 
 citizens of Boston, to dine or sup with them ; so 
 that it was impossible to attend to all of them, un- 
 less I had the digestion of a cassawary. I must 
 here state that the citizens generally of Boston are 
 uncommon kind and civil ; and if they understand 
 the art of making money, they know how to spend 
 it. I was entertained like a prince, and could have 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 65 
 
 lived there, I suspect, on the same terms for much 
 longer. They appear to me to live generally in 
 New England more snugly, and have more kind 
 feelings to one another, and live in more peace and 
 harmony, than any people I ever was among. And 
 another good thing — they don't forget one another 
 when they are among strangers : old New England 
 binds them hard together ; and this gives them, as 
 it ought to do, strength, and confidence, and influ- 
 ence : and with us in the South, yankee cunning 
 is assuming the true name — yankee knowledge of 
 business, and perseverance in whatever they under- 
 take. 
 
 During the afternoon, many gentlemen came to 
 see me, and we spent our time pleasantly until the 
 time came for me to attend upon the young Whigs, 
 A coach and four fine horses was sent for me. This 
 I considered as too much honour ; but as I take all 
 things as they come, and every thing for the best, 
 I stepped into it, and off they whirled with the 
 backwoods hunter. Which way they drove, I did 
 not know, nor did I care. I knew they would 
 not eat supper till I got there ; and that they would 
 not serve me as Lafayette was served at a certain 
 place where he was expected to land and dine. 
 The steamboat wefrt wrong, and he did not arrive; 
 so they eat their dinners, and took out the frolic* 
 f2 
 
t66 ^^^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 About sundown the boat came up : the orator of the 
 day was called for ; he was as blind as a pup ; but 
 the moment the old general touched the ground, 
 he put at him with abundance of welcomes and 
 compliments about his heroism, until he got up 
 -into the pathetics; when he said, " Glorious Lafay- 
 ette, the blood you have shed, and the treasures 
 you expended in defence of the liberties of this 
 country, call for our gratitude. I want words to 
 convey my ideas ; in fact (striking his hand on his 
 belly instead of his heart), I'm too full to proceed." 
 The old gentleman seized his hand, gave it a hearty 
 'shake, and so the oration ended. 
 
 We came to the appointed place, where I was 
 taken in, and introduced to about one hundred 
 young gentlemen, true chips of the old block, 
 ready to be rocked in the old cradle, whether for 
 fight or frolic, war or electioneering. They gave 
 me a hearty welcome, and made me feel all as one 
 of themselves. So down we sat to an elegant sup- 
 per, with the best of wines, and the Champaigne 
 foaming up as if you were supping fog out of 
 speaking-trumpets. 
 
 After the cloth was removed, and several toasts 
 drunk, they toasted me very warmly. I rose, and 
 addressed them as follows : 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 67 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " By the entire friendship of the citizens of Bos- 
 ton, as well as the particular friendship with 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 look 
 upon the people of New England as a selfish, cun- 
 ning set of fellows, that was fed on fox ears and 
 thistle tops ; that cut their wisdom-teeth as soon 
 as they were born ; that made money by their 
 wits, and held on to it by natur ; that called cheat- 
 ery mother-wit ; that hung on to political power 
 because they had numbers ; that raised up manu- 
 factures to keep down the South and West; and, in 
 fact, had so much of the devil in all their machine- 
 ry, 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 rea- 
 sons for so doing. 
 
 " I don't mean that because I eat your bread and 
 drink your liquor, that I feel so. No ; that don't 
 make me see clearer than I did. It is your habits, 
 and manners, and customs; your industry; your 
 proud, independent spirits ; your hanging on to the 
 
68 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 eternal principles of right and wrong ; your libe- 
 rality in prosperity, and your patience when you 
 are ground down by legislation, which, instead of 
 crushing you, whets your invention to strike a 
 path without a blaize on a tree to guide you ; and 
 above all, your never-dying, deathless grip to our 
 glorious constitution. These are the things that 
 make me think that you are a mighty good peo- 
 ple. 
 
 (Here I had to stop a while.) 
 
 ^' Gentlemen, I believe I have spoke the truth, 
 and not flattery; I a'n't used to oily words; I am 
 used to speak what I think, of men, and to men: 
 T am, perhaps, more of a come-by-chance than any 
 of you ever saw; I have made my way to the 
 place I now fill, without wealth, and against edu- 
 cation ; I was raised from obscurity, and placed in 
 the high councils of the nation, by the kindness 
 and liberality of the good people of my district — 
 a people whom I will never be unfaithful to, here 
 or elsewhere ; I love them, and they have honoured 
 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 years' stay-at-home, for exercising that 
 which I contend belongs to every freeman in this 
 nation : that was, for differing in opinion with the 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 69 
 
 chief magistrate of this nation. I was well ac- 
 quainted with him. He was but a man ; and, if I 
 was not before, my constituents had made a man 
 of me. I had marched and counter-marched with 
 him : I had stood by him in the wars, and fought 
 under his flag at the polls : I helped to heap the 
 measure of glory that has crushed and smashed 
 every thing that has come in contact with it : I 
 helped to give him the name of " Hero,'^ which, 
 like the lightning from heaven, has scorched and 
 blasted every thing 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 the last in peace — a 
 name, which, like * Jack-o'-the-lantern,' blinds 
 your eyes while you follow it through mud and 
 mire. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I never opposed Andrew Jackson 
 for the sake of popularity. I knew it was a hard 
 row to hoe ; but I stood up to the rack, consider- 
 ing it a duty I owed to the country that governed 
 me. I had reviewed the course of other presi- 
 dents, and came to the conclusion that he did not 
 of right possess any more power than those that 
 had gone before him. When he transcended that 
 power, I put down my foot. I knew his popu- 
 larity; that he had come inio place with the largest 
 
70 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 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 con- 
 strue our constitution to meet his own views. 
 
 " We had lived the happiest people under the 
 sun for fifty years, governed by the constitution 
 and laws, on well-established constructions: and 
 when I saw the government administered on new 
 principles, I objected, and was politically sacri- 
 ticed : I persisted in my sins, having a clear con- 
 science, that before God and my country, I had 
 done my duty. 
 
 " My constituents began to look at both sides ; 
 and finally, at the end of two years, approving of 
 my course, they sent me back to Congress — a cir- 
 cumstance 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. I 
 thought it extravagant as well as impolitic. I 
 thought the rights reserved to the Indians were 
 about to be frittered away; and events prove that 
 T thought correct. 
 
 " I had considered a treaty as the sovereign law 
 of the land ; but now saw it considered as a matter 
 of expedience, or not, as it pleased the powers that 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 71 
 
 be. Georgia bid defiance to the treaty-making 
 power, and set at nought the Intercourse Act of 
 1802 ; she trampled it under foot ; she nullified it : 
 and for this she received the smiles and approbation 
 of Andrew Jackson. And this was what induced 
 South Carolina to nullify the tariff. She had a 
 right to expect that the president was favourable 
 to the principle : but he took up the rod of correc- 
 tion, and shook it over South Carolina, and said at 
 the 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. Every tiling then that could cement 
 the states together, by giving them access the one 
 to the other, was right. When he got into power, 
 some of his friends had hard work to dodge, and 
 follow, and shout. I 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 dare deny it! 
 When did we first hear of his opposition ? Cer- 
 tainly not in his expression that he was in favour 
 of a judicious tariff. That was supposed to be a 
 clincher, even in New England, until after power 
 
72 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 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 every 
 one he could who 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 Mr. Munroe, 
 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, last of all, to retrench the expendi- 
 tures. 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 thickened : kin were to 
 be provided for ; and if all things keep on as they 
 are, his own extravagances will have to be re- 
 trenched, or you will get your tariff up again as 
 high as you please. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 73 
 
 " I recollect a boy once, who was told to turn 
 the pigs out of the corn-field. Well, he made a 
 great noise, hallowing and calling the dogs — and 
 came back. By-and-by his master said, ' Jim, you 
 rascal! you didn't turn out the pigs.' — ^ Sir,' said 
 he, ' I called the dogs, and set them a-barking.' 
 
 " So it was with that big Retrenchment Report, 
 in 1828. Major Hamilton got Chilton's place as 
 chairman — and called the dogs. Ingham worked 
 honestly, like a beaver ; Wickliff was as keen as a 
 cut worm : all of them worked hard ; and they did 
 really, I suppose, convince themselves that they 
 had found out a great deal of iniquity; or, what 
 was more desirable, convinced the people that An- 
 drew Jackson and his boys were the only fellows 
 to mend shoes for nothing, and find their own can- 
 dles. Everett and Sargeant, who made the mino- 
 rity report, were scouted at. What 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, or they would stop 
 his profligacy too. They were greased and swal- 
 lowed ; 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 v>^i — clear out ; make way for 
 some fellow who has saved his wind ; and because 
 G 
 
74 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 he has just begun to huzzah, 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 neighbour to retail any 
 little story which he may pick up. 
 
 " I voted for Andrew Jackson because 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 am a stranger to ; I don't like it ; 
 it taints every action of life ; it is like a skunk 
 getting into a house — long after he has cleared out, 
 you smell him in every room and closet, from the 
 cellar to the garret 
 
 " I know nothing, by experience, of party dis- 
 cipline. I would rather be a raccoon dog, and be- 
 long to a negro in the forest, than to belong to any 
 party, farther than to do justice to all, and to pro- 
 mote the interests of my country. The time will 
 and must come, when honesty will receive its re- 
 ward, 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 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 75 
 
 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. 
 
 " I this day walked over the great battle-ground 
 of Bunker's hill, and thought whether it was pos- 
 sible 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 brink of. We see the 
 whole country in commotion : and for what ? 
 Because, gentlemen, the true friends of liberty 
 see the laws and 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 has 
 been decided by a majority of Congress, that An- 
 drew Jackson shall be the Government, and that 
 his will shall be the law of the land. He takes the 
 responsibility, and vetos any bill that does not meet 
 his approbation. He takes the responsibility, and 
 seizes the treasury, and removes it from where 
 
76 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 the laws had placed it; and now, holding purse 
 and sword, has bid defiance to Congress and 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 for ever. 
 I will be no man's man, and no party'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 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 stran- 
 ger from the far West." 
 
 Early next morning I got up, and my health 
 being much improved, I felt just like I was in 
 peace with myself and all the world. After break- 
 fast I took a long walk through the city, and passed 
 through the Mall. This is a beautiful green, of 
 something like forty acres, I should judge, and 
 looks refreshing in the midst of a city. From the 
 top of the State-house I had a fine view of the city; 
 and was quite amused to see the representation of 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 77 
 
 a large codfish hung up in the House of Assemhly, 
 or General Court, as they call it — to remind them, 
 either that they depended a good deal on it for 
 food, or made money by the fisheries. This is 
 quite natural to me, for at home I have on one end 
 of my house the antlers of a noble buck, and the 
 heavy paws of a bear. 
 
 I did not like the statue of General Washington 
 in the state-house. They have a Roman gown on 
 him, and he was an American : this a'n't right. 
 They did the thing better at Richmond, in Vir- 
 ginia, where they have him in the old blue and 
 buff. He belonged to this country — heart, soul, 
 and body: and I don't want any other to have any 
 part of him — not even his clothes. 
 
 I return the officers in the state-house my thanks 
 for their civility. I can't remember all their 
 names, and therefore I won't name any of them. 
 
 When I returned to Tremont house, a gentle- 
 man invited me to walk with him to the old state- 
 house. When we reached that, I saw a great 
 €rowd. General Davis conducted me into the 
 house, and we went up-stairs, where there was a 
 platform. I drew off my hat, and bowed to the 
 people ; they immediately cheered me, and called 
 for a speech. I spoke as follows : 
 g2 
 
78 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 " Gentlemen of Boston, 
 
 " I had not the least idea of addressing you in 
 any thing like a public speech, and I simply mean 
 to return my gratitude for the kind reception I 
 have received in Boston ; and not only in New- 
 England, but through the United States, where I 
 have travelled. 
 
 " Gentlemen, this much I expected to do — to 
 see, rather than to be seen : that was my object ; 
 and I come to your country for a different purpose, 
 gentlemen, than to set myself up to address the 
 people. I am electioneering for nobody in the 
 world, gentlemen. I come to 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 own 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 the manufactories of your 
 state — by General Thomas, of Louisiana. He per- 
 suaded me to come and see. 
 
 " When I w^as first chose to Congress, I was op_ 
 posed to the protecting system. They told me it 
 would help the rich, and hurt the poor ; and tliat 
 we in the West was to be taxed by it for the bene- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 79 
 
 fit of New England. I supposed it was so ; but 
 when I come to 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 go- 
 vernment, and support them, instead of our own 
 labour. And I am satisfied of it the more since I 
 have visited New England. Only let the southern 
 gentlemen come here and examine the manufacto- 
 ries, 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 dis- 
 solving the Union. I never thought much of that, 
 gentlemen ; but the time has come when one man 
 has seized the sword of the nation in one hand, 
 and the purse of the country in the other, and bids 
 defiance to the senate and the constitution. 
 
 " A crisis has come that extends through our 
 universe — throughout the North American conti- 
 nent. I never feared, gentlemen, that South Caro- 
 lina would break the Union : but what do we now 
 see ? Six months ago this hull country w^as the 
 most prosperous in the world. Look around every 
 where j and business was active, industry thriving, 
 
80 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 and the highest manufacturer and the lowest farmer 
 received his profits. And now how is it ? All 
 this prosperity — the whole destroyed. And what 
 for ? Just to gratify the ambition of one super- 
 annuated old man. I have known this old man 
 for a long time. I was the first man that fired a 
 gun in his service ; and I helped him to gain all 
 his glory. He was an honest man then, and a 
 brave soldier ; and I liked him, though I always 
 had doubts of his judgment. But I was taught to 
 be prejudiced against the last administration ; and 
 I thought he would call around him an able cabi- 
 net, and make a good president for the country. 
 But we no sooner got him in, than the first course 
 he took was to give walking papers to every man 
 in office who had dared to oppose the greatest and 
 best. But whoever took oif his hat and huzzaed 
 for Andrew Jackson, he was fit for any office in 
 the country. Well, gentlemen, he tuk the hull 
 government after he got into power ; and I couldn't 
 stand it any longer. I found I was wrong, and I 
 faced right about : and when they told me I should 
 be politically buried if I left Jackson, I told them 
 I had rather be politically buried than hypocriti- 
 cally immortalized — and so we parted. 
 
 " But, gentlemen, I am no man's partizan ; I 
 don't mean to wear no man's collar ; for I would 
 as lief belong to a nigger, and be a raccoon dog, 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. gj 
 
 as the partizan of any man. The old man's 
 vanity has led him on ; and he has been grati- 
 fied by thinking he has killed the United States 
 Bank. But he wan't satisfied with that : he 
 then levelled his gun, and fired at the senate — 
 one of the most intelligent and patriotic bodies 
 of men, fellow citizens, there ever was in this 
 country or any other. I said, when he cocked 
 his gun and begun his war upon the senate, he 
 would find he had fired into the wrong flock. The 
 senate, gentlemen, will stand by the constitution, 
 and will save the liberties of the country. 
 
 Gentlemen of Boston, as I partly said before, I 
 come here as a private citizen, to see you, and not 
 to show myself. I had no idea of attracting atten- 
 tion ; but I feel it my duty to thank you, with my 
 gratitude to you, and with gratitude to all who 
 have given a plain man like me so kind reception. 
 I come from a great way ofi" ; but I shall never re- 
 pent 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 prejudice, 
 and give the people information. I have done my 
 best : I have sent fourteen thousand documents to 
 Tennessee ; and my colleagues complain that it 
 will raise a dust there ; and I tell them, that is just 
 what I want. I hope, gentlemen, you will excuse 
 
32 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 my plain, unvarnished ways, which may seem 
 strange to you here. I never had but six months' 
 schooling in all my life ; and I confess, I consider 
 myself but 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 upon, to give his opinions ; and 
 I have tried to give you a little touch of mine." 
 
 Here now comes a poser. I was invited to dine 
 out ; but if I can mind the gentleman's name I 
 wish I may be shot. He lived near Tremont ; and 
 I hope, if he has curiosity enough to read this here 
 book, that he will write me a letter, so that in my 
 second edition I may give his name, as large as 
 life : and I beg him to recollect that it an't every 
 one that signs a letter that makes himself known. 
 Let him write it plain — none of your hiryglifficks 
 — or I won't put him in. 
 
 Well, so it was ; we had a mighty good dinner 
 to eat, plenty of good wine to drink, and many 
 very clever gentlemen to talk to ; which, you 
 know, all put together, is a dose that's not hard to 
 take. And then, again, I was not called on for 
 toasts, nor roasted for a speech, but just had to do 
 my part of the talking, like any other Christian. 
 
 Some would say that they were mortified that 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. g3 
 
 they forgot this gentleman's name. I a'n't ; Pm 
 sorry — but the truth is, I saw so many folks, and 
 so many new things, that it's no wonder I should 
 not mind every thing. He was a clever fellow, 
 and I know he will forgive me. 
 
 When I went home, there I met a young man 
 that was stone blind. " Well," says you, " that's 
 no new thing." Stop, if you please : that puts me 
 in mind of an old parson and a scolding woman 
 that belonged to his church. She told him, in one 
 of her tantrums, that she could preach as well as 
 he could, and he might select the text. " Well," 
 said the old man, " I'll give you one, and you can 
 study over it — ' It is better to dwell on the house- 
 top,than in a wide house with a brawling woman.' " 
 — " You good-for-nothing, impudent, old — what 
 shall I say ? do you go for to call me a brawling 
 woman ?" — " Dear mistress," said the good old 
 man, " you'll have to study a while longer, for you 
 come to the application of the text before you dis- 
 cuss the doctrine." 
 
 Now it was not that I met a blind boy in Tre- 
 mont house that was any curiosity: but it was his 
 errand. He inquired of the bar-keeper for me, as 
 I was standing by him, and said he was sent by the 
 teacher of the blind, to invite me to visit the insti- 
 tution, and that he would show me the way ! ! 
 
g4 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 I was told by the gentlemen present, that he 
 could go all over Boston. A gentleman accompa- 
 nied me, and we went on till we came to a fine 
 house, where the institution was kept. We went, 
 and were introduced to the teacher. He asked 
 me if I wished to hear some of them read. I said 
 I did : and he ordered a little girl, perhaps ten or 
 twelve years old, to get her book, asked her to 
 find a certain chapter in the Old Testament, and 
 read it. She took up the book, and felt with her 
 fingers until she found it. He then told her to 
 read : and she did so, with a clear, distinct voice. 
 This was truly astonishing : but on examining 
 their books, I found that the letters were stamped 
 on the under side of the paper, so as to raise them 
 above the surface of the upper side ; and such was 
 the keenness of their touch, that by passing the end 
 of the finger over the word, it served them for 
 sight, and they pronounced the word. There was 
 a little boy learning to cipher in the same way. 
 The teacher put several questions to him aloud ; 
 and, putting his fingers together and working with 
 them for a short time, he answered all the ques- 
 tions correctly. 
 
 That kind of education astonished me more than 
 any thing I ever saw. There were a great many 
 of them. Some were learning to play on the piano- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 85 
 
 forte ; and many of them were busy making pretty 
 little baskets, such as are carried about by ladies. 
 
 They asked me if I would like to hear them 
 sing : and telling them it would please me very 
 much, a number of them came up, and some had 
 musical instruments : one had a large thing which 
 I never saw before, nor did I ask the name : one 
 had a clarionet, and one had a flute. They played 
 and sung together beautifully: and, indeed, I never 
 saw happier people in my life. I remained some 
 time with them, going over the establishment. 
 This is the house that I mentioned before was 
 given by Colonel Perkins to the blind. There is 
 not such a grand house owned by any person in 
 Washington. What a satisfaction it must be to 
 this old gentleman, and others who have helped 
 these unfortunates, to see them surrounded with 
 so many comforts. 
 
 When I returned, there were some gentlemen 
 that invited me to 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 
 an LL.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 am 
 
g5 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 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 doc- 
 tor made from Tennessee already, and I had no 
 wish to put on the cap and bells. I recollected the 
 story of a would-be-great man who put on his 
 sign, after his name, in large capitals, D. Q. M. G., 
 which stood for Deputy Quarter Master General ; 
 but which one of his neighbours, to the great diver- 
 sion of all the rest, and to his mortification, trans- 
 lated into " damn'd quick made gentleman.'^ No, 
 indeed, not me — any thing you please but Granny 
 Crockett ; I leave that for others ; I'll throw that 
 in to make chuck full the " measure of their coun- 
 try's glory." 
 
 I told them I did not go to this branding-school; 
 I did not want to be tarred with the same stick ; 
 one digniterry 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-b-ab to crucifix, which was where I left off at 
 school. 
 
 This day I dined out again ; but I'm most tired 
 talking of dinners, especially after I have eaten 
 them. I went to the theatre that night. The act- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 87 
 
 ing was pretty considerable, considering that one 
 actress, who, it was very plain, was either a mar- 
 ried woman, or " had ought to be," as they say 
 there, was playing the character of a young lady; 
 and one fellow tried to sing that was not half up to 
 a Mississippi boat-horn. 
 
 We got a little dry or so, and wanted a horn , 
 but this was a temperance house, and there was 
 nothing to treat a friend to that was worth shaking 
 a stick at : so, says I, " when there was a famine 
 in the land of Canaan, there was plenty of corn in 
 Egypt : let us go over to the Tremont ; Boy den 
 keeps stuff that runs friends together, and makes 
 them forget which is which." Over we went, and 
 soon forgot all about the theatre. 
 
 I had promised next morning to go to Lowell 
 with Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Harding, and others ; but 
 when I woke up, it was pouring down rain, so that 
 kept me in the house all day. 
 
 I was not idle, for I had a heap of talk with the 
 folks in the house. One gentleman asked me to 
 come and see him ; but he gave me so many direc- 
 tions about getting to where he lived, that I asked 
 him to write it down, and told him if ever he came 
 to my part of the country, I hoped he would call 
 and see me. " Well," said he, " how will I find 
 where you live?" — "Why, sir, run down the 
 
88 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUK. 
 
 Mississippi till you come to the Obion river, run 
 a small streak up that, jump ashore anywhere, and 
 inquire for me." 
 
 Says I to one of them, " Do you believe in the 
 sea-sarpint ?'^ — " If I don't, there's no snakes. I 
 believe it to be as much true as there is lie in our 
 deacon when he says his red face a'n't made by 
 drinking * New England.' " — " Do you consider 
 him dangerous, or is he peaceable ?" — " Well, now, 
 to keep to the truth, I never saw him ; but Capting 
 Hodijah Folger said as how he considered the crit- 
 ter as a sort o' so, and a sort o' not." — " Had he a 
 long tail ?" — " Tail, did you say ? You'd a-died 
 to hear Didge tell about that thar verming. Didge 
 said he was like skying a copper — head or tail — 
 but you had to guess which. Ses Didge to me, 
 * Don't you mind,' ses he, ' that are angel what 
 stood with one leg on the sea, and t'other on the 
 dry land ?' — ^ I guess I do.' — ^ Well,' ses he to me, 
 'that are sarpint's skin was long enough to a-queued 
 his hair.' " 
 
 I was asked to sup with a Mr. Richards, whom 
 I had seen at Washington. He had a house full of 
 ladies and gentlemen, collected to see me : so I 
 was on my manners, and I hope they were all as 
 much gratified as I was. We had a fine supper, 
 plenty of conversation, and some fun. I don't 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. gg 
 
 think the northern ladies talk as much publicly as 
 they do in the south and west. In private conver- 
 sation they are ready enough. 
 
 When I got back, I saw my old cock again. 
 " Well/^ says I, " what do you think of nullifica- 
 tion up here ?" — " Why, they say, some of them, 
 that it was got and bred by the tariff. Squire 
 Williams, my neighbour, said he didn't think so : 
 it was a kind of come-by-chance, that was too 
 wicked to know its own kin ; and he thought it 
 was a very ugly thing. ^Well,' says I to him, 
 'squire, setting a case as how the congress of 
 Jackson-men should pass a law taxing of all the 
 looms and spindles, and letting cottons and wool- 
 lens come in from foreign parts, free of duty — 
 what should we do ?' — ' Why, ask 'em to repeal 
 it.' — * Suppose they would not do it ; and when 
 we were growing poorer and poorer, the tax- 
 gatherer should come to sell you out, stock and 
 fluke.' — *Why, I'd dispute his authority despe- 
 rately; and if that would not do, I'd fight him, by 
 the blue blaizes.' — ' And so would I: but a'n't that 
 nullifying, or something mighty like it?' — * Why,' 
 ses he, ' the toe that's tramped on feels most ; and 
 a man that don't swear, had better try a stumpy 
 field with a young yoke of cattle.' — ' Well,' ses I, 
 
 h2 
 
90 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 * them there people down there fought desperate 
 in the old war. They whipped Captain Gornwal- 
 lis, and scared Sir Harry Clinton out and out ; and 
 I reckon then no more nor now they don't like 
 nobody to wrong them out of their rights.' But 
 I'm glad it's all over : and I'll tell you what I 
 think ; you don't work hard enough in the south, 
 and take good care of your grounds, and cattle, and 
 so on ; at least, I hearn Josiah Norton say so, when 
 he come home from down to south, where he had 
 been pedling a spell. Si ses to me, ses he, ' Please 
 goodness! but that's a poor country down yander ; 
 it makes the tears come into the kildear's eyes 
 when they fly over the old fields. Dod drot me, 
 if you can even get a drink of cider! ! They a'n't 
 got no apples but little runts of things, about as 
 big as your thumb, and so sour, that when a pig 
 sticks his tooth into 'em, he lays back his jaw, and 
 hollers, you might hear him a mile : but it's * eat, 
 pig, or die' — for it's all he's got. And then again, 
 they're great for huntin of foxes ; and if you were 
 to see their hounds! lean, lank, labber-sided pups, 
 that are so poor they have to prop up agin a post- 
 and-rail fence, 'fore they can raise a bark at my 
 tin-cart. It's the poorest place was ever made.' " 
 — So, said I, " Stranger, you had better come down 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 91 
 
 and judge for yourself, both as to principles and 
 habits : you would be as much pleased, I am sure, 
 as I have been in coming north.^^ 
 
 Next morning I rose early, and started for Low- 
 ell in a fine carriage, with three gentlemen who 
 had agreed to accompany me. I had heard so 
 much of this place that I longed to see it ; not be- 
 cause I had heard of the " mile of gals ;" no, I left 
 that for the gallantry of the president, who is ad- 
 mitted, on that score, to be abler than myself : but 
 I wanted to see the power of machinery, wielded 
 by the keenest calculations of human skill ; I 
 wanted to see how it was that these northerners 
 could buy our cotton, and carry it home, manufac- 
 ture it, bring it back, and sell it for half nothing ; 
 and, in the mean time, be well to live, and make 
 money besides. 
 
 We stopped at the large stone house at the head 
 of the falls of the Merrimac river, and having 
 taken a little refreshment, went down among the 
 factories. The dinner bells were ringing, and the 
 folks pouring out of the houses like bees out of a 
 gum. I looked at them as they passed, all well 
 dressed, lively, and genteel in their appearance ; 
 indeed, the girls looked as if they were coming 
 from a quilting frolic. We took a turn round, and 
 
92 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 after dining on a fine salmon, again returned, and 
 entered the factories. 
 
 The out-door appearance was fully sustained by 
 the whole of the persons employed in the different 
 rooms. I went in among the young girls, and 
 talked with many of them. Not one expressed 
 herself as tired of her employment, or oppressed 
 with work : all talked well, and looked healthy. 
 Some of them were very handsome ; and I could 
 not help observing that they kept the prettiest 
 inside, and put the homely ones on the outside 
 rows. 
 
 I could not help reflecting on the difference of 
 condition between these females, thus employed, 
 and those of other populous countries, where tlie 
 female character is degraded to abject slavery. 
 Here were thousands, useful to others, and enjoy- 
 ing all the blessings of freedom, with the prospect 
 before them of future comfort and respectability: 
 and however we, who only hear of them, may call 
 their houses workshops and prisons, I assure my 
 neighbours there is every enjoyment of life real- 
 ized by these persons, and there can be but few 
 who are not happy. It cannot be otherwise : re- 
 spectability depends upon being neighbour-like : 
 here everybody works, and therefore no one is de- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 93 
 
 graded by it; on the contrary, those who don't 
 work are not estimated. 
 
 There are more than five thousand females em 
 ployed in Lowell ; and when you come to see the 
 amount of labour performed by them, in superin- 
 tending the difierent machinery, you will be as- 
 tonished. 
 
 Twelve years ago, the place where Lowell now 
 rises in all its pride was a sheep-pasture. It took 
 its name from Francis C. Lowell, the projector of 
 its manufactories, and was incorporated in 1826 — 
 then a mere village. The fall, obtained by a canal 
 from the Merrimac river, is thirty -two feet, afford- 
 ing tv/o levels for mills, of thirteen and seventeen 
 feet ; and the whole water of the river can be used. 
 
 There are about fourteen thousand inhabitants. 
 It contains nine meeting-houses ; appropriates 
 seven thousand five hundred dollars for free 
 schools ; provides instruction for twelve hundred 
 scholars, daily; and about three thousand annually 
 partake of its benefits. It communicates with 
 Boston by the Middlesex canal (the first ever 
 made in the United States); and in a short time 
 the rail-road to Boston will be completed, afford- 
 ing every facility of intercourse to the seaboard. 
 
 This place has grown by, and must depend on, 
 its manufactures. Its location renders it impor- 
 
94 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR, 
 
 tant, not only to the owners, hut to the nation. 
 Its consumption not only employs the thousands 
 of its own population, but many thousands far 
 away from them. It is calculated not only to give 
 individual happiness and prosperity, but to add to 
 our national wealth and independence ; and in- 
 stead of depending on foreign countries, to have 
 our own material worked up in our own country. 
 Some of the girls attended three looms ; and 
 they make from one dollar seventy-five cents to 
 three dollars per week, after paying their board. 
 These looms weave fifty-five yards per day; so 
 that one person makes one hundred and sixty-five 
 yards per day. Every thing moves on like clock- 
 work, in all the variety of employm.ents ; and the 
 whole manufacture appears to be of tJie very best 
 The owner of one of the mills, Mr. Lawrence, 
 presented me with a suit of broadcloth, made out 
 of wool bought from Mark Cockral, of Mississippi, 
 who sold them about four thousand pounds; and it 
 was as good cloth as the best I ever bought for best 
 imported. 
 
 The calico made here is beautiful, and of every 
 variety of figure and colour. To attempt to give 
 a description of the manner in which it is stamped 
 and coloured is far beyond my abilities. One 
 thing I must state, that after the web is wove, and 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 95 
 
 ■I 
 
 before they go further, it is actually passed over 
 a red-hot cylinder, to scorch off the furze. The 
 number of different operations is truly astonishing; 
 and if one of my countrywomen had the whole of 
 the persons in her train that helped to make her 
 gown, she would be like a captain on a field-muster: 
 and yet, when you come to look at the cost, it 
 would take a trunk full of them to find these same 
 people in living for one day. 
 
 I never witnessed such a combination of indus- 
 try, and perhaps never will again. I saw the whole 
 process, from the time they put in the raw mate- 
 rial, until it came out completely finished. In fact, 
 it almost came up to the old story of a fellow walk- 
 ing into a patent machine with a bundle of wool 
 under his arm, and coming out at the other end 
 with a new coat on. 
 
 Nothing can be more agreeable than the atten- 
 tion that is paid by every one connected with these 
 establishments. Nothing appears to be kept se- 
 cret ; every process is shown, and with great 
 cheerfulness. I regret that more of our southern 
 and western men do not go there, as it would help 
 much to do away with their prejudices against 
 these manufactories. At my particular request, 
 the annexed statement was made out, which, I have 
 no doubt, will astonish many who read this book 
 
96 
 
 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 CO CO 
 
 :^ s g -^ ^ « Pi - - 
 
 ^^ry^^- 
 
 J^. S 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR 
 
 97 
 
 i i 
 
 
 •1 s i 
 
 SJ S- 
 
 I i 
 
 c 
 
 at: o 
 
 1 
 
 S 
 
 i 
 
 CO 
 
 2? 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■^ i 
 
 ^5 
 
 ^=.2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "" 
 
 " 
 
 *£ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 .s ~ 
 
 ?? 
 
 S 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 S 
 
 31 
 
 » 
 
 «« 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5- fa 
 
 iz; o=a 
 
 S 8 III 
 
 —1 o > a.^ 
 
 
 <1 5 
 
 S S 
 
 ^ a 
 
 S fa 
 
 a to » 
 
 
 •- " 'Ed 
 
 Pi -a 
 
 A^V^^ 
 
 o p 
 
 o .2 
 
 o o 
 tf o 
 
 .5 P^ 
 
 O ' 
 
 
 -SO 
 
 s. 
 
 S g o 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 e-^ «3 
 
 ^ 
 
 &a^ ^ 
 
 3 
 
 S'g^ 
 
 
 
 z s 
 
 o-S ^ 
 
 
 ^D *^ 
 
 ■^.^£ 
 
 
 
 &5 » 
 
 O jH ^ 
 
 lit 
 
 
 s«-= 
 
 ^ ^^' 
 
 
 
 §s = 
 
 «£g 
 
 
 1^1 
 
 
 ^1.1 
 
 JS'H S 
 
 ^s-g 
 
 040 y 
 ee ya 
 ton p 
 
 "?f-i 
 
 g|l 
 
 
 or;>. o 
 
 -3 ^ C3 
 
 
 g 13 O 
 
 lii 
 
 
 ■5 -73 O 
 
 S^ 
 
 ^-b§ 
 
 
 '■3 §S 
 
 
 E^ 
 
93 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Yards of Cloth made per annum 39,170,040 
 
 Pounds of Cotton consumed 12,256,400 
 
 Assuming half to be Upland, and half New Orleans 
 
 and Alabama, the consumption in bales, is 34,800 
 
 A pound of Cotton aventging Sj^ yds. 
 
 100 pounds Cotton will produce 89 pounds Cloth. 
 
 Average wages of Females, clear of board §1.90 per week. 
 
 " " of Males, clear of board 80 per day. 
 
 Medium produce of a loom on No. 14, yarn, 38 to 49 yds. per day. 
 No. 30, 25 to 30 « 
 
 Average per Spindle Ij^q- yd. per day. 
 
 Persons employed by the Companies are paid at 
 the close of each month. 
 
 The average amount of wages paid per month, $89,000 
 
 A very considerable portion of the wages is de- 
 posited in the Savings Bank. 
 
 Consumption of Starch per annum 310,000 lbs. 
 
 " of Flour for do. in Mills, Print- 
 works, and Bleachery, per annum 3,800 bbls. 
 
 Consumption of Charcoal, per annum 500,000 bushels. 
 
 As regards the health of persons employed, great numbers have 
 been interrogated ; and the result shows that six of the females 
 out of ten enjoy better health than before being employed in the 
 mills. Of males, one-half derive the same advantage. 
 
 As regards their moral condition and character, they are not 
 inferior to any portion of the community. 
 
 To the before-named principal establishments may be added the 
 extensive Powder Mills of O. M. Whipple, Esq., the Lowell 
 Bleachery, Flannel Mills, Card and Whip Factory, Planing Ma- 
 chine, Reed Machine, Grist and Saw Mills ; together employing 
 about 300 hands, and a capital of $300,000. Also, in the im- 
 mediate vicinity. Glass-works, and a Furnace, supplying every 
 description of casting. 
 
 On the 1st of June next, the Middlesex Company will manu- 
 facture 500 yards of sattinet per day, in addition to the above ; 
 
COL. CHOGKETT'S TOUR. 99 
 
 and the consumption of wool will then be 2000 pounds per day 
 in their establishment. The Locks and Canals Machine Shop, in- 
 cluded among the 22 mills, can furnish machinery complete for 
 a mill of 5000 spindles in four months : and lumber and mate- 
 rials are always at command, with which to build or rebuild a mill 
 in that time, if required. 
 
 I met the young gentlemen of Lowell, by their 
 particular request, at supper. About one hundred 
 sat down. Every thing was in grand order, and 
 went off well. They toasted me, and I enlight- 
 ened them by a speech as good as I could make : 
 and, indeed, I considered them a good sett of fel- 
 lows, and as well worth speaking to as any ones I 
 had met with. The old saying, *^ them that don't 
 work should not eat," don't apply to them, for 
 they are the rale workies, and know how to act 
 genteel, too ; for, I assure you, I was not more 
 kindly, and hospitably, and liberally treated any 
 where than just by these same people. 
 
 After supper I went to my lodgings for the 
 night. Next morning I took another range round 
 the town, and returned to Boston. 
 
 Part of this evening I spent at Lieutenant-go- 
 vernor Armstrong's, where I met a number of 
 ladies and gentlemen. Part of it went off very 
 pleasantly with my worthy landlord in his private 
 rooms ; and I do him the justice to say, that while 
 he supplies his visiters with every thing that is 
 
] 00 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 nice, he has also picked out for himself as pretty 
 a little bird as ever fluttered, and is in good keep- 
 ing with every thing about the establishment. 
 
 Having been invited to the theatre, I went over 
 and sat a short time to be looked at. I was very 
 genteel and quiet, and so I suppose I disappointed 
 some of them, who expected to see a half horse 
 half alligator sort of a fellow. 
 
 This was my last night in Boston ; and 1 am 
 sure, if I 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 every 
 body 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 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, proof enough of yankee liberality; and 
 more than they generally get credit for. In fact, 
 from the time I entered New England, I was treat- 
 ed with the greatest friendship ; and, I hope, never 
 shall forget it : and I wish all who read this book, 
 and who never were 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 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. IQl 
 
 learn industry, they will see how comfortable every 
 body can be that turns their hands to some em- 
 ployment. 
 
 May 9th. — The stage called for me at seven 
 o'clock, and I took my departure from Boston, and 
 went to Providence in Rhode Island. Here I was 
 in^dted to dine at two of the hotels, but declined 
 both. In fact, I was tired out, and wanted a day 
 or two to get rested ; and my face being turned 
 towards Washington and my business, I thought I 
 had better go ahead. 
 
 We had, from Providence, what they call a 
 pretty considerable of a rUriy and landed safely in 
 New York, that city of eternal din and confusion. 
 
 I spent that evening with some ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, and rode out with , in his 
 
 carriage, faster than I ever was driven by horse- 
 power, for twenty-five miles. 
 
 Next morning I took my leave of the city of 
 New York, and arrived safe in Philadelphia. 
 
 Having promised Mr. Hoy of Camden to call 
 and see him on my return, and having fixed the 
 time, I went over, accompanied by several gentle- 
 men, to the Jersey shore, where there were a great 
 many people waiting to receive me. They gave 
 me the hand of friendship, and appeared pleased 
 that I had come over to see them. We proceeded 
 i2 
 
102 ^^'^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 to Mr. Hoy's, and then I took a walk around 
 through Camden. On returning to Mr. Hoy's, I 
 took some refreshment, and was called on for a 
 toast, but begged off, as I expected to be called on 
 for one at dinner. 
 
 Some time after this, we were asked in to din- 
 ner, and I heard some one say he had lost his 
 pocket-book. And in a few minutes a second cry 
 was raised, that another man had lost his pocket- 
 book. I then felt for mine ; but I felt in vain — 
 it was gone, with one hundred and sixty -eight dol- 
 lars in it. I told them there was another gentle- 
 man that had his deposits removed, and it must 
 be a Jackson man who did it, as it was all on their 
 own plan. But as I was among my friends, I 
 knew I was not just a broke man, and therefore 1 
 shut pan on the subject, and fell to eating my din- 
 ner. We had every thing that was good to eat, 
 and abundance of fine wine, so we soon forgot the 
 ills of life. After the table was cleared and some 
 toasts drunk, they toasted me in a very handsome 
 manner, complimenting me highly for the course 
 I had taken as a public servant. I returned my 
 gratitude in a speech of about half an hour ; but 
 which, as is said in certain advertisements, would 
 be too tedious to insert 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 103 
 
 After spending a pleasant afternoon, I returned 
 to Philadelphia in the horse-boat ; the very one, I 
 suppose, that the fellow told of, when crossing 
 over. He said they had put in a couple of colts, 
 and being very wild, they pitched ahead, ran ofl* 
 with the boat down the river, and never stopped 
 till they came up jam against the breakwater. 
 
 Next morning I was invited to go on to Balti- 
 more in the People's Line of steamboats. I ac- 
 cepted the proposal, and started in the Ohio steam- 
 boat. What is a little remarkable is this, that the 
 Rail-road Line had always heretofore beat the 
 People's Line until that day, when we passed them, 
 and came into port some time before them. Whe- 
 ther this was because they had me on board, or 
 not, I do not pretend to say. Some said, if I could 
 tow a steamboat up the Mississippi, it was no 
 wonder that I could help one along on the Chesa- 
 peak bay. 
 
 Many of my friends met me on the wharf at 
 Baltimore, and escorted me to Barnum's, where 
 there was a great crowd of people. They called 
 on me for a speech. I made a great many 
 apologies, but none seemed to fit the right 
 place, and I was compelled once more to play the 
 oj-ator^ 
 
104 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 " Gentlemen of Baltimore, 
 
 "You have called on me for a speech : I am truly 
 sorry that my opportunities through life haA^e been 
 such, that it is embarrassing for me to attempt to 
 speak to such an enlightened community, especially 
 in such times as the present. 
 
 " I am of opinion that it would take an old and 
 experienced politician to keep pace with the go- 
 vernment. It has undergone so many changes 
 recently, that a man hardly knows one day what 
 fix the government will be in the next. I am from 
 the far West, and have made but little pretensions 
 of understanding the movements of the wheels of 
 government j but one thing I know, agreeable to 
 the decisions of Congress, we have but little need 
 of a Congress at all. We may as well di&miss our- 
 selves, and go home ; shut up shop, bar out the 
 Schoolmaster, and save the expense of a Congress. 
 We have decided, by a considerable majority, that 
 Andrew Jackson shall have all power. He is the 
 supreme power ; he is legislative, executive, and 
 judicial : he boldly asserts that any law that passes 
 Congress, which does not meet his approbation, 
 and has not two-thirds of Congress to support it, 
 he will put his veto on it. 
 
 " If one man is to rule, I see no use of us big 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 105 
 
 men meeting at Washington. We had better save 
 the people's money, and stay at home. 
 
 " We have had presidents before Andrew Jack- 
 son ; and we have had some of the very men that 
 framed the constitution of our country; and strange 
 to tell, the people have come to the conclusion that 
 none of these worthies, not even those that helped 
 to make the sacred article, understood its meaning. 
 When Andrew Jackson came in, he was the man 
 that was authorized to construe it as he understood 
 it ; to mould it, and fashion it, and make it a dodger 
 or a johnny-cake, and bake one side or both ; and 
 yet, the people cry, ' Amen — it is right — Jackson 
 says so.' And the truth is, many people seem to 
 think that no man ever was competent to adminis- 
 ter the government but Andrew Jackson. He can 
 make any change he pleases — they pitch up their 
 caps, and cry, 'All is right; hurrah for Jackson!' 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, my opinion is, that the old 
 man, if left to himself, would have done right: and 
 I will give you one fact, as I have heard it. When 
 General Jackson arrived in Washington, as presi- 
 dent elect, he mentioned to some of his friends 
 that on such a day he was going to pay his respects 
 to President Adams. Well, this was right, because 
 he was paying respect to the office, if he had none 
 for the man. But they had in Washington a dirty 
 
106 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 ' pack of what was called a ' Central Committee' — 
 vindictive, intermeddling fellows, who, when they 
 heard of it, swore he should not do so : and they 
 persuaded him not to do that which he felt him- 
 self bound in honour, as a man, to do. Neither 
 he nor his friends will pretend to deny this. 
 
 " This makes me say that he got round him a 
 sett of advisers who cared nothing for the honour 
 and dignity of the government, but had their own 
 low, interested views to accomplish, and cared not 
 how they accomplished them : and what is true, 
 some of them, after using him for their own pur- 
 poses, think less of him now than I do. But God 
 is great, and in the long run, will give a fellow 
 rope enough to hang himself ; and if we don't see 
 some of them so high that they can't touch ground, 
 my name an't Crockett. I hope to see the peo- 
 ple's eyes with the dust blown out of them once 
 more, before the peace and happiness of this coun- 
 try is eternally destroyed. 
 
 " I tell you, gentlemen, there are some things 
 at Washington that want probing to the bottom : 
 and the office-holding gentry may whip up their 
 Globe to sputter, and fume, and blackguard, as 
 much as he can ; but they will meet with their 
 match in an indignant people, when they come to 
 find out their deviltry. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 107 
 
 '^ It's no use to blink matters. The skunk has 
 been abroad, and he must have a blunt nose that 
 can't wind him. 
 
 " We are a great nation, and have lived for more 
 than fifty years the most happy people under the 
 sun ; but, I fear, without a change in men and 
 measures, our happy days will soon end. 
 
 " I do contend that our president has done an 
 act that no king nor tyrant would have dared to 
 have done ; and still we see him surrounded by a 
 sett of worshippers, ready to sustain him in every 
 thing he does. I thank my God that I have had 
 fortitude enough to stand up and support my coun- 
 try, instead of becoming the flatterer, and wor- 
 shipper, and lick-spittle of any man or sett of men. 
 If this arbitrary and lawless course should involve 
 our country in war and bloodshed, I have cleared 
 my skirts in doing all I could to prevent it I may 
 be beaten, and struck from the rolls of public ser- 
 vants : be it so ; I will rejoice in my fate ; for I 
 would rather retire into private life with clean 
 hands and a good conscience, than live and breathe 
 in an atmosphere of sycophants and time-servers. 
 
 " Look at the dreary, gloomy prospect of your 
 commercial concerns. I have been as far as Bos- 
 ton, and have seen the distresses brought on by the 
 president's experiment. It ought to make every 
 
108 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 sober-minded man reflect, and ask himself what 
 we are to look for next. 
 
 " We see our commerce crippled, our manufac- 
 turing interests deeply injured, and our currency 
 destroyed. Yes, gentlemen, they may impose on 
 the people with Jackson money, and all that stuff; 
 but the time must come when we will all feel the 
 inconvenience of interfering and intermeddling 
 with what they know nothing about. They have 
 stopped our currency, and they can no more mend 
 it than the boy could mend his father's watch after 
 he has broken it. It runs faster, and whizes louder 
 for a little while, but the end of a short chain brings 
 it up. I am no prophet, but, in my opinion, we 
 shall soon have to give boot on our money, when 
 we travel from one state to another. Taney money 
 won't do ; it an't the grit When Jackson took the 
 responsibility, he did it at the instigation of a hun- 
 dred little fly-blown rag shops, that wanted it di- 
 vided among them. And now, when he has scat- 
 tered it among them, they are all fighting for them- 
 selves. But a day of payment is coming ; and let 
 me warn all honest men who have become person- 
 ally responsible for government deposits, that they 
 don't deal with a common creditor, but one that by 
 law has all power, and, by construction, can exer- 
 cise it as it pleases : and if the money an't forth- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. IQO 
 
 coming, out comes a Randolph writ for any sum 
 they please, and whap goes your property and 
 liberty. And what is all this for? Why, the 
 Bank has offended Andrew Jackson, by daring to 
 defend herself against him and his'n, who first 
 made war on the Bank. 
 
 " Is it possible that the blood and treasure of 
 our forefathers can have been shed in vain ? Can 
 it be, that they resisted the crook of king George's 
 finger, and that we, like pups, will crouch under 
 king Andrew's whip ? I hope not ; and that the 
 redeeming spirit of the people will show, that, 
 although the harlot has been among them, their 
 locks are still unshorn ; and, feeling their own 
 power, will exercise it like freemen. I know, if 
 left to themselves, they will do right ; and if they 
 shall find, as I hope they shortly will, that they 
 have been misled, that they will come back to the 
 true construction of the laws and constitution of 
 our country. Interested politicians have kept hid 
 from them the truth ; but it cannot continue long 
 so ; and the day is fast approaching when truth 
 and justice will prevail over intrigue and party 
 discipline. 
 
 " The present time presents a new scene to us 
 in our political history; but I cannot think that 
 party is to triumph over jorinciple. The people 
 K 
 
XIO ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 are not ready to surrender up their old and happy 
 mode of government, to gratify the minions that 
 surround the president. No, gentlemen ; merit 
 will ere long receive its reward, in defiance of 
 these brawling politicians — these robbers of public 
 men and public morals. 
 
 " Have we not seen, long enough, the best of 
 our men compelled to surrender their stations to 
 those that huzzaed loudest for Andrew Jackson ? 
 Qualification is nothing ; honesty and integrity are 
 nothing ; faithful services are nothing. ' Did he go 
 for the greatest and best V — that's the question. 
 * If so, put the golden chain about his neck, and 
 give him the fatted calf to feast upon. Reward 
 him for his allegiance and faithful services to the 
 country in supporting me.' And all this, gentle- 
 men, is done under the name of democracy. 
 
 " If this is what you call democracy, or the re- 
 publican principle, I am a stranger to it, and hope 
 I ever may be. My notion was, that republicanism 
 let every man in this nation vote for who he 
 pleased, and permitted no man to censure another's 
 motive in so doing. I have taken a small chance 
 in the last war, in defence of our rights, and have 
 no idea of surrendering them to enemies at home. 
 I broke off from Jacksonism whenever I found I 
 could not be a freeman. I could not stand the lash 
 
COL. CrvOCKETT'S TOUR. m 
 
 of the whippers-in. * Go with the party, go with 
 the party,' was the everlasting argument. I got 
 disgusted, and knew that the less you handle rotten 
 eggs, the better chance you have of coming off with 
 clean hands : so I cut loose. I got scorched for it 
 at first, but my noble constituents found out I was 
 fighting for their good, and they sent me back to 
 Congress, after having proscribed me, at the cry 
 of the party, for two years. They told me to go 
 back, and stick to my own notions, let who would 
 say no : and I'll do so, fearlessly, desiring all to 
 redound to my country's good. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have no doubt but that I owe 
 you many apologies for my plain manner of ad- 
 dressing you ; but I will make none, for I expect 
 your great anxiety to hear me was matter of curi- 
 osity, and I hope you are gratified. I thank you 
 for your polite attention, and wish you all happi- 
 ness and prosperity." 
 
 As usual, when there is some speaking going on, 
 there is a good deal of eating and drinking ; so I 
 eat and drank generously, and retired. 
 
 Several friends called on me, and requested me 
 to visit Major James P. Heath, member of Con- 
 gress from Baltimore. I did so, and staid a short 
 time at his house, and then returned to uncle Davie's 
 
112 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Next morning I took the stage for Washington. 
 When I arrived at the capitol, I found nothing 
 new^ more than they had just got through the ap^ 
 propriation bill, and was taking the vote to post- 
 pone Mr. Boone's resolution, setting the day of 
 adjournment. I went in while the clerk was call- 
 ing the ayes and noes, and when he came to my 
 name, and I answered, every one was astonished 
 to find me at my post. " Did not I tell you," said 
 I, '* that I would not vote on the appropriation bill, 
 but when you came to any thing else, I was ^ Char-^ 
 lie on the spot ?' " I walked about the house, saw 
 my friends, and sat out the Congress. When the 
 House adjourned, for good and all, I started for 
 home, by the way of Philadelphia. 
 
 Did you, my good reader, ever witness a break- 
 ing up of Congress ? If not, you had better come 
 and see for yourself. The first thing that is done 
 is, to be sure that Sunday shall be one of the last 
 days. That is because we get paid for Sunday; 
 and then^ as they generally fix, at the end of long 
 sessions, on Monday to break up, a good many can 
 start on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, with 
 two days' extra pay in hand, as they never calcu- 
 late on much to be done on the last day of the ses- 
 sion, except to send messages to the senate and 
 president that they arc ready to adjourn, &c. &c. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 113 
 
 We generally lounge or squabble the greater part of 
 the session, and crowd into a few days of the last 
 of the term three or four times the business done 
 during as many preceding months. You may 
 therefore guess at the deliberations of Congress, 
 when you can't hear, for the soul of you, what's 
 going on, nor no one knows what it is, but three 
 or four, and when it's no use to try to know. Woe 
 betide a bill that is opposed ! It is laid aside for 
 further time, and that never comes. This is con- 
 sidered, however, by some of the great men as good 
 legislation ; to reject every claim, as if the Ameri- 
 can people was a herd of scoundrels, and every 
 petitioner a cheat, and therefore they are doing the 
 country service to reject every thing. Most of 
 these worthies are content to vote no, and will not 
 trouble themselves to investigate. I don't know 
 what they are made of, for to me nothing is more 
 delightful than to vote for a claim which I think is 
 justly due, and make them feel as if the govern- 
 ment cared for them and their concerns, and would 
 pay what was justly due. What do you think 
 would a petitioner care about going to fight for his 
 country who had been dinging at the doors of 
 Congress, ever since the last war, for some claim 
 or other justly due him, but driven from post to 
 
 pillar, because he does not come within the spirit 
 k2 
 
114 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 or letter of some general law, or because if you pay 
 him, you must others like him. This an't the way 
 with private people ; they must pay, or be called 
 unjust, and be sued into the bargain. 
 
 But indeed, from my observation, I should think 
 that Congress is a bad place to decide claims any 
 how; and I have seen enough to believe some other 
 way might be got up to examine them better than 
 by two hundred and forty jurors. 
 
 Let Congress be the body to watch over the 
 great concerns of the nation, and we could get our 
 long sessions cut down to short ones, and honest 
 claims be sooner decided, and better than hanging 
 on like Amy Dardin for fifty years; and then after 
 the seed, breed, and generation was most run out, 
 get pay for a hor^e pressed during the revolution ; 
 and indeed this case of Amy Dardin shows much 
 of the course of proceeding : first it was barred by 
 the statutes of limitation ; well, what do you know 
 of these statutes ? Why, it's a convenient way to 
 pay debts. It's the national honour and honesty 
 coming out under an insolvent debtor's act, but not 
 half so clean ; for the honest debtor only takes ad- 
 vantage of acts or laws passed by others ; in this 
 case the party passes his own act ; but they have 
 got pretty shamed of that thing. Well, sometimes 
 Amy was told it was an unlawful act of the United 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. US 
 
 States' officer, and you must see him. This was a 
 wild goose chase to hunt on. The officer was 
 away from the north, and the horse was taken in 
 Virginia ; so it rested for years. At long and last, 
 Congress, all at once, like honest folks, said, that 
 no matter how long ago, or whether the officer did 
 right or not, the United States got the valuable 
 services of the horse, and still owed for them ; and 
 they paid the money like a whitehead; and even 
 the boys in the streets were hurrawing for Con^ 
 gress that had paid for old Amy's horse. The 
 claimants owe much to their worthy and talented 
 friend Claiborne. 
 
 This is a long string, but it's all true. 
 
 Well, just before they adjourn, each house sends 
 a message to the other to inform them, that " hav- 
 ing finished all the legislative business before them, 
 they are ready to adjourn." Now this compliment 
 would be all genteel enough, but there's too much 
 lie in it for me. If they would say that the hour 
 of adjourning is about to arrive, and they are off, 
 and send their compliments to their wives and 
 children, and wish them a good journey, and so on; 
 1 could carry such a message myself ; but what's 
 the fact? We have left nearly four hundred bills 
 of our house unacted on, and which must lie over 
 until next session. This is finishing indeed ! but 
 
X16 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 the worst of it is, that next session being a short 
 one, and the third of March must come, you'll see 
 how many of them will be hung up to dry in their 
 own skin. Mind my words: nothing can save 
 them, unless Major Downing should quit sodgerin 
 and secretaryin for General Jackson, and help us 
 to vote. 
 
 After these two truth-telling messages are sent, 
 some great, or would-be great man, gets up, and 
 moves that a message be sent to the President, in- 
 forming him, that unless he has some further com- 
 munication to them, both houses are ready to ad- 
 journ. This is a second reading of a resolution 
 that is in substance not true ; but back comes an 
 answer saying he has nothing more. This is, or is 
 not true, as the case may be ; for lately our Presi- 
 dent has kept some bills back, which he said after- 
 wards he had not time to send back with his rea- 
 sons for not signing them. This is what I call 
 strangling a bill ; and if part of this coming and 
 going was not a farce, why not say, stop till to- 
 morrow, and Pll tell you why I can't sign the bill. 
 All this I suppose is true legislation, but is cer- 
 tainly slanting off considerable from man's truth. 
 
 It's right odd to look round and see the differ- 
 ence of faces on this occasion. Some quit, think- 
 ing they have established a name in the nation, and 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. HJ 
 
 look satisfied ; some quit, right glad to get home, 
 and know they are coming back ; some are rest- 
 less and fidgetty, with a journal under their arm to 
 take home, to prove how punctual they were, and 
 be ready to meet their antagonist for re-election ; 
 and perhaps also nicely folded in their pocket a 
 copy of his predecessor's pay and mileage, to show 
 he has not charged too much, or perhaps to prove 
 that a few miles too much have been charged by 
 his predecessor, or some such small-beer concern ; 
 others are soberly and sadly calculating how they 
 can travel down from their heights of political dig- 
 nity to the level of their constituents, and are cast- 
 ing a "longing, lingering look behind,'^ at the 
 green spot of elevation which they are never, never 
 again to ascend. Few have got more honour than 
 they expected ; many have got less : few have 
 risen higher than was anticipated ; many, very 
 many, have found that the regions are far too ele- 
 vated for them to reach with their home-made glo- 
 ry; some retire with the proud consciousness of 
 having done their duty fearlessly; others fretting 
 under the lash of the whippers-in, and supplicating 
 place and privilege, because they have borne the 
 scourge in silence : some determined to go their 
 own road ; others, like the spaniel, snuffing the 
 breeze, to catch the scent of his master's footstep. 
 
lis COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 What a pretty album it would make, if you 
 could get each one to write a sentence or two about 
 this subject ; but you could not get this done. 
 Most folks don't like to write nothing, for you 
 can't get over it, unless you would j^lead madness. 
 In these days, that would not be hard to prove on 
 many a man ; but I don't think that they will stay 
 so. I suspect many of them will take new doctor 
 stuff before this time next year, and come to their 
 senses. I think them post office committees will 
 do a power of good if they can stir up the old con- 
 tracts and extras, and get hold of the parson's pub- 
 lic, private, office-made, home-made, modifying, 
 magnifying, wine-drinking, carriage-making me- 
 morandum book; but he's rather slick for that. 
 Answers from that quarter would be like the stut- 
 tering boy's fox : — " Did you see a fox run past 
 here, my boy ? " — " Si-si-sir ?" — " Did you see the 
 fox ?"— " Was it a lil-lil re-ed thing ?"— ^' Yes, did 
 you see it ?" — " Co-uld it ru-n very fast ?" — " Yes, 
 like the devil ; which way did it go .^" — " St-t-t-op; 
 had it a long t-t-t-ail?" — " Yes, yes, yes ; which 
 way, heh?"— "Why, to t-t-t-ell you the truth, I 
 didn't se-se-see nin-nin-nothin of it ! !" 
 
 I sort to seem to think, however, that it won't 
 be hard to catch a stage load of rats in and out of 
 office, and that they'll look blue somewhere else 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. Hg 
 
 than in the " Blue Book ;" and my notion is, that 
 the " old committee of claims" won't let them slip 
 the halter. I'll bet six koons to a bear-skin they 
 are run down and earth'd before the middle of next 
 frost ; but still I don't think both committees will 
 find where the spent money is, no more than where 
 the public treasury is. 
 
 What a pretty kittle of fish we shall have to fry 
 some of these days a-looking after uncle Sam's for- 
 tune ; it's lent out to a parcel of prodigal rag-ba- 
 bies, authorized by law to support their daddies 
 and mammies, and down to the forty-second cousins? 
 and when the old gentleman wants a few dollars, 
 they'll laugh at him, and say, " Go and hunt them ; 
 we can give you notes and houses, and lots and nig- 
 gers and mortgages, but Hhe Bentons' are all 
 gone ; the ' eagle's flight is out of sight ;' don't 
 bother us ; we helped you to put down the United 
 States' Bank ; and if we have spent your money, 
 do you think we can work and lie too for nothing ? 
 Ask the Globe, and Amos, and the man that the 
 schoolmaster in the treasury keeps to cypher for 
 him." 
 
 There was one thing I wanted to get an insight 
 into most monstrously, but I had not the rale ad- 
 ministration " specks," and that was, what has be- 
 come of tlie five hundred thousand dollars voted 
 
120 ^^^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 some time ago for removing Indians ; that would 
 carry a heap ; but there's not many gone, and the 
 money has give out : and the fact is, that the old 
 fellow has driv off so many secretaries, that the 
 whole shool of them put together can't hunt up 
 the receipts, and so they say nothing about it. 
 
 Another thing I tried hard, and that was, my 
 land bill for my constituents ; but I could not reach 
 it. My people don't like me to log-roll in their 
 business, and vote away pre-emption rights to fel- 
 lows in other states, that never kindle a fire on 
 their lands: but I'll never give up till I get them 
 their just rights, whether in or out of Congress. 
 I'm agin any man, from General Jackson as far 
 down as Colonel Polk, that's agin my people ; and 
 I think they'll all come over yet, and then they'll 
 be for making me governor, which is a little more 
 than I want to be yet a while. 
 
 I must tell you about what you know something 
 of before this ; the senate could not pass Mr. Ste- 
 venson through for England. The reason was 
 what I wanted to state : he was a-going through 
 right slick, till he came to his coat pocketts, and 
 they were so full of papers wrote by Ritchie, and 
 " the Major," and himself, that he stuck fast, and 
 so he hung by the flaps. 
 
 It's right hard to mind every thing that passes, 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 121 
 
 and that people would like to hear ; and if, in 
 writing this book, I had some one to talk to, and 
 ask questions, I could make it as long as a session 
 of a new Congress j and sometimes I would like to 
 get a sight of some papers ; but they serve me like 
 the Bank served the last committee ; they think 
 Pm prying into things I have no right to, and slam 
 goes the kivers, and away goes all hopes of a long 
 story. 
 
 I think the last thing I wrote about my own move- 
 ments was, that I was going off to Philadelphia. 
 Well, I started and got to Baltimore, where, on 
 inquiry, I found all things working well ; and they 
 told me that I might depend on it that Van Buren 
 Jacksonism was boiled down so thick it would not 
 spread, and they would not get it to stick on an- 
 other man. " Good!" says I ; "go ahead! smoke 
 him out of the town : any fellow who would write 
 such instractions to our foreign ministers, abusing 
 men better than himself, and making foreign na- 
 tions calculate on our political divisions, deserves 
 to be handled without mittens. You may forgive 
 him, but I never will ; and I hope, before he dies, 
 he'll get a taste of long division, without any re- 
 mainder. There's something coming that you'll 
 hear of by-and-by; white oak's as tough as hick- 
 L 
 
122 t)OL. CROCKETT^S TOUR. 
 
 ory, any day, and is the same colour inside and out; 
 and that's more than the other is. 
 
 "Colonel/' says one of my friends, "we saw 
 your speech that you made in Boston ; and you 
 may depend it had great power here among us." — 
 " Never mind," says I, " Pm going to write out 
 my tower, and you will see all : I'll put in every 
 word I said, if I can mind it ; and when I can't, I'll 
 do like members in the House — speak half a 
 column, and write two — or get it done. I wish I 
 could visit every place, and see the folks, and make 
 them think a little. Here you have had a Van 
 Buren convention ; that's enough ; I wish I could 
 hold the next one in Pennsylvania somewhere ; it 
 would cure them. But I think old George Wolf 
 knows a thing or two ; and if he don't, I can tell 
 him that they don't like him a bit better than they 
 do senator McKean ; and they'll ride rough-shod 
 over him, and leave him to pay the toll-gate into 
 the bargain. They fooled him about the Bank, and 
 they'll next pull the chair from under him, while 
 they have him blindfolded." 
 
 In this kind of conversation the evening passed 
 off quite pleasant with my friend Wilkes and 
 others. Early next morning I started for Phila- 
 delphia, in the People's Line, Captain Turner, and 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. J 03 
 
 had a fine time of it. I arrived in Philadelphia, 
 and put up at the United States, where I felt a 
 kind of being at home. 
 
 Next morning I was informed that the rifle gun 
 which was to be presented to me by the young 
 men of Philadelphia, was finished, and would be 
 delivered that evening ; and that a committee had 
 been appointed to wait on me and conduct me to 
 where I was to receive it. So, accordingly, in the 
 evening the committee came, and I walked with 
 them to a room nearly foment the old state-house: 
 it was crowded full, and there was a table in the 
 centre, with the gun, a tomahawk, and butcher- 
 knife, both of fine razor metal, with all the accou- 
 trements necessary to the gun — the most beautiful 
 I ever saw, or anybody else ; and I am now happy 
 to add, as good as they are handsome. My friend, 
 John M. Sanderson, Esq., who had the whole 
 management of getting her made, was present, and 
 delivered the gun into my hands. Upon receiving 
 her, I addressed the company as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 *^I receive this rifle from the young men of 
 Philadelphia as a testimony of friendship, which I 
 hope never to live to forget. This is a favourite 
 
224 ^^L- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 article with me, and would have been my choice 
 above all presents that could have been selected. 
 I love a good gun, for it makes a man feel inde- 
 pendent, and prepared either for war or peace. 
 
 " This rifle does honour to the gentleman that 
 made it. I must say, long as I have been accus- 
 tomed to handle a gun, I have never seen any thing 
 that would come near a comparison to her in 
 beauty. I cannot think that ever such a rifle was 
 made, either in this or any other country j and 
 how, gentlemen, to express my gratitude to you 
 for your splendid present, I am at a loss. This 
 much, however, I will say, that myself and my 
 sons will not forget you while we use this token 
 of your kindness for our amusement. If it should 
 become necessary to use her in defence of the 
 liberty of our country, in my time, I will do as I 
 have done before ; and if the struggle should come 
 when I am buried in the dust, I will leave her in 
 the hands of sons who will honour your present, in 
 company with your sons, in standing for our coun- 
 try's rights. 
 
 "Accept my sincere thanks, therefore, gentle- 
 men, for your valuable present — one which I will 
 keep as a testimony of your friendship, so long as 
 I am in existence." 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 125 
 
 I then received the gun and accoutrements, and 
 returned to the hotel, where I made an agreement 
 with Mr. Sanderson and Colonel Pulaski, to go 
 with them the next day to the Jersey shore, at 
 Camden, and try my gun. 
 
 Next morning we went out. I had been long 
 out of practice, so that I could not give her a fair 
 trial. I shot tolerable well, and was satisfied that 
 when we became better acquainted, the fault would 
 be mine if the varmints did not suffer. 
 
 I was invited next day to go up and spend the 
 day at the Fish House on the Schuylkill, where 
 the fathers of our country, in ancient days, used 
 to assemble and spend the day in taking their re- 
 creation and refreshments. It has been a noted 
 place ever since, and is as beautiful as you can 
 imagine. It is called the twenty-fifth state. They 
 have regular officers, and keep up the old customs 
 with a great deal of formality. We amused our- 
 selves shooting, and catching perch. We had a 
 nice refreshment, and abundance of the best to 
 drink. Every gentleman took a hand in cooking ; 
 and the day was truly spent in harmony and peace. 
 
 The next morning was the fourth of July, and I 
 had received an invitation, while at Washington, to 
 take dinner in the first district, at the Hermitage, 
 with the Whigs, and had accepted the invitation. 
 L 2 
 
126 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 At an early hour I was invited to the Musical 
 Fund Hall, where an oration was to be delivered ; 
 and went with the honourable Messrs. Webster, 
 Poindexter, Mangum, Ewing, and Robbins, sena- 
 tors, and Mr. Denny, of the House of Representa- 
 tives. We were conducted up to a galery in the 
 first story of an immense building, crowded below 
 to overflowing with ladies and gentlemen. 
 
 After the address of the orator, the audience was 
 also addressed by all the senators, and I was then 
 called on. "A speech from Colonel Crockett," 
 was the cry all over the house. I was truly em- 
 barrassed to succeed so many great men, and where 
 I saw so many ladies ; but I found no excuse would 
 do, and spoke as fpllows : 
 
 " Ladies and Gentlemen, 
 
 " I feel my inability to address you, after the 
 whole political history of our country has been 
 discussed by the ablest men in the nation. It ap- 
 pears to me that it is not good sense in me to at- 
 tempt it. 
 
 " I presume it is your curiosity to hear the plain, 
 uneducated backwoodsman in his home style. I 
 will accommodate you for a very short time, al- 
 though I have not the least idea that I can add any 
 thing to what has been so ably said by those who 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 1^7 
 
 have already spoken. I did not calculate to be call- 
 ed on, but I do believe our country requires every 
 one to do his duty honestly, however homely. 
 
 " You find your country undergoing a change 
 of principles, and in fact, it is greatly to be feared, 
 for the worse. You, gentlemen, have felt the 
 efiects of the experiment that is making by our 
 chief magistrate. He, I suppose, wishes to distin- 
 guish himself from all other presidents, by esta- 
 blishing something new; or, by breaking us all up, 
 teach us the ^ old way of paying new debts.'' 
 
 " Will the people of this country submit to this ? 
 is the question to be tried. Seven years ago, when 
 I came into Congress, Pennsylvania principles 
 were all, as I thought, right. Her members sup- 
 ported internal improvements by the general go- 
 vernment, and were all in favour of the United 
 States' Bank. What has produced the change is 
 more than I can say, unless some of them think it 
 to be their bounden duty to fall into the ranks of 
 the New York troops, under the discipline of the 
 Albany Regency. 
 
 " The fact is. General Jackson holds but few of 
 the principles he pretended to when he was before 
 the people for the office he now fills : and perhaps 
 a majority of your Congress-men think it right to 
 follow him. It may be right, but I, for one, can- 
 
128 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUn. 
 
 not agree with him in his change. And sure I am, 
 that if then a member from the state of Pennsyl- 
 vania had supported such principles and measures 
 as are now popular in this state, the man that would 
 have done it would have been laid away among 
 the unfinished business, as I was when I refused 
 my support to his new-fangled principles. I have 
 been whipped, and cleared, and restored to my 
 station again, with the frowns of all the men-wor- 
 Bhippers in the district upon me ; but I care no- 
 thing about them : I belong to no party, nor never 
 will, more than to do justice to my country. I love 
 my country, and have fought hard for the liberty 
 to act and think for myself, and also to give the 
 people the privilege to vote against me, if they 
 do not like my course. I would as leave be a rac- 
 coon dog as to be yelping along after a party, right 
 or wrong. This is what I call a volunteer slave 
 that will do it. I hope to see this abominable party 
 faction put an end to ; if it is not, it will be as in 
 all governments we have ever read of — they have 
 been overthrown by party zeal. 
 
 " If we have a government of laws, and a con- 
 stitution, let us respect it ; and if we are to become 
 a despotism, let the people know it, and let them 
 not be gulled by false and delusive representa- 
 tions. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 129 
 
 " I consider we are returning to the old days 
 of King George the Third as fast as possible ; we 
 then had the government of one man, and agree- 
 able to my understanding, we have arrived nearly 
 to the same point again, in these glorious days of 
 retrenchment and reform. 
 
 " I could say a great deal more, but I am, by 
 promise, to meet the citizens in the first district 
 this day, and perhaps may be called on to address 
 them ; so I must close by returning my thanks for 
 your polite attention." 
 
 I then returned to the hotel, where I was waited 
 on in a short time by a committee, with a splendid 
 carriage, and was conveyed to the Hermitage, 
 where I met a large concourse of people ; and when 
 it was made known that I had arrived, I was re- 
 ceived with loud and repeated cheers, and peals of 
 cannon. I was conveyed to a large and cool 
 shade, and introduced to a Vast number of citizens, 
 who all appeared glad to see me. I partook of cool 
 drinks of various kinds, and amused myself among 
 the people until near the dinner hour. We were 
 then asked to walk out and take our seat on the 
 stand, where the Declaration of Independence was 
 read, and a most appropriate address was delivered 
 by the orator of the day 
 
130 COI^- CROCKETT'S TOUE. 
 
 I was then called upon by the crowd for a 
 speech ; but dinner was ready, and we agreed to 
 postpone further speaking until after dinner. 
 
 The dinner, in elegance and variety, did honour 
 to the person who prepared it. After the cloth 
 was removed, and the regular toasts given, I was 
 (Complimented with a toast. 
 
 I rose and requested the company to do me the 
 favour to repair to the stand, and I would endea- 
 vour to address them from it, as the crowd was so 
 great, it would be impossible for me to make them 
 hear at the table ; and if I had to speak, I desired 
 to gratify all. When we got out, I found a great 
 jnany ladies surrounding the stand. I made my 
 way to it among the crowd, who were loudly call- 
 ing out for my speech, and addressed them as fol- 
 
 " Fellow Citizens of Philadelphia, 
 " I am at a loss for language suitably to express 
 my thanks for the sentiments contained in the 
 toast which you just drunk. They demand a re^- 
 ply from me, and I sincerely regret my inability 
 adequately to discharge my duty. The times, 
 however, call for every one to speak out, and give 
 his opmions of the true state of the country. Cir- 
 jcumstances alters cases. I would have once thought 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I31 
 
 it degrading to a gentleman to go into another's 
 district and make a political speech ; but on the 
 celebration of this day, in such times as these, it 
 becomes every public man to let his sentiments be 
 known ; to speak to the people, at the people, and 
 for the people, and not for ourselves, and therefore 
 I'll ' go ahead.' 
 
 " You, gentlemen, have just heard read that glo- 
 rious article, the Declaration of Independence. 
 What caused that declaration to be made ? It was 
 from such times and circumstances as the present. 
 In 1776, King George brought oppression upon the 
 American colonies to such an extent, that they 
 could no longer bear it. The citizens of this coun- 
 try laid their petitions at the foot of his majesty's 
 throne, and they were treated with silent con- 
 tempt. He went on with his oppressions until 
 loyalty was exhausted, and the best patriots that 
 ever lived assembled in yonder state-house, where 
 they pledged to one another, and to the world, 
 their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour 
 that we should be free. Free from what ? Why, 
 free from despotism and from British tyranny, and 
 ftee from the government of one man. Well, 
 sirs, what was the consequence ? War ensued, and 
 thousands of our noble ancestors fell before the 
 British arms, fighting their death to obtain a go- 
 
132 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 vernment of constitution and laws. The horrors 
 of war did not make them stop till they obtained 
 their object. We gained it, and have lived more 
 than fifty years the happiest people under the sun. 
 Look back only a few months since, and you saw 
 this country blessed with the best circulating me- 
 dium in the world ; you saw our commercial men 
 busily engaged in carrying our produce to the ends 
 of the earth ; the seas were spotted with our ships, 
 all making a reasonable profit ; your manufactories 
 were engaged, busily employing every one that 
 wanted to work, and they also were once more 
 about to flourish and extend their benefits to the 
 Avhole country. Where now is your circulating 
 medium ? It is stamped with the curse of executive 
 folly. Your ships are calling home to be chained 
 and rot at your wharves, and your manufactories 
 are paralyzed, and many of them breaking up. And 
 what is all this for ? Just to gratify the ambition 
 of one man, that he may reek his vengeance upon 
 the United States Bank, because it refused to lend 
 its aid in upholding his corrupt party. 
 
 " I consider, gentlemen, that in 1834, the same 
 page has opened in our political history that did in 
 1776. We have seen petitions, signed by hun- 
 dreds of thousands, laid before your Congress, 
 praying for relief, and warning them of the danger. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I33 
 
 What has become of them ? They were conveyed 
 away to a committee selected by our hireling 
 speaker, with his written promise in his pocket to 
 pay him for his servility. He came there for the 
 purpose of raising committees, all in favour of the 
 views of the ^greatest and best,' and he filled ex- 
 pectation. He has got his reward according to his 
 works. He stuck by the pocket-flaps. 
 
 " You are never again to hear from your peti- 
 tions ; and still this is what they call the days of 
 democracy. Good God deliver me from such de- 
 mocracy. Sirs, I consider that Andrew Jackson 
 has gone further than ever King George did ; he 
 has even closed the door of the palace against the 
 bearers of your petitions, and refused them en- 
 trance into his majesty's presence ! And what is 
 more degrading than all, is to see a perfect hire- 
 ling, a slave to party, supporting kingly principles 
 in sight of the house where that glorious article 
 was penned. This looks to me entirely out of the 
 question. Have the citizens of this patriotic city, 
 yea, the place where the first s'entence of that paper 
 was heard — have they forgotten the blood and 
 treasure that our forefathers sacrificed to redeem 
 them from the government of one man ? 
 
 " I cannot, and will not, believe it possible, that 
 the people of the first district of the great state of 
 M 
 
X34 ^^^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Pennsylvania can be imposed on any longer by a 
 slave to party, upholding and supporting the most 
 tyrannical measures. Yes, gentlemen, one who 
 will sell himself, and bow down to Andrew Jack- 
 son for the sake of an office, and of whom I heard 
 it said in the house, when thirty votes were given 
 him for a certain office, ^ that reminds me of the 
 thirty pieces of silver.' Will you permit your- 
 selves longer to be imposed upon? Gentlemen, 
 you may think I am meddling with the election 
 of your representative, and this is true ; and if you 
 knew that gentleman as well as I do, you would 
 never blame me. However, as to that, I take the 
 responsibility ; for I am determined to do my duty 
 to my country, let the consequences be as they 
 may. 
 
 " I do believe the country is ignorant of its true 
 situation. Andrew Jackson has this day every 
 dollar of the treasury under his controul, and with 
 a sett of minions or slaves around him to sustain 
 him in an open violation of the laws and constitu- 
 tion of the country. What is to enlighten the peo- 
 ple ? Hireling presses all over the country, bought 
 up by post-offices and post-office contracts, and 
 extras, and other fat offices, are ready to hand out 
 to the people such stuff as is favourable to their 
 party only, and reject the truth. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 135 
 
 " Look back to the days when Andrew Jackson 
 was aspiring to the place which he now fills, and 
 . you saw the whole continent convulsed with the 
 hue and cry that Adams and Clay was indulging 
 in a system of extravagance that would speedily 
 bankrupt the nation. They were hurled from 
 office without ceremony, and the reformers and 
 retrenchment gentry rode into their seats ; and 
 the dust they had kicked up was so great, the peo-^ 
 pie's eyes were blinded. But, gentlemen, that dust 
 has blown ojQf ; and what is our situation compared 
 with the administration of Adams and Clay ? Dur- 
 ing that time the Expenditures ranged from ten to 
 thirteen millions of dollars ; and what is it now, 
 under these reforming and retrenchment gentle- 
 men ? It is from eighteen to twenty millions. 
 Will you take this for retrenchment ? You may, 
 I will not ; nor can I be made to believe that the 
 people will think so, when they come to under^ 
 stand it. No, gentlemen, it is like what the devil 
 said when he was shearing the hog : ' great cry, 
 and little wool.' 
 
 "I was one that was deceived, among many 
 others, and was made to believe that Messrs. Adams 
 and Clay was two of the greatest scoundrels on the 
 face of the earth. I joined the band, and raised 
 tl)e war-v/hoop against them ; and finally we suq? 
 
136 ^^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 ceeded in putting them down — thus supposing we 
 were serving the Lord and General Jackson. But 
 I found, by personal acquaintance of those gentle- 
 men, that they had been grossly misrepresented, 
 and saw it was a political speculation— ^a fuss, 
 kicked up just to promote a certain sett of men's 
 own interest. 
 
 " I came into Congress in 1827, as honestly the 
 friend of Andrew Jackson as any man in the world; 
 but when I found that his whole object was to serve 
 party and reek his vengeance upon those who had 
 voted against him, my bristles begun to get up : I 
 inquired of myself if this was the true republican 
 principle. When I saw honourable members creep- 
 ing round the house with papers to recommend 
 some man to office, and that his qualifications were 
 overlooked, and his Jackson ism wrote in capitals ; 
 when I saw them also, like jackalls in the night, 
 prowling after those poor fellows in office who 
 dared to think that we were wrong, and they w^ere 
 right, and who done their duty to their country 
 faithfully, I said to myself, ' God never made man 
 upright to act so : I can't go it : there's no princi- 
 ple in this thing." I stopped, and looked, and in- 
 quired the straight road ; I found I was off the path, 
 turned round, w^ent home, and took a fresh trace. 
 
 " I had to pay for all this dearly. Every press 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 1^7 
 
 denounced me as bought over. No matter : my 
 bear-hunting knees were too stiff to bend to power. 
 They hit me uncommon hard at home ; but I bore 
 it, and fought shy till I got them out of wind, and 
 then brought them to a parley. 
 
 ^' You all know they turned me out of Congress 
 and often, when in the woods, with two compa^- 
 nions that will never give a fellow up in the try- 
 ingest times — a just God and a clear conscience — 
 I laid down my gun, called in the pups, and thought 
 over every thing. One evening, late, while I was 
 sitting so, my oldest of the pack put his paw on my 
 knee, and seemed whining for me to go. ' Well,' 
 said I to him, * honest old Tiger, you never cried 
 on a false trail, neither will your master. You 
 always hold, like death ; when you take, you grip ; 
 so will I. You never forsook your master, though 
 I have used you hard sometimes: so, by the help of 
 God, I will not forsake my old constituents ; and if 
 I can only succeed in making them know one half 
 of what I have seen of men and things at Washing- 
 ton, they'll go right.' I sprung to my feet, begun 
 a new campaign, and here I am again, representing 
 the same honest boys who go Jbr keep when the 
 country's stakes are up. I had hard work ; but I 
 stood up to the rack, fodder or no fodder. I told 
 them I was fighting for my own liberty to vote as 
 M 2 
 
138 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 I pleased, and fighting for them, also, to do as they 
 pleased. I only asked them to support principles, 
 not men ; and so they did, and will do it again. 
 
 " I have the consolation to believe I did my 
 duty before God and my country, which I consi- 
 der a rich reward — better than gold or silver can 
 procure. 
 
 " I am now about to close, and from the manner 
 in which I have said all, you will be satisfied that 
 an apology was due from me. Nothing could have 
 prompted me to speak as I have done but a pure 
 sense of public duty. Every man ought to sound 
 the alarm, and wake up the people to see their 
 danger. 
 
 " This day is a day on which every patriot 
 ought to rejoice, and ought never to be forgotten. 
 Yet I fear that the spirit of patriotism which on 
 this day first kindled in the bosoms of our illustri- 
 ous fathers, is fast extinguishing by the party that 
 rules the destinies of this nation. God grant it may 
 revive. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have detained you too long : 
 allow me now to give you the following senti- 
 ment : ' May the Whigs in the first district grow 
 in strength, and increase in numbers, and teach 
 their representative to knov/ the difierence be- 
 tween Whigism and Jacksonism.' "- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 139 
 
 I then thanked the people for their attention, 
 and we repaired to the table, filled our glasses, and 
 drank my toast. 
 
 By this time Mr. Webster, Mr. Robbins, and 
 Mr. Denny arrived, and were severally toasted, 
 and each made a speech. The whole of the day 
 was delightfully spent ; every body seemed pleas- 
 ed, and I enjoyed myself much. 
 
 Shortly after this the committee returned with 
 me, and we went to the Chesnut-street theatre. 
 Here I met a great concourse of people, all in a 
 fine fourth of July condition. Immediately upon 
 its being announced that I had arrived, I was called 
 on from all quarters for a speech. I rose, and made 
 an apology that I was so hoarse, speaking so much, 
 that I could hardly be heard. However, no excuse 
 would be taken ; so I was conveyed to the centre 
 of the crowd, and made them a short address, pretty 
 much like what I have before said. They gave me 
 two or three thunders like you hear on the stage, 
 and then went on with the show. 
 
 I soon left them and returned to the hotel, and 
 really was worn out with the scenes of the day 
 and making three off-hand speeches ; and I have 
 often thought since that nothing could have induced 
 me to have done so, if it had not been in Philadel- 
 phia, and on the fourth of July. I was stimulated 
 
]40 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 by being in sight of the old state-house and Inde- 
 pendence square, where the fathers of our country 
 met, as it was, with halters on their necks, and 
 pubscribed their names to that glorious declaration 
 gf independence. 
 
 Nejct morning I was introduced to the great 
 powder-maker, Mr. Dupont, who said to me, that 
 he had been examining my fine gun, and that he 
 wished to make me a present of half a dozen can- 
 iiisterg of his best sportsman's powder. I thanked 
 him, and he went off, and in a short time returned 
 with one dozen, nicely boxed up and directed to 
 jne. I then made my arrangements to start the 
 pext morning. 
 
 While walking about that evening with a friend, 
 we called in at a China importer's store. I was 
 Introduced to him ; and after looking at his splen- 
 did collection for some time, he told me he had a 
 wish to present me with a large pitcher. I thought 
 the gentleman was joking, at first ; but he assured 
 jne, that if I would accept it, he would pack it up 
 in a box so that it could not break, and I could 
 carry it home safely. I thanked him sincerely for 
 his friendship. It was sent to me, and I carried it 
 home and gave it to my wife, telling her that, when 
 I was away, that pitcher should remind her that 
 folks get thirsty, and the same spirit which 
 
COL. CKOCKETT'S TOUR. 141 
 
 prompted the gentleman to give, should make us 
 use it. I am sorry I have forgot his name. 
 
 Early next morning I set out for Pittsburg, by 
 the fast line, and had a very pleasant trip over the 
 mountains. I attracted much attention as I passed 
 through Pennsylvania, where it was known who I 
 was. About the middle of the state I met with an 
 old man in a tavern, and asked him who was his 
 representative in Congress. " Why," says he, 
 ^' Dunlap." I told him that could not be, there 
 was but one of that name in, and he was from Ten- 
 nessee. *• Well," says he, " it must be Crawford." 
 No, I told him, there was no Crawford in the 
 House. " Well, hang it then, it must be George 
 Chambers." — " Ah, now you're right; I know him 
 well, he's a good fellow — walks the planks strait 
 I hope you will re-elect him." — "Well, I expect 
 we will ; I know nothing against him, only he 
 isn't on our side." — " What side are you on ?" — 
 "Well, I'm for Jackson."— " Why," said I, "I 
 thought that was no side at all ; he's on top^ The 
 old man looked at me right hard. Says I, " Mis- 
 ter, what makes you for Jackson ?" — " Why," 
 says he, " he licked the British at New Orleans, 
 and paid off the national debt." — " Mister,'^ says 
 I, " who was the officers and soldiers that fought 
 
142 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 at New Orleans besides General Jackson ?'^ He 
 said he did not know. " Well," says I, " they 
 ought to have a part of the glory, any how — now 
 tell me whose money pays off the national debt ?" 
 — " Why, I suppose, old Jackson's, as they keep 
 so much talk about it." — " Well, now, my good 
 old friend, suppose part of it was yours, and part 
 mine, and part every body's else ; and suppose he 
 would have been broke of his office if he had not 
 paid out what a law of Congress, made twenty years 
 ago, provided for paying, what is the glory of the 
 whole of this?" He looked kind of stump't. I 
 bid him good bye, and that he ought to read both 
 sides, 
 
 I arrived in Pittsburg in the night? and early 
 in the morning went down to the wharf to inquire 
 for a steamboat. I soon found Captain Stone, who 
 commanded the Hunter. He said he had been 
 waiting a day, for thinking that I would like to go 
 with him. That was true, and I found him all 
 sorts of a clever man. We were to start at ten 
 o'clock. I returned to the tavern where I had put 
 up, and a great many gentlemen called to see me, 
 and among others, Mr. Grant, brother-in-law of 
 Governor Carroll, of Tennessee. He invited me 
 to walk through the city, and to visit his house, 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 143 
 
 which I did, and he introduced me to a great many 
 of the citizens. I returned, and prepared for a 
 start. 
 
 My acquaintance in this place was very limited. 
 I had been there before, but my name had not made 
 such a noise then as now. 
 
 The marks of industry and enterprise are very 
 visible in Pittsburg. It is a perfect workshop, 
 and is increasing every year in extent, beauty, and 
 population. The aqueduct, and other splendid 
 works terminating the great canal from Philadel- 
 phia, speaks highly for Pennsylvania foresight and 
 perseverance. What signifies the debt incurred by 
 her ; but it is no debt in my mind. It is a noble, 
 imperishing, and increasing investment for posteri- 
 ty ; and they will, to remotest ag6s, bless the men 
 who have sustained so much abuse by the pack out 
 of office, and will consider them as the greatest 
 benefactors of their state, and of the nation. I say 
 of the nation ; for this canal is a new artery in the 
 body politic, through which the life-blood of its 
 future prosperity and union will flow for ever. ItiS 
 present facilities have brought a part of the state 
 of Ohio, in point of cost of transportation, within 
 two days' drive with a waggon of the city of Phi- 
 ladelphia, and it will be lower still. Is hot this 
 national in its operation ? Who can doubt it ? 
 
144 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 I had heard it said, particularly in New York, 
 that this same canal never could get along, because 
 their great western canal would carry all the pro- 
 duce and merchandize ; and I took some pains to 
 hear a little about it, and am fully persuaded such 
 is not the fact, and never can be. I was informed 
 that the trade on this Pennsylvania canal was four 
 or five times what it was when the first year ended, 
 and in a few years would be a profit to the state ; 
 and to me it seems clear, that no one south of Pitts- 
 burg, in Ohio, and elsewhere, are going to send 
 their merchandize away round by the New York 
 canal, and run the risks of the lake, when they can 
 put them snug into a boat at Philadelphia, and land 
 them safe, without risk, in Pittsburg. I wish I 
 could agree with the Pennsylvanians as well in 
 other respects as I do on internal improvements. 
 What will she not do for her inhabitants in a few 
 years, when her twenty odd millions, invested in 
 all her vast and various improvements, shall yield 
 but a moderate profit ! Her roads will all be paved; 
 her rivers and creeks made navigable ; her schools 
 be free for high and low, and her inhabitants free 
 from taxation ! ! ! Reader, these events are sure 
 to come. And here let me address a word to my 
 own state. Go on with what little you have be- 
 gun, and never rest until you have opened every 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 145 
 
 facility through every part of our state. Though 
 we are divided into east and west, we are all Ten- 
 nessee. Give "a long pull, and a strong pull, and 
 a pull altogether," and every difficulty will vanish. 
 Give our inhabitants a chance among the rest of 
 the states, and you'll not hear so much of Alaba- 
 ma, or Arkansas, or Texas. 
 
 Well, I've got a long slipe off from my steam- 
 boat, the Hunter, and I had better look up the cap- 
 tain. So oflf I starts, trunk, gun-case, old lady's 
 pitcher, and all. " How's the water. Captain 
 Stone?" — "Why, colonel, the river is pretty con- 
 siderable for a run, but the water is cool as Pres- 
 byterian charity, and the old Monongahela is a 
 leetle of the remains of what Abigail, the wife of 
 old Nab-all, carried as a present to David. Clear 
 off the coal-dust out of your wizzand, and give us 
 a yarn about your tower." — "Why, captain, may 
 I be shot if you mightn't run with this same craft 
 of yourn down, through, and out of Symmes's 
 lower hole, and back again, afore I could get 
 through half what I've seen : I've been clean away 
 amongst the Yankees, where they call your name 
 Sticnn.'' — "Me, Stunn ! well, it's hard that as 
 slick a fellow as me should go by such nick- 
 names. Livin gingers ! what d'ye suppose, colo- 
 nel, they call me in Orlanes?" — "I dare say, some 
 N 
 
146 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 hard name." — "Only think of the parly vous; 
 some call me Mr. Peer, and some, by jingo, call 
 me Mr. Peter; and you can't beat it out of them. 
 Only think of Sam Gun, the fireman ; he took a 
 spree with some of them Charlies in Orlanes, and 
 they begun to call him Mounsheer Fusil. Well, 
 Sam bore it a good while ; but at last he told Joe 
 Head, the engineer, that the first fellow that mis- 
 called his father's name should have a tip of his 
 daddle. *Good,' says Joe; says he, ^Sam, ony 
 take care of their caniffs, as how they call them 
 long knives.' Well, it wasn't long before Sam 
 peeled the bark off of a parly's knowledge-box, and 
 so Joe and him had it with a cabin full of them. 
 So Sam he got off to the boat, but the Calaboos 
 men got Joe ; so Joe he sends for me, and when 
 they cum for me, they passed the word that Mr. 
 Tate had sent for me. Well, off I goes to the po- 
 lice, and they axed me if I would go bail for Moun- 
 sheer Tate. 'No,' says I ; 'don't know him.' — 
 'Yes, but you do, captain,' said some one inside; 
 and when I went in, who should it be but Joe 
 Head ! transmogrified into Mounsheer Tate ! ! 
 Well, we got the matter explained, and they all 
 laughed and drunk friends. Well, colonel, here's 
 to you ; Pm sure you didn't get any thing better 
 any where ; and afore we quit, just tell me, did 
 
COL, CKOCKETT'S TOUR. I47 
 
 you see the sea-sarpint ?" — " No, indeed, I did 
 not, although I spoke for him not to be out of the 
 way." — " Well, colonel, I wonder at them Yankee 
 fellows, they are monstrous cute ; but I suspect 
 they don't know much about snaking. I think 
 with me in the Hunter here, you with your rifle, 
 and one of these 'long shore Spaniards with his 
 lasso, we'd give him a little of the hurricane tip't 
 with thunder." — " If we didn't catch him," says 
 I, " we could scare him out of his skin, and that's 
 all they want at the museum." 
 
 So we passed our time till we arrived opposite 
 Wheeling. I walked up into the town, and was 
 soon surrounded by many of the citizens, and in a 
 short time was waited on by a committee, and in- 
 vited to partake of a dinner that day at three o'clock. 
 This kind invitation I was obliged to decline, least 
 I should lose my passage. So tbsy treated me 
 handsomely ; and asked the captain, before he 
 started, to run a short distance up the river, and as 
 he came past they would give him a salute. He 
 did so. I got on the hurricane deck, took off my 
 hat, and returned their salute. They continued to 
 cheer until we got out of hearing. All went on 
 well, and we arrived at the mouth of Guyandotte, 
 where we took on board Messrs. Hardin, Tomp- 
 kins, and Beatty, three of the members of Congress 
 
148 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 from Kentucky. We went on pleasantly until we 
 arrived at Cincinnati. Our boat was fine, and the 
 captain a clever fellow. It was night when we 
 arrived ; so early next morning I called to see my 
 two friends Messrs. Smiths and families, spent a 
 short time with them, and returned to the boat 
 By this time it was ascertained I was on board, 
 and a committee waited on me and invited me to 
 partake of a cold cut at three o'clock that day, and 
 make them a speech. I agreed to do so. 
 
 As I have all along vouched for myself of all 
 my sayings and doings, it may be as well to get a 
 little help ; so now I will let an extract from the 
 Cincinnati Intelligencer speak for me. 
 
 " Cincinnati^ Monday, July 14. 
 "On Saturday last there was a very great ex^ 
 citement in our city, in consequence of its being 
 known that Colonel Crockett had reached Cincin- 
 nati on his way home. Our citizens were gene- 
 rally anxious to see him. An invitation was im- 
 mediately addressed to the colonel, by as many of 
 the Central Committee of the young Whigs as 
 could be got together on the spur of the moment, 
 inviting him to partake of a collation at the Com- 
 mercial Exchange at two o'clock ; which invita- 
 tion was accepted. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 149 
 
 "After the collation Colonel Crocket was toasted, 
 on which he stepped out on the balcony in front 
 of the Exchange, and addressed the people as- 
 sembled below. The colonel was received with 
 great eclat. His good-natured honest face, his 
 frank manner, and his shrewd remarks, pleased 
 all. 
 
 " By the kindness of E. P. Cranch, Esq., who is 
 an admirable stenographer, we are enabled to pre- 
 sent the colonel's speech to our readers, which we 
 will do to-morrow. 
 
 " We had the honour of a visit from the colonel 
 in the morning, and were delighted with his frank 
 and independent manner, his good-natured smile, 
 and his witty observations. He said he would 
 like to meet ' the gifted' before the people, and tell 
 about his doings: some one by, laughingly ob- 
 served, that he might get into a yellow jackets' 
 nest. ^ That's what I want,' said the colonel ; 
 'such yellow jackets have no sting.' 
 
 " In the evening the colonel attended the theatre, 
 and was there received with great applause on his 
 entrance, by a large audience. If the colonel's 
 constituents are as glad to see him as his fellow- 
 countrymen generally, he will continue to " go 
 ahead.' " 
 
 n2 
 
150 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Speech of the Hon. David Crockett, 
 " Gentlemen : 
 
 " Friends and fellow-citizens of the city of Cinr 
 cinnati. By the request of many of the citizens 
 I will address a few words to you upon politics in 
 general, and of the times and things of this goyernr 
 ment. 
 
 " Fellow-citizens : In the first place I cannot exr 
 press my feelings of gratitude for your kind recep- 
 tion. Again, gentlemen, I must apologize for the 
 manner in which I speak. I am a plain, unedu- 
 cated backwoodsman, and find some embarrassment 
 in making an appropriate address to so intelligent 
 an audience as that in Cincinnati. But, gentlemen, 
 time and circumstances brmg things to pass, and 
 make it necessary for me to do things which would 
 be degrading to me at other times and under 
 pther circumstances. 
 
 " Time has been when I would have considered 
 \t degrading to go into another man's district, and 
 address his constituents upon politics. But I con- 
 sider the time has come when every public servant 
 is indebted to his country to speak out and sound 
 the alarm, an4 let the country know the situation 
 \i is in. We had our George the Third. He had 
 his reign, qind what was it ? He brought distress 
 on this country and this colony. He saw our fa- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 151 
 
 thers take up the sword and pledge their lives, 
 their fortunes, and their sacred honour, that they 
 would be rid of the government of one man. They 
 had laid their petitions before him ; they had 
 humbled themselves at the foot of the throne. 
 And what respect did they get ? None ; they 
 and their petitions were treated with contempt. 
 They declared war ; they swore they would be 
 free ; and they were free. They and their chil- 
 dren for fifty-eight years have been free. But in 
 1834 what do we see ? We see ourselves arrived 
 at a crisis when one man can hold the sword in 
 this hand and the purse in that, and bid defiance 
 to Congress and to the nation. That man is An- 
 drew, the first king of this country. A king we 
 wouldn't think so hard of across the Atlantic. But 
 to have a king in our own country, putting up his 
 will against the whole country, and declaring, that 
 unless two-thirds of Congress will vote for a mear 
 sure, he will veto it, is worse than George the 
 Third or any other king of England would dare tq 
 do. My friends, it would cost him not only his 
 cap, but his head with it ! 
 
 " But, with Andrew the First, it is my will, rny 
 secretaries, my Congress, m,y government, m.y 
 PEOPLE. This is the ' great Roman patriot.' This 
 'S the ' hero of two wars.' This is the ^ greatest 
 
152 '^OL. CROCKETrs TOUR. 
 
 and best' of mankind — the great ' Tennessee far- 
 mer.' Where is the retrenchment and reform he 
 promised ? Has he done it ? Gentlemen, I my- 
 self was one of the first to fire a gun under An- 
 drew Jackson. I helped to give him all his glory. 
 But I liked him well once : but when a man gets 
 too big for his breeches, I say Good bye. Gen- 
 tlemen, this old superannuated governTnent (he 
 calls himself the government) sanctions the mean- 
 est action of his hirelings. There was his speaker, 
 with his pay in his pocket, who packed his com- 
 mittees. Gentlemen, he was looking across the 
 Atlantic. They wanted to pass a vote of thanks 
 for his services, and your humble servant wanted 
 to know what the country had to thank him for. 
 They wanted me to glorify him ; but they had too 
 honest a cynic among them, to take glory for 
 granted. The plenipotentiary elect was looking 
 across the Atlantic : he couldn't see his own coun- 
 try. He wanted to please the ' kitchen cabinet,' 
 and the * greatest and best.' Yes, here were two 
 humble citizens of Kentucky, waiting a whole ces 
 sion for justice on a contested election. He — this 
 great foreign minister speaker — cast round, and 
 packed a committee ; ay, gentlemen, picked his 
 men — one anti-administration man out of nine — ^to 
 try justice between Letcher and Moore. I know 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 153 
 
 not the politics of this one^ I believe he was an 
 anti-mason : but the House sustained this one anti- 
 administration man against all eight of the com- 
 mittee. 
 
 " Again, gentlemen : I am no lawyer — I have 
 once been the part of a court — but I recollect that 
 when a man once acts as a juror, he is incompetent 
 to try the same case a second time. But here, the 
 speaker took Frank Thomas, of Maryland, and an 
 anti-bank whole-hog Jacksonman, and made him 
 chairman. This is the way these hirelings, gentle- 
 men, have been going on. I have watched them : 
 I saw your famous representative — or misrepre- 
 sentative, whichever you choose to call him — ^rise 
 in the House, and show some instructions which 
 you had sent him. He declared, * these are not 
 my constituents ; they did not vote for me.' " 
 
 [Here an individual, behind the speaker, inter- 
 rupted him, and told him to direct his remarks 
 that way, if he pleased, in a rough tone.] 
 
 " Never seem to fret, my friend ; I shall direct 
 my conversation where I please, so I'll go ahead, 
 
 " Yes, fellow citizens, he disclaimed his consti- 
 tuents, who could not make up their minds to vote 
 for him. Now, gentlemen, for my part, I consider 
 myself the people's servant. If a man votes against 
 me, he has a right to do it. Are we only to repre- 
 
154 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 sent those who vote for us, when every man has a 
 right to vote as he pleases ? A man, my friends, 
 who can thus throw away his constituents, is no 
 patriot. I maintain, a man does not forfeit his 
 right to be represented because he did not vote for 
 his representative. Let a man vote against me, 
 and I am as much his representative as if he had 
 voted for me ; this is my doctrine : and no man 
 has a right to get up in the House and throw con- 
 tempt upon any part of his constituents. I said to 
 myself, I didn't know what sort of constituents he 
 had, who would vote for him after this. I should 
 expect, if I ever did a similar act by my constitu- 
 ents, to be laid upon the table along with the un- 
 finished business. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, I don't want to meddle in 
 any man's district; I am talking to my country; 
 I am speaking to the whole world ; I feel an inte- 
 rest in all my countrymen. I love my country; I 
 have fought for her liberties, and will do it again. 
 I consider this country more in danger of a civil 
 war than it was twelve months before the revolu- 
 tion. We have fought and bled, and our fathers 
 died, to save it from the dominion of a king. 
 
 "Fellow citizens, when one man assumes all the 
 responsibility, have we not a kingly government? 
 None but the hireling and the slave will deny it. 
 
CX)L. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 155 
 
 " Gentlemen, you have heard a great hue and 
 cry against Messrs. Clay and Adams for extrava- 
 gance — they were wasting the public treasure; 
 they were squandering the people's money. Well, 
 gentlemen, what do you think of retrenchments 
 now ? What do you think of the ' old Roman,' the 
 ' old Tennessee farmer?' What has he done? Mr. 
 Adams spent from ten to thirteen millions. But 
 Captain Jackson spent from eighteen to twenty -two 
 millions per annum ! What think you of old Ro- 
 man retrenchment ? It is as true as the Lord's 
 gospel. He has actually increased your expenses 
 for you to eighteen or twenty-two millions! 
 
 " But the people are ignorant j they will still 
 huzza for Jackson, they have been used to it so 
 long. If you go into the country, and tell the peo- 
 ple of these things — abuses, extravagance, usurpa- 
 tions, and all, and prove every word you say — 
 ' Oh,' say they, ' Jackson has been in office a long 
 time, he must be doing what's right.' 
 
 " But I will put the documents into every hole 
 and corner of the country. I will show the people 
 how Andrew Jackson is surrounded by a set of 
 the most cursed scoundrels that ever moved j and 
 the old man suffers himself to be a perfect tool in 
 their hands, to deceive and ruin the country, and 
 to destroy its peace and harmony. But I for one 
 
156 ^01^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 love my country. I'll speak my mind ; I'll pro- 
 claim the truth, and the people shall know whal 
 I've seen and heard. Now, gentlemen, you have 
 heard a great noise about the post-office ; and you 
 have heard that the bank is the worst of all mon- 
 sters, which employs all power in electioneering. 
 A gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Clay, made a 
 great speech, and said it was a question between 
 liberty and slavery ; a question between the bank 
 and the country. Now if he had only rubbed out 
 bank and put in executive, his speech would have 
 been first-rate. It is the executive, gentlemen, 
 that is throwing all its mighty power into the 
 elections. 
 
 " But the post-office I wish to give you a little 
 hint of. When your friend and fellow townsman 
 left it, there were ^230,000 surplus funds belong- 
 ing to it. The ' greatest and best' has expended 
 that surplus, and got the department bankrupt 
 ^800,000 in five years. Will you take this re- 
 trenchment ? I won't take it, and I don't believe 
 the country is going to. 
 
 " Fellow-citizens, this is wh-at ' the greatest and 
 best' has done for you. 
 
 " Talk about the bank's electioneering ; see what 
 the post-office electioneering has cost you. Why, 
 *n my district we never used to ask for more than 
 
COL. CROCKETrS TOUR. 157 
 
 a little horse mail : a pocket handkerchief would 
 have carried all we wanted. But when Davy 
 Crockett was beat, and a Jackson man came in, we 
 had a four*horse stage, stretching all over the coun- 
 try. * Oh, what a fine president is Jackson V said 
 they. — * Oh,' says I, * you poor devils, you will 
 have to pay for it.' Well, so after a while they 
 have a coach from Reynoldsburgh to Paris, from 
 Paris to Dresden, and thence straight to Mills 
 Point. But they left out Troy, and the people of 
 Obion county began to talk about leaving out Fitz. 
 Mr. Barry immediately ordered his contractors to 
 run anywhere to get Fitz in : so he run the coach 
 fifteen miles out of the way to Troy, till the elec- 
 tion was over, and then withdrew every stage from 
 the district, except one running straight through. 
 Troy had not even a horse mail, though a county 
 town ; and they had to write to me at Washington, 
 and I had to jog the postmaster-general's elbow 
 and make him give them a mail. 
 
 "Fellow-citizens, I would willingly speak more ; 
 my pride is to speak to the people — but my indis- 
 position prevents my going on. I hope, therefore, 
 you will excuse me in concluding sooner than I 
 could wish. 
 
 " May the Whigs increase in numbers and grow 
 in strength, and send one to represent them tha 
 
158 ^<^^^ CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 can serve his country, instead of being the tool of 
 a party.'' 
 
 I remained over night, and took the packet boat 
 next morning for Louisville, where I arrived the 
 day after. My friends had provided for me at the 
 Louisville hotel, the finest public house I have 
 been in west of the mountains. I was asked to 
 make a speech to the people next day, which I 
 agreed to, as I had no hope of getting off in a boat 
 for a few days. It was published that I was to speak 
 on the next day evening ; so I was sent for in the 
 morning to visit Jeffersonville Springs, in Indiana, 
 across the river. I went, and found a number of 
 ladies and gentlemen ; and after being introduced 
 to the company, I was asked to make a speech, to 
 which I had but little objection, as I wished to dis- 
 cuss the question of the president vetoing the Wa- 
 bash appropriation, and yet signing the Van-Bu- 
 ren, New-York, Hudson-river bill. This I did, and 
 the people appeared well pleased. I partook of 
 some of the good things of this life with them, ex- 
 horting all Jackson Van Buren men to turn from 
 the evil of their ways, and took myself off for the 
 other side of the river. 
 
 In the evening I attended at the court-house, 
 and met the largest concourse of people that ever 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 159 
 
 has been assembled in Louisville since it has been 
 settled. This I was told by a gentleman who had 
 resided there for upwards of twenty years. The 
 people all appeared to be excited with curiosity, or 
 something else. I had no idea of attracting so 
 much attention ; but there I was in the thick of 
 them. I discovered there were a great many 
 ladies amongst the audience, and among them the 
 celebrated Mrs. Drake. A stand had been erected 
 for me in the court-house yard, on which I stood, 
 and addressed the crowd as follows : 
 
 Fellow Citizens of Louisville, 
 " By my misfortune in not getting a boat as I 
 expected, I am detained among you for a short 
 time. I have been requested by many citizens 
 to address you on the political history of our coun- 
 try. This I would most assuredly have refused in 
 common times ; but from recent occurrences which 
 have taken place at head-quarters, I conceive it 
 due from every public servant to present to the 
 people the real and true situation of our once hap- 
 py country. This I have come to the conclusion 
 is the duty of every public servant, no matter 
 where his lot may be cast ; and all that I am sorry 
 for is, that the citizens of Louisville had not a 
 
IQQ COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 more capable organ to perform that duty than your 
 humble servant. 
 
 " But apologies are needless in such times as 
 this. Upon this occasion I am compelled to go 
 back to the former pledges of our present chief 
 magistrate. And, fellow citizens, what do me and 
 all mean by pledges ? Is it any more or less than 
 a solemn contract made between a candidate for 
 any office and the people who elect him, that his 
 sentiments are so and so, and that he will support 
 such and such principles. The people do their 
 part of the contract, trusting to the integrity of the 
 candidate to perform his. Well, suppose he turns 
 right round, and acts opposite to what he promis- 
 ed. Has he not acted a fraud upon the people ? 
 Is it not political hypocrisy and moral dishonesty ? 
 
 "Suppose a clergyman was to come here and 
 preach in a vacant congregation, with his eye on 
 the situation, and would preach up your own doc- 
 trines of foreordination and the Trinity, and so on, 
 and tell you these were his own doctrines, and you 
 would elect him ; and no sooner was he warm in 
 his place than he would preach the doctrines of 
 Unitarianism, or any other different from what you 
 all thought, and what he professed ; would you 
 not drive him out of his place, with disgrace 
 stamped on his forehead ? I am sure you would. 
 
' COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 161 
 
 "Well, that point being settled, what was An- 
 drew Jackson's pretended principles when he was 
 before the American people, aspiring to the office 
 he now fills ? I cannot say the one he now ho- 
 nours ; and I regret that my duty to my country 
 compels me to make the remark. But I know 
 no party further than I conceive they are support- 
 ing the best interests of the country. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, we will review his course. 
 He was then the firm friend and supporter of in- 
 ternal improvements by the general government ; 
 and you had the evidence of it by his vote on the 
 canal round the falls of this place, besides many 
 other votes of his upon objects of a similar nature. 
 
 " He was then in favour of the tariff; and most 
 of all, he was to reform the government, and re- 
 trench its expenditures ! ! 
 
 " Yes, gentlemen, the whole continent of Ame- 
 rica was convulsed with the hue and cry which 
 was raised against Adams's extravagant adminis- 
 tration, his corrupt administration, his party prin- 
 ciples administration, his Panama assumption of 
 power. He and Clay were indulging in the most 
 wanton waste of the people's money, by giving a 
 few thousand dollars to publishers of the laws ; 
 and that they would shortly ruin the government, 
 was echoed from one end of this continent to the 
 o 2 
 
162 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 other ; and in fact I was made to believe, and I am 
 sure many of you also, that Adams and Clay were 
 two of the greatest scoundrels in the world. I 
 joined in the shout, and huzzaed for Jackson. I 
 thought we were to get rid, perhaps, of two of the 
 worst men on earth. 
 
 "We succeeded. The people honestly — the 
 leaders triumphantly; how else, they must an- 
 swer hereafter. When we hurled them from their 
 seats, we were to see the country prosper, and the 
 country united like a band of brothers. This is 
 what we had a right to expect, for we have but 
 one interest in common as a great nation. 
 
 " When thus our expectations were raised for 
 peace, and harmony, and public interest, what did 
 we see ? The first inquiry by Andrew Jackson 
 was, who has dared to vote against me ? and the 
 man that had done this was compelled to take to 
 his heels. He received his walking ticket His 
 services were no longer required. 
 
 "We saw men that had grown gray in the ser- 
 vices of their country, hurled from their station, to 
 make way for lickspittles and yelpers. 
 
 "The second inquiry was, who has huzzaed 
 longest and loudest for the chief? he is qualified 
 to fill any office under the government. 
 
 "Still we hear this practice and principle called 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 163 
 
 democracy j the true republican principle. If this 
 is republicanism, I confess I never knew the mean- 
 ing of it. I had always thought, and yet think, 
 that the true principle of republicanism is for every 
 free man in this nation to vote for whom he 
 pleases, and no man has a right to censure his mo- 
 tives. If this kind of Jacksonism is what they 
 call democracy and republicanism, God deliver me 
 from it as soon as possible. 
 
 "Here we see a sett of office-seekers and office- 
 holders ready to huzzah for any and every thing 
 that Jackson recommends, and what they lack in 
 quality is made up in quantity ; and what they 
 lack in influence is made up in money : witness 
 the testimony of Mr. Noah, in New York, and 
 others, who prove that the office-holders had to 
 shell out a part of their salary to support Jackson- 
 ism and Jackson candidates. 
 
 "In old times, that is, in the prodigal times of 
 Adams and Clay, there was forty-four clerks in 
 the post-office department, and now there is, I am 
 informed, ninety -six ; and at the last session, 
 there was a modest demand made on Congress for 
 forty thousand dollars to pay for extra clerks. 
 
 "Now that I have commenced upon that de- 
 partment — but stop, I beg pardon. It was called, 
 in good old times, the general post-office j but when 
 
X64 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOTTR. 
 
 Jackson wanted to make Major T3arry a member 
 of the cabinet, he created it into a department; 
 and as the cabinet was composed of the heads of 
 department, why the major walked in, took his 
 seat for the first time, and so has continued. Now, 
 as the general post-office has to settle its accounts 
 finally, or ought to, in the treasury, I don't see why 
 little Hayward, commissioner of the general land- 
 office, an't one of the cabinet too. Pm sure, if de- 
 votion is any recommendation, Elijah has the pass- 
 port. 
 
 "Now let us go back a little. When Mr. 
 McLean began in that office, it was one hundred 
 and eighty thousand dollars drawback on the go- 
 vernment, and an appropriation had to be made to 
 meet it. In the course of his management, he had 
 made it defray its own expenses, and left two hun- 
 dred and eighty-six thousand dollars of surplus, 
 ready for Mr. Barry to take hold of; and now Mr. 
 Barry has had it the same length of time under 
 the glorious days of retrenchment and reform, anc' 
 what is its present situation ? He has exhausted 
 the surplus that Mr. McLean had actually mac a 
 by his prudence and management, and has actually 
 got the department into such a state, that it is 
 about half a million worse than nothing. This is 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 165 
 
 the report to Congress, and I have not heard it 
 contradicted. 
 
 "What else could have been expected. Ask the 
 citizens of Washington, and members of Congress, 
 and they will tell you that the general post-office 
 is called the general hospital, the poor-house, the 
 lazaretto, where ^ black spirits and white, blue spi- 
 rits and gray' are provided for without regard to 
 qualification ; and these creatures are actually put 
 over the heads of the honest old fellows who have 
 worked day by day for twenty years ; and if they 
 could only get along without them, they'd be turn- 
 ed out with a horse-cake and a boiled egg for their 
 last dinner. 
 
 "Still the department is flourishing: for the 
 president sends it forth to the world, under his 
 own signature, in his messages for the last three 
 years, that the post-office department was in a most 
 flourishing condition, and out of its own resources 
 was extending facilities to the whole country; 
 when at the same time, Mr. Postmaster-General 
 was borrowing money in hundreds of thousands of 
 dollars, secretly, out of your pet banks — for what? 
 just to gull the people, by paying ofi* contract- 
 ors, to keep them from exposing the true situa- 
 tion of their concerns, while they were huzzaw- 
 ing Jackson in a second time, and they effected 
 
IQQ COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 their object. The true state of that whole concern 
 has yet to be known to the American people ; and 
 if it ever does, my word for it, it will be worse 
 than you think for. Extra pay may bring extra 
 services to accommodate the public, and this would 
 be well enough ; but it also produces extra servi- 
 lity, extra impudence, extra electioneering, extra 
 provision for friends, extra votes, extra trumped-up 
 charges, extra printing offices, and extra loans for 
 extra kindnesses : 
 
 Tickle me, Davy, tickle me true. 
 And in my turn, I'll tickle you too.* 
 
 But what is most extra of all, it changes two-horse 
 stages into four-horse post-coaches; and when Hhe 
 parson' is called out to see them, he says, *0h no, 
 it's Sunday ; it's all right' 
 
 *^Well, it may be all right; but I know a thing 
 or two about these ' mail facilities,' as they are now 
 called. Before General Jackson's last election, you 
 could see the four-horse post-coaches flying in 
 every direction in my district ; and they would 
 send one of them to carry a mail that would not 
 fill a pocket-handkerchief The people cried out, 
 ^see what a man Jackson is for accommodating the 
 country; look how he is improving the mails.' 
 They never stopped to inquire who had to pay for 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 157 
 
 all this nonsense; and they didn't see the con- 
 tractor sitting with his segar and bottle of wine, 
 laughing, and singing, 
 
 Though Dominie Felix got the meat, 
 
 'Twas I that lopp'd the gravy ; 
 
 With my two-horse, four-horse, four-horse, two-horse, 
 
 Break the parson's poney,' &c. &c. 
 
 "A circumstance took place in my district which 
 I will mention. When in Congress, some time 
 since, I tried to get a stage-route from Reynolds- 
 burg to Paris, and Dresden, and Troy ; then to 
 Mills' Point, on the Mississippi ; but I could not 
 succeed ; the public convenience did not demand it. 
 
 "As soon as Mr. Fitzgerald, my successor, one 
 of the true stripe, went on, it was thought highly im- 
 portant to have the route established that I wanted. 
 Well, in fixing the route, they left out Troy, in Obi- 
 on county ; and the people there began to complain 
 of Mr. Fitzgerald, that he had neglected them, and 
 in all probability they might neglect him at the 
 next election. This pleased me very well; but 
 the first thing I knew, about four weeks before the 
 election, here came orders from head-quarters to 
 the contractor to run by Troy ; by all means do 
 every thing in his power to promote Mr. Fitzge- 
 rald's election. I then told the people their accom- 
 
163 COL. CROCKETTS TOUR. 
 
 modation would last no longer than the election 
 was over ; which turned out to be true. The route 
 from Dresden, by Troy, to Mills' Point, is fifteen 
 miles further than the one that the stage went be- 
 fore the new arrangement : but, to the surprise of 
 the Troy people, just so soon as the election was 
 over, they were left without even a horse-mail, 
 stage, or any thing else, until I came on to Con- 
 gress and got them a mail. And yet we hear those 
 democrats talk of the monster — the Bank of the 
 United States — meddling in the elections of the 
 people. This is only one item among thousands 
 that I have no doubt they have been guilty of 
 
 " I will now dismiss this subject, and turn your 
 attention to one of a more recent date — a subject 
 that has almost shaken the confidence of the nation 
 — I mean the removing of the public deposites. 
 
 '^ If a common citizen were to violate the laws 
 of his country, the voice of the community would 
 be raised against him ; every body would cry out, 
 ' punish him.' Well, now, if the chief magistrate 
 of this country violates the laws, is he not more 
 culpable than a common citizen ? I say he is, and 
 ought to be more severely punished ; because he 
 knows better, and there is no excuse for him. 
 Now let us reason this case. In 1811, the charter 
 of the old Bank of the United States run out, and 
 
COL. CROCKETTS TOUR. 1^9 
 
 Congress refused to recharter it, and we were com- 
 pelled, for several years, to deposit the revenue of 
 the country in the identical kind of banks that 
 General Jackson tells us he is now depositing 
 the revenue in ; when it is well known that the 
 local banks were more solvent than they are now. 
 In about five years — say till in 1816 — by making 
 these local banks places of deposit, this govern- 
 ment lost one million five hundred thousand dol- 
 lars to the country. 
 
 " In 1816, Congress found that it was impossible 
 for this great nation to get on without a national 
 currency; and they then chartered the present 
 Bank of the United States, for twenty years. As 
 part of her charter, this bank gave the United 
 States one million five hundred thousand dollars, 
 for the use of the public deposites during her char- 
 ter. Now you may call this what you please, or 
 by any name you choose : it was a hire, or a pur- 
 chase ; I care not which. The bank had a right to 
 the use of the deposites until the last day of her 
 charter. The House of Representatives had de- 
 clared, on solemn vote, that the deposites were safe; 
 and this bank had actually paid out upwards of 
 four hundred and sixty millions of dollars, without 
 one cent of loss or expense to the government ; 
 yet three years nearly, before its charter expires, 
 
170 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 we see Andrew Jackson say to that honest nian^ 
 William J. Duane, the secretary of the treasury, 
 ^remove the deposit esP He said neither his con- 
 science nor his duty required it. He was struck 
 from the roll, as many an honest man before him 
 had been, for refusing to shape his conscience by 
 the president's, and to bow to the orders of the 
 * greatest and the best.' And this is democracy II 
 " He got his walking orders, and Taney was 
 taken into his place. Why? Because he had 
 agreed to do what Duane had refused. Well, the 
 deposites are removed. General Jackson says, 
 ' Come, do what you promised ; issue the order ; I 
 take the responsibility.' Who removed the depo- 
 sites ? The law says the secretary of the treasury 
 may; but did he? No; I say Jackson removed 
 them : and in this, I contend, he violated the laws 
 of the country; and I always believed he ought to 
 have been punished in some way or other. As to 
 his constitutional scruples, he had none, or his 
 friends have told what was not true, which I do 
 not believe ; for it was not a very long time before 
 that he said, if the new charter had been submitted 
 to him, he could have made certain alterations in 
 it that would have reconciled him! — reconciled 
 him to a breach of the constitution! Yet this is 
 true. But Major Downing spoke the truth when 
 
COI^. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 171 
 
 he said it was a ' tarnel fight 'twixt the old ginne- 
 ral and Nick Biddle.' And I believe now that if 
 a good well-trained Van Buren man had been at 
 the head of it, the bank would have had no troU' 
 ble, not even from the Buffalo branch agent and 
 chancellor of Wall-street. Cam is a pretty cute 
 North Carolinaer. He took the thousand for his 
 agency, for fear the bank might bribe some honest 
 man with it. Blair acted, I suppose, on the same 
 principle of diminishing her ability of corruption, 
 when he paid her his debt of some fifteen or twenty 
 thousand with two or three hundred. 
 
 "Well, well, Jackson did it, and he is an honour- 
 able man : so are they all honourable men. He 
 now holds the purse and the sword ,* he has every 
 dollar in the treasury at his control ; and what is 
 this but actual despotism ? 
 
 " One word, as I pass, to the honest man who 
 may be connected with these pet banks. ' Do you 
 sleep sound, when you know that your name is on 
 the paper, binding you and yours to repay the 
 money deposited in the bank where you are a di- 
 rector, and have but one voice in twelve to prevent 
 its being loaned out to Tom, Dick, or Harry? 
 Kemember, that a day of reckoning is coming; 
 2ind a treasury warrant isn't as nice reading as an 
 invitation to drink wine that another man pays for* 
 
172 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Wake up ; mind your wife and children ; get your 
 name off, if you can.' 
 
 " Cgesar said, ' Give me money, and I can buy 
 men ; give me men, and I can make power ; I'll 
 take the responsibility.' I have said before, and 
 now repeat it, there is no use in voting appropria- 
 tions, until there is some law to know where the 
 money is. The money of the people has been re- 
 moved from where the law placed it ; and the same 
 power that did this will bear him out in distribut- 
 ing it at his will. He has taken the responsibility; 
 and I, for one, say. Go ahead. The people will 
 come to their senses when they feel the effects 
 which it must produce. 
 
 "The truth is, the president is surrounded by a 
 set of the greatest scrubs on earth ; just using him 
 to promote their own interest. The little magi- 
 cian looks as innocent as a lamb, and I do believe 
 he is the wire-worker, the very mover and organ 
 of all those high-handed and lawless measures ; he 
 is worming his way to the presidency, and like a 
 real Gopher, works more under thsin above ground. 
 
 "When I was first elected I knew nothing about 
 this party discipline ; but I must confess I have 
 seen so much of that, I am sorry to say I do doubt 
 the honesty of many men that are called good at 
 home, that have given themselves up to serve a 
 
eOL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I73 
 
 party. I am no man's man. I bark at no man's 
 bid. I will never come and go, and fetch and 
 carry, at the whistle of the great man in the white 
 house, no matter who he is. And if this petty, un- 
 patriotic scuffling for men, and forgetting princi- 
 ples, goes on, it will be the overthrow of this once 
 happy nation, and the blood and toil of our ances- 
 tors will have been expended in vain, 
 
 " I will go for the man for the next presidency 
 who I think has his country's interest at heart, and 
 who in reality, and not in words, is determined to 
 preside over this people as if we were brothers, and 
 who, instead of fomenting hatred, and jealousy, and 
 strife, by infusing into them his own low, vulgar, 
 and partisan feelings, will set them a high and holy 
 example of devotion to the harmony and interests 
 of all. God grant such a candidate may present 
 himself ! 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have detained you longer than I 
 expected ; but ' out of the fulness of the heart the 
 mouth speaketh.' I thank you for your attention, 
 and wish you all health, happiness, and honour, in 
 fearlessly doing your duty to your country." 
 
 I then returned to the hotel, and in a short time 
 a committee of the young men waited on me, 
 and invited me to a dinner on Thursday, as a 
 p2 
 
174 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 testimony in favour of my political course. I 
 gave a conditional acceptance, and no boat arriv- 
 ing, I attended, and partook with them of a splen- 
 did dinner. I was toasted, and made a speech, 
 complimenting the young men for their zeal in the 
 cause of their country. If I had the powers of 
 General Lafayette, I would have written out all 
 my speeches ; but I have not, and therefore omit 
 this one. All passed off pleasantly, and next day 
 I took the steamboat Scotland, commanded by 
 Captain Buckner, a gentleman, every inch of him. 
 After a fine run, we arrived at Mills' Point, on the 
 22d day of July. Here I once more touched the 
 soil of Tennessee, and found my son William wait- 
 ing to carry me home, which was distant thirty- 
 five miles. 
 
 When I landed, and took out my fine gun, the 
 folks gathered round me, to see the great curiosity. 
 A large fellow stepped up, and asked me why all 
 the members did not get such guns given them. 
 I told him I got that gun for being honest, in sup- 
 porting my country, instead of bowing down and 
 worshipping an idol. He looked at me and said, 
 that was very strong. " No stronger than true, my 
 friend," said I. 
 
 In a short time I set out for my own home ; yes, 
 my own home, my own soil, my own humble 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 175 
 
 dwelling, my own family, my own hearts, my 
 ocean of love and affection, which neither circum- 
 stance nor time can dry up. Here, like the wea- 
 ried bird, let me settle down for a while, and shut 
 out the world. **** 
 
 In the course of a few days, I determined to try 
 my new gun upon the living subject. I started for 
 a hunt, and shortly came across a fine buck. He 
 fell at the distance of one hundred and thirty steps I 
 Not a bad shot, you will say. I say, not a bad gun 
 either. After a little practice with her, she came 
 up to the eye prime, and I determined to try her 
 at the first shooting match for beef. 
 
 As this is a novelty to most of my readers, I will 
 endeavour to give a description of this western 
 amusement 
 
 In the latter part of summer our cattle get 
 very fat, as the range is remarkably fine ; and some 
 one, desirous of raising money on one of his cat- 
 tle, advertises that on a particular day, and at a 
 given place, a first-rate beef will be shot for. 
 
 When the day comes, every marksman in the 
 neighbourhood will meet at the appointed place, 
 with his gun. After the company has assembled, 
 a subscription paper is handed round, with the 
 following heading • 
 
176 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 " A. B, offers a beef worth twenty dollars, to be 
 shot for, at twenty-five cents a shot." Then the 
 names are put down by each person, thus : 
 
 D. C. puts in four shots, . ^1 00 
 
 E. F. " eight " . . 2 00 
 G. H. " two " . . 50 
 
 And thus it goes round, until the price is made 
 up. 
 
 Two persons are then selected, who have not 
 entered for shots, to act as judges of the match. 
 Every shooter gets a board, and makes a cross in 
 the centre of his target. The shot that drives the 
 centre, or comes nearest to it, gets the hide and 
 tallow, which is considered the first choice. The 
 next nearest gets his choice of the hind quarters ; 
 the third gets the other hind quarter ; the fourth 
 takes choice of the fore quarters ; the fifth the re- 
 maining quarter ; and the sixth gets the lead in the 
 tree against which we shoot. 
 
 The judges stand near the tree, and when a man 
 fires they cry out, " who shot ?'^ and the shooter 
 gives in his name ; and so on, till all have shot. 
 The judges then take all the boards, and go off by 
 themselves, and decide what quarter seach man 
 Jias won. Sometimes one will get nearly all. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 177 
 
 This is one of our homely amusements — enjoyed 
 as much by us, and perhaps more, than most of 
 your refined entertainments. Here each man takes 
 a part, if he pleases, and no one is excluded, unless 
 his improper conduct renders him unfit as an as- 
 sociate. 
 
 My few weeks of remaining at home passed 
 quickly round, and I found myself once more on 
 the move towards the city of Washington. 
 
 Having promised my friend Chilton to spend a 
 day or two with him on my way, I arrived at 
 Elizabethtown, Kentucky, about the middle of 
 November, 1834. By the kindness and partiality 
 of the citizens, a public dinner was given to me, 
 the whole proceedings concerning which are here 
 inserted at large, as follows : — 
 
 DINNER TO THE HON. DAVID CROCKETT. 
 
 The Hon. David Crockett arrived in this place 
 on Saturday last, and much anxiety was evinced 
 by many of our good citizens to behold this west- 
 ern wonder. Many conjectures were afloat rela- 
 tive to his personal appearance : some supposed 
 that he would not appear as very man, but in all 
 probability would assume the form of some comical 
 or hideous monster. It is needless to say that such 
 were disappointed in their expectations. He 
 
178 ^^'^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 seemed to us to resemble very much the appear* 
 ance of other great men — shrewd, intelligent, and 
 graceful; with a commanding, lofty aspect, and a 
 dignified, manly countenance. On Wednesday last 
 he was invited to attend a public dinner, given by 
 the citizens of this place at the hotel of H. G. 
 Wintersmith, Esq.; where many gentlemen from 
 the country were in attendance. After the cloth 
 was removed, the company being called to order, 
 Major James Crutcher was appointed president, 
 and Dr. Harvey Slaughter vice-president. The 
 whole proceedings were conducted with the utmost 
 order and regularity, and went off in the most 
 pleasing and friendly manner. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Elizabethtotvrif Ky. Nov, ISth, 
 Hon. D. Crockett: 
 Sir, — A respectable portion of the citizens of 
 our village are desirous of giving you public testi- 
 mony of their high regard. They have had a 
 meeting, and appointed the undersigned a com- 
 mittee to solicit your attendance at a public dinner 
 to be given at Mr. H. G. Wintersmith's hotel, on 
 to-morrow, the 19th inst. We earnestly hope, sir, 
 it will suit your convenience to accept the proffered 
 hospitality. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I79 
 
 With sincere wishes for your public and private 
 prosperity^ we have the honour to be, 
 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 H. MULHOLLAND, 
 
 W. Conway, 
 
 B. J. A. Young, 
 
 Geo. p. Brown, 
 
 Wm. Conway. 
 Hon, D. Crockett^ Presents 
 
 ElizahetMown, Nov, \Qth, 
 Gentlemen : — I have this moment had the 
 honour to receive your polite note of to-day, in- 
 viting me, in behalf of many of the citizens of 
 Elizabeth town, to partake of a public dinner kindly 
 proposed to be given me on to-morrow, at the hotel 
 of H. G. Wintersmith, Esq. 
 
 A due sense of the honour and kindness done 
 me, constrains me to accept your invitation. This 
 I do, not as a matter of mere form, but with deep 
 sensibility and unfeigned gratitude for the flatter^ 
 ing token of respect which so unexpected an atten- 
 tion confers. This honour is ^^q more highly es- 
 teemed, because it is bestowed hy part of a people 
 proverbial over the civilized wortd for their valour 
 and love of liberty^ The name of Kentucky will 
 be gratefully remembered, as long as deeds of chi- 
 valry are respected, and shall have a place in the 
 page of history. 
 
80 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Gentlemen : The best return I can make for 
 your generous hospitality to me, is to tender you 
 my warmest thanks, and to assure you that this 
 mark of your respect and regard shall be long 
 cherished in my memory and affections. 
 
 Be pleased, gentlemen, to accept for yourselves 
 and for those you represent, my best wishes for 
 your health and prosperity ; and believe me, grate- 
 fully and respectfully, your ob't serv't. 
 
 David Crockett. 
 Messrs. H. Mulhollcmd, W, Conway^ B. J. A, Young, Geo. F. 
 
 Brown, and Wm. Conway, Esqrs. 
 
 Elizabethtown, Nov. I8tk, 
 Hon. Tho. Chilton, 
 
 Sir, — A number of your fellow citizens of Eli- 
 zabethtown expect the pleasure, on to-morrow, at 
 H G. Wintersmith's hotel, of dining with the Hon. 
 David Crockett. Your presence, sir, on the occa- 
 sion, would be gratifying to the committee, indi- 
 vidually, and pleasing to those they represent. 
 
 We have the honour to be, most respectfully, 
 your fellow citizens, 
 
 H. MULHOLLAND, 
 
 W. 'Conway, 
 B. J. A. Young, 
 Geo. p. Brown, 
 Wm. Conway. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 181 
 
 My Residence^ Nov. 18. 
 
 Gentlemen, — I have this moment received your 
 very polite note of invitation to dine with many 
 of my valued friends on to-morrow, at Mr. Win- 
 tersmith's hotel, in Elizabethtown. 
 
 As I shall be at that time on my way to Wash- 
 ington city, and shall have an opportunity afforded 
 me of taking my leave of you, I can accept your 
 kind invitation without detriment; which I ac- 
 cordingly do. 
 
 Please accept assurances of my personal friend- 
 ship, and best wishes for yourselves, as a com- 
 mittee on the part of my fellow citizens ; and do 
 me the favour to communicate to those whom 
 you represent, that I duly appreciate the ho- 
 nour and kindness which their politeness have 
 conferred. 
 
 I am, truly, yours, 
 
 Tho. Chilton. 
 
 Messrs. H. Mulholhmd^ W. Conway^ B. J. A. Young, Geo. P. 
 Brown, and JVm. Conway, Esqrs^ 
 
 TOASTS. 
 
 The Federal Constitution — A great monument 
 of wisdom and patriotism. 
 
 The Union of the States — A bond indispensa- 
 ble and sacred to American liberty. 
 
 a 
 
182 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Nullijication — A political heresy ; an enemy to 
 our blood-bought Union. 
 
 Proscription — The vengeance of petty tyrants ; 
 the scourge of independence ; the bane of free- 
 dom. 
 
 Our Guests — The Hon. David Crockett — 
 The honest, independent representative from Ten- 
 nessee : we would say unto him, " Well done, 
 thou good and faithful servant : go ahead." 
 
 Here Mr. Crockett rose, and addressed the meet- 
 ing as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 "I promised my friend, your representative, long 
 ago, that I would visit this place ; but it has been 
 inconvenient for me to come until the present 
 time : and I can assure the citizens of Elizabeth- 
 town that I had no expectation of attracting any 
 attention ; and I must say, that I am at a loss for 
 language to express my gratitude for your kind 
 and hospitable attention. 
 
 " Gentlemen, for your complimentary senti- 
 ment, I feel bound, by a sense of duty, to make 
 a few remarks ; and in doing so, I have no doubt 
 but I shall owe you an apology; for I shall be 
 compelled to address you in homespun language — 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 183 
 
 in my own plain manner : for I have never had 
 the opportunity of an education, which enables 
 men to use the refined language that is common 
 for gentlemen to use, filling a high station, such as 
 I have been chosen to fill, by a portion of the peo- 
 ple of Tennessee. In making my remarks, I will 
 be reluctantly obliged to say some harsh things 
 about the acts of a man I once supported. I was 
 one of General Jackson's first soldiers ; I helped 
 him to get his glory; and I was as sincere in my 
 support of him as any man in America. I had 
 heard the hue and cry against Messrs. Adams and 
 Clay; they were called the prodigals: it was sung 
 ' from one end of the continent to the other, that 
 the prodigals were indulging in a wasteful system 
 that would soon bankrupt the nation. I believed 
 this was all true, and I joined in the cry to put 
 them down. We accomplished the object; we 
 hurled them from power. I then hoped to see 
 peace, and expected to see my country flourish. I 
 recollected the famous letter of 1823, from Andrew 
 Jackson to Mr. Monroe. That letter contained 
 good advice. Mr. Monroe was told to destroy 
 the monster party — to be the president of the peo- 
 ple. From that letter, we had a right to expect 
 under Jackson's reign we would have an end of 
 party strife. But I regret to say, instead of his 
 
184 ^^^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 acting up to his own wholesome advice, as soon as 
 he took his seat as president, the first inquiry 
 was, 'who has had the audacity to vote against 
 Andrew Jackson ?' The man that had dared to do 
 this, had to take to his heels ; he got his walking 
 ticket; he had to give up his place for some 
 huzza-partizan of Andrew Jackson. 
 
 "The next question was, who had huzzaed most 
 and loudest for the 'greatest and best?' The man 
 that had, was qualified to fill any office in the 
 government. Then we saw men who had grown 
 gray in the service of their country, and who un- 
 derstood their duty, turned out of office to make 
 room for the worshippers of Andrew Jackson. 
 
 "You know, gentlemen, we were promised re- 
 form; the expenditures of the government were 
 to be retrenched. These things were promised ; 
 these things the people expected to see done. Un- 
 der the prodigals' reign, the expenditures of the 
 government were from ten to thirteen millions ; 
 under the reign of the retrenchment-gentlemen, we 
 see, from their own reports, they are from eighteen 
 to twenty -two millions ! Is this to be taken for 
 retrenchment? It may suit some people, but it 
 does not suit me. 
 
 "Gentlemen, I am now against Jackson. I 
 wanted to remain with him, but I found I could 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 1§5 
 
 not stand the pull. I am no man-worshipper. I 
 saw he wanted eA^ery body to follow him, right or 
 wrong. And when I saw I could not be honest 
 and be his friend, I set up shop for myself. 
 
 "Now, gentlemen, I shall have to go back to the 
 old days of 1776, to the reign of King George the 
 Third, for a comparison with King Andrew the 
 First. He brought oppression after oppression 
 upon the American colonies, till his burthens be- 
 came intolerable. The people laid their petitions 
 in heaps at the feet of his majesty. They were 
 treated with silent contempt. And at length the 
 tea tax was laid, and our fathers met in the old 
 State-house in Philadelphia, and there subscribed 
 to the glorious Declaration of Independence. They 
 pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred 
 honour, that they would be free. Free from what ? 
 Free from British tyranny, and free from despot- 
 ism, and free from the government of one man. It 
 was not the amount claimed that they despised. It 
 was the condition, the principle on which it was 
 to be paid. What ensued ? War ; a bloody war ! 
 and some of the best patriots that ever lived pe- 
 rished in the conflict. Their fortunes, their lives 
 were sacrificed to obtain a government of laws. 
 They gained it ; and they and their children have 
 q2 
 
186 COL. CROCKETTS TOUR. 
 
 lived under it for fifty-eight years, the happiest 
 people under the sun. 
 
 "Now, in 1834, we see the same page open in 
 our political history, which in '76 was written in 
 letters of blood : — one man holding the sword of 
 the nation in one hand, and seizing in the other 
 the purse of the people, bidding defiance to Con- 
 gress, to the laws, and to the nation. Andrew 
 Jackson has said, that if Congress dared to pass any 
 bill that did not meet his approbation, he would 
 veto it Is this not setting Congress at defiance? 
 Is this not saying, *my will shall be the law of the 
 land?' Such grievances as these our fathers fought 
 to get rid of. What would any of you say, if a 
 comnion citizen were to violate the laws of his 
 country ? You would all say, ' punish him ; punish 
 him ;' and I contend, that in a free country, in a 
 republican government, no man should be above 
 the laws ; no man should be permitted to trample 
 upon the laws of his country, and go without 
 punishment. And I hold it to be sound doctrine, 
 that if the chief magistrate violate the laws, he is 
 more culpable than a common man, and should be 
 more severely punished, because he knows the 
 laws, and tramples them under foot wilfully. 
 "You all know, that in 1811, the old bank charr 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 187 
 
 ter expired, and that Congress refused to re-charter 
 it. We were compelled to deposit the revenue in 
 local banks ; the identical same kind of banks that 
 they say Jackson is keeping the money in. They 
 were more solvent then than they are now ; and 
 the government then lost by these swindling traps 
 one million and five hundred thousand dollars in 
 four years ! In 1816, the government found it im- 
 possible to get on without a national bank. Then 
 they established the present bank. The bank paid 
 for the use of the deposites one million and five 
 hundred thousand dollars. You may call it hire, 
 or bu^f which you please^ This was a solemn 
 contract between the government and the bank ; 
 and Jackson broke it The bank agreed to pay 
 off the debts of the government, free of charge ; 
 and she has paid off for the government four hun- 
 dred and sixty millions of money, without a cent 
 lost to the country. And after all these benefits, 
 Jackson is trying to destroy it. He ordered Mr. 
 Duane, the honest man of Pennsylvania, to break 
 the law, and remove the deposites. Duane said 
 both his conscience and his duty forbid it. Then 
 he had to take to his heels ; he got his walking 
 ticket ! 
 
 "Jackson then appointed Taney his tool ; and 
 said, ^I take the responsibility.' Now, gentlemen^ 
 
188 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 who removed the deposites? Was it the master, 
 or was it the tool .'* I say Jackson violated the law, 
 and ought to be punished. 
 
 "When Caesar demanded the keys of the trea- 
 sury of Rome, the secretary said, ^no man had a 
 right to demand them but the Roman senate.' 
 Caesar shook his finger at him, and said, 'It is as 
 easy for Caesar to take your life as to will it' 
 Caesar then trampled on the laws, and seized the 
 money ; and the Roman people, just like our Jack- 
 son man-worshippers, said it was all right. 
 
 ''Now, I ask any Jackson man where the pub- 
 lic money of this country is? Old Amos himself 
 could hardly tell, except as to that part he has in 
 his pocket ! Is it in the local banks } They could 
 lick it up in a minute. 
 
 "The reason I compare Andrew Jackson with 
 King George is, that there were two hundred 
 thousand petitioners, who sent their memorials to 
 Congress, praying for a restoration of the depo- 
 sites. And where were these memorials sent ? To 
 a packed committee, made by a party speaker, 
 with his pay in his pocket ! But he lost his pay ; 
 and I aint sorry. He appointed a majority in 
 every committee in favour of Jackson. In the 
 committee of ways and means, there were six 
 Jackson, and three anti's. And I contend he vio- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 189 
 
 lated the common law. I am no lawyer, but I 
 have been a piece of a court ; and in my country, 
 when one man acts as a juror in any case, he is 
 never competent to act again in the same case. But 
 there was Mr. Thomas, appointed one of the com- 
 mittee to investigate the bank, at the last Congress. 
 He had the Jackson stripe ; and the speaker ap- 
 pointed him chairman this year to examine the 
 same bank. And you had a contested election from 
 your state — Mr. Letcher, and one Moore; both 
 expected justice ; and the speaker could only find 
 one anti to put in their committee, and even he was 
 only anti-mason. But he stood up to the rack, and 
 the house sustained him ; and one day, the man 
 that killed Tecumseh got up, and said he wanted 
 leave to suspend the rule, and pass a unanimous vote 
 of thanks to the speaker. I said, ^no; read your 
 resolution ; I think there is in it something about 
 faithful and impartial. Now, as to i\\Q faithful — 
 he has been as faithful as a dog — to his party ! — 
 but that impartial I go against' But they watch- 
 ed their chance, and passed it ; I was in the post- 
 office ; I come in, and asked to record my vote ; 
 they objected. I told them I considered myself 
 swindled out of my vote. But, gentlemen, what 
 is worse than all, is to see Andrew Jackson leave 
 his high station, and come to Tennessee, to get that 
 
190 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 state to go for Van Buren. It is true little Van 
 was smuggled into the vice-presidency, in the seat 
 of Jackson's breeches, by the general-ticket system 
 in every state. The people would have General 
 Jackson on the head of the ticket, and they did 
 not care what come after: this is the way he got 
 Tennessee. 
 
 " When Jackson came to Nashville this fall, I 
 told some people that his intention was to elec- 
 tioneer for Van Buren — I had suspicions of it. 
 Sure enough, when I was in Nashville a short time 
 back, I called at Colonel Foster's law office ; his 
 father, the Rev. R. C. Foster, was there. Old Mr. 
 Foster, the colonel's father, in conversation about 
 Van Buren, remarked, that he had not taken a 
 glass of wine for many years until the other day, 
 when he was at a dinner table with the president, 
 and he said to him, ' Mr. Foster, I have a bottle 
 of good Van Buren wine ; will you take a glass 
 with me ?' — Mr. Foster said he took a glass with 
 the general. Now havn't I cause for suspicion ? 
 
 " This is what I call electioneering on a low 
 scale. Now to see him try to smuggle that poli- 
 tical Judas in as his successor is cruel ! 
 
 " As I came to your town I stopped at Salt river, 
 where I met with Captain Robert Carey, of Cincin- 
 nati. He told me that he was acquainted with Van 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 191 
 
 Buren ever since he was a boy ; and that he was a 
 little, lying, tell-tale boy. He said he also was in 
 London when Van Buren was our minister there ; 
 and heard Van Buren say to an English lord, at 
 the table of a Mr. Childs, the owner of a distin- 
 guished house in London, * That it would be but 
 a few years until America would be a crow-head ; 
 that the northern and southern states were about 
 to split, and he wished how soon.^ r • >. 
 
 " The little thing thinks he will be wafted in 
 as Jackson's successor, and get the crown on his 
 bald pate. This I do believe is his intention. 
 Gentlemen, let me propose a toast. 
 
 '^Martin Van Buren. — A political Judas — 
 may he sink to the level of his merits." 
 
 " Henry Clay. — The mighty champion of civil 
 liberty — the friend of his country, the foe of her 
 enemies. Posterity will mark his patriotism, and 
 weep over his persecutions." 
 
 <^ The Hon. Thomas Chilton. — A zealous, ta- 
 lented, and vigilant representative of the people." 
 
 Mr. Chilton then rose and addressed the meet- 
 ing in his usual eloquent and impressive manner. 
 
 " The Fair Sex. — There would be no doing 
 without them." 
 
 " Our Landlord. — We tender him our grateful 
 thanks for his munificent and sumptuous fare." 
 
192 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 From Elizabethtown I hastened on to Washing- 
 ton ; not that there was any thing particular to be 
 done at the opening of the session, but because I 
 determined that nothing should be wanting, on my 
 part, on the subject of the bill reported by me con- 
 cerning certain settlers in Tennessee. 
 
 Out came the president's message, with a mo- 
 dest request to authorize him, at his discretion, to 
 make war upon France. I have thought this mat- 
 ter over a good deal ; and if we could get at the 
 secrets of the cabinet, I'd give my head for a soaj>- 
 gourd, that Andrew Jackson never made the pro- 
 position for letters of marque and reprisal. It 
 an't in his way. He went jam up for war ; but 
 the cabinet got him down to half heat, and then he 
 signed the message ; and I do sincerely think he has 
 repented it ever since ; for as some of his head men 
 in Congress have said, if he had recommended war 
 right out,he'd have got as much outof thefusski^ik- 
 ed up, as he asked for in his message. But I am glad 
 that the senate resolution has passed, and in such 
 a way as to stop the mouths of those who think it 
 God's service to slander and abuse that patriotic 
 body ; and I hope our house will take things coolly 
 also. I know there is difficulty in the foreign af- 
 fairs committee. Some won't vote to give the pre- 
 sident the powxr asked for ; some won't vote 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. X93 
 
 against him ; and others look on, with the balance 
 of power between their teeth. Long may they 
 stick so, unless they all come round to the right 
 side. 
 
 Give the president power to make war ? Where 
 did anybody in his senses get this from ? It 
 isn't in the constitution, or I never read it right 
 It's very true, a plain man like myself can't see as 
 many powers in it as one that has glorification specs 
 on. It is very plainly, however, laid down that 
 Congress shall have power to declare war, and no 
 one else. It is admitted, that sending out ships to 
 plunder your neighbour or adversary, is as much 
 as mere words in making war. I don't like it. It 
 isn't the clean thing. Give me the bold declaration 
 of war, instead of hitting a fellow w^hen he's off his 
 guard. Give him time to take off the dudds, and 
 then lick him if you can. I believe I never got 
 the worst of a fight but once, and then the fellow 
 put at me when I was muffled up in my big coal 
 and leggins. 
 
 If I understand this marque business, it amounts 
 to this : We say, and I believe truly, that France, 
 by her treaty with Mr. Rives, promised to pay us 
 five millions of dollars. The king admits the jus- 
 tice of our claim ; but, in France, as here, there is 
 a squabble between the ins and the outs : the outs 
 R 
 
194 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 make a great fuss about being cheated, and think it 
 will be popular with the people to refuse to give 
 the king the money to pay this debt. Well, now 
 they are but politicians hi to-day, and out again 
 to-morrow ; and who knows or believes that they 
 speak the sober sentiments of good old France, 
 that did a heap for us in the old war for indepen- 
 dence? I don't, for one. Let us wait a little. 
 War is no such trifle ; and national honour was 
 never much disgraced by a full exercise of patience 
 and forbearance. Well, General Jackson wants 
 Congress to say, that whenever he gets tired wait- 
 ing on these Frenchmen, and he thinks they won't 
 pay, that he may commission as many ships as h& 
 pleases, to go out on the high sea, and seize as 
 many French ships, and property of individuals, 
 who perhaps never heard of this difficulty, as will 
 pay our five million claim. What is this but war 
 in its worst shape? Robbery, dignified by the 
 title of reprisals. Honest men's property sacri- 
 ficed, to get at the national honour of France ! ! 
 
 If Congress alone can declare war, how could 
 they say to General Jackson that they will hand 
 over their responsibility and discretion to him ? 
 
 Why, mark my words for it, if they do, the old 
 man will be down at the navy-yard and arsenal, 
 a boring out the touch-holes himself. Ground 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I95 
 
 alum salt would not keep him three weeks without 
 a fight. He has given so much of his old land 
 glory to Van Buren, that he wants a little by water 
 for himself, and others of his hangers on. 
 
 It's diverting to see what a warrior strut some 
 of the little captains have in Congress ; looking 
 first at one shoulder, then at another, and thinking 
 how much bigger they would look with a pair of 
 epaulettes on. Some talking about rations and 
 pay ; some slily calculating contracts, and so on. 
 Fighting France ! " Come over," said a fellow in 
 December, " swim over the mill-dam, you rascal ; 
 come over here, and if I don't give you the biggest 
 lickin you ever had." No more chance for a fight 
 in one case than the other ; and happy thing it is. 
 
 My course would be this. If France is deter- 
 mined to put off this plain question — I mean her 
 aspiring politicians — close your ports against her 
 ships ; exclude her silk and finery ; her brandies 
 and wines ; pass a non-intercourse and non-impor- 
 tation act ; and my word for it, the people will 
 teach them a lesson at home, how to pay their just 
 debts. 
 
 Why this course was not advised, I know not, 
 unless it is supposed that certain objects of political 
 stock-jobbing could be better attained by fat con- 
 tracts, and the people be blinded to their own in- 
 
196 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 terest by the storm of war ; or unless the hero has 
 been flattered up to condescend to break his word 
 a second time, and run for a third term. 
 
 Before I am done writing, you will hear, or else 
 I will tell you, something that will be a damper, 
 from the head man of the gap to the tattered scul- 
 lion of the kitchen cabinet. 
 
 Blair may shut his mouth, if he can, and Amos 
 may set to cyphering ; but it won't do. They'll 
 be as far wrong as they were in counting noses last 
 year, when the Indiana man carried the resolution 
 for two or three weeks in his pocket, to declare 
 the election of Gales and Seaton void. 
 
 But, after all, it seems to me that this here war 
 that is so much talked of, is not rightly called ; and 
 I like most monstrously to call children by right 
 names. If it was called the " Rives and Jackson 
 war with the French ministers," it would be what 
 I think true. How did all this thing come about ? 
 Who can tell us all about it ? Mr. Forsyth could, 
 but he is a mighty prudent man, and I don't want 
 him to ; but I'll tell what I think. When General 
 Jackson came into the presidency, he was desirous 
 of proving that he was, what he had been declared 
 not to be, acquainted with our national concerns, 
 both at home and abroad. Well, Mr. Rives, known 
 to be a talented gentleman, from Virginia, was se- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I97 
 
 lected as our minister to France. This old claim 
 of ours had been boxed about for a quarter of a cen- 
 tury; and the commercial part of our country being 
 generally opposed to General Jackson, a bold stroke 
 was to be made for their interests in these French 
 claims. The requisite instructions were made out, 
 and Mr. Rives took his departure. Well, as soon 
 as he could with a good face, he put at the French 
 minister about these old claims. They fought shy; 
 but the negotiation went on. Mr. Rives pushed 
 hard for a large amount; the French trying to 
 beat down ; till, at long and last, twenty-five mil- 
 lions of francs, which makes five millions of dol- 
 lars, was agreed upon, as the sum to be paid. 
 " Well, now, sign the treaty," said Mr. Rives. 
 " Certainly," replied Mr. Frenchman ; " but, Mr. 
 Rives, you will be so good as to remember and in- 
 form your government, that although I sign the 
 treaty for this sum, there are a great many of the 
 Chamber of Deputies who are opposed to it ; and 
 it must meet their approbation, or the money can't 
 be forthcoming." — " Certainly," said Mr. Rives, 
 "I understand all that; we will run the risk." 
 The ink being scarcely dry, off came our minister. 
 Now for the glory. Not satisfied that the treaty 
 had been made, they must " cut de grand floreesh" 
 -^sustain the character of General Jackson and 
 r2 
 
X98 ^^'^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 little Van as great statesmen, and prove the diplo- 
 matic skill of Mr. Rives. How was this to be 
 done ? No other way than by calling for the cor- 
 respondence of Mr. Rives while minister to France. 
 Mr. Edward Everett could tell about this. I think 
 he offered the resolution — at w^hose instance,! don't 
 say. Out it came ; and, like many other misguided 
 concerns, they did not take pains enough in the 
 department of state to retain or keep back certain 
 letters of Mr. Rives, in which he kind of boasts 
 that he had outwitted the French. Well, this sort 
 of put up the dander of the French : but no odds. 
 Draw for the first instalment, not when due, but 
 before it; the deputies, or somebody, or nobody, 
 will pay it. General Jackson is a diplomat that 
 isn't to be trifled with. Well, they did draw ; and 
 what was the consequence ? The money was not 
 paid. Here was an end of all the glory. But Ge- 
 neral Jackson, true to his former life, never gives 
 up a wrangle, if he has backers ; and now wants 
 us to expend one hundred millions to back his 
 diplomacy, and establish Mr. Rives' character for 
 skill — certainly not for prudence, I say, after all 
 this. Wait patiently; France is reasonable, cer- 
 tainly; but let her be satisfied, as her king is, that 
 too much has not been promised, and my word for 
 it, she will pay the uttermost farthing. If I should 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 199 
 
 be mistaken, legislate her into her senses ; and this, 
 I hope and trust, will be the course of this present 
 Congress. We will wait, and see how things run. 
 
 Since I began to write, the post-office commit- 
 tees have both reported ; and I was right as to the 
 issue. Both the Senate and the House committees 
 are dead against the concern. How else could it 
 be ? People must believe their senses 5 and when 
 every single case which has been investigated has 
 been found to be rotten to the core, how could they 
 report favourably? The whole shows that the 
 annual reports to Congress were not to be depend- 
 ed on ; that instead of the department flourishing, 
 as the president has often told Congress, it was 
 languishing — it was strangling secretly. No one 
 knew it but the doctors ; and they knew that burnt 
 brandy could not save it ; but they were determin- 
 ed to hold on to the carcass, though the soul was 
 gone. 
 
 Truth will come out. One of the post-office 
 clerks remarked that from the Senate committee 
 they had nothing to expect : they were constituted 
 with the avowed purpose of hunting out defects, 
 and errors, and coiTuption, if they could, and there- 
 fore the department had fair warning. But what 
 spited them most of all was, that the House com- 
 mittee — got up expressly for the purpose of sustain- 
 
200 ^^I^- <^rvOOKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 ing the department, and proving that the report 
 of the Senate last year was erroneous, and that the 
 department was sound and efficient, and Major 
 Barry competent, and so on, and so on — should 
 turn right round, and hit them harder than the 
 others. "Well," says I, "the next time you in- 
 vite your friends to a hunt, don't start them on a 
 skunk track, or they're sure to curse you, up hill 
 and down dale. You told Conner what was not 
 true, and he believed you ; but when he and the 
 others come to try for themselves, they could not 
 cipher up the extras a bit better than Ewing and 
 Southard ; nor could the parson work the sum in 
 their presence, because they would not let him 
 force the answer : two and two would not make 
 five in their presence, however it might work be- 
 hind the door." 
 
 I hope now that extras will cease, and that Billy 
 Smith and every one of them will get no more 
 than what they contract for, and that he will 
 be let off of his contract to change the politics of 
 Virginia. Let him sell his printing-presses, and 
 go to work honestly to make a living. One thing 
 certain has come out of all this. The department 
 has got a settlement for once with the big contrac- 
 tors. Whose fault it was that this was not done 
 before, I think is not hard to figure out. The de- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. QQi 
 
 partment had the power to force the contractors to 
 settlement ; the contractors could not force them. 
 But settlement to a dollar did not suit the purposes 
 of the department. They showed up a big score 
 due by contractors, and this helped them to prove 
 to Congress that the means of the office were great ; 
 whereas if they had given the contractors credit on 
 their books for the extras, and additionals, and ex- 
 presses, and so on, they would, as in some instances 
 it turned out, bring the department in debt. Look 
 at the facts, that in some of the accounts, where 
 contractors were reported as owing thousands of 
 dollars, items of credit for services rendered months 
 and years before had not been entered ! ! ! Give 
 the contractors their due : if the system required 
 favouritism, who would turn his back ? It's ask- 
 ing a good deal to say that the servant shall correct 
 his master. The fact is, the system did require 
 it ; and they began by shoving John McLean over- 
 board. Postmasters were to be kicked out, new 
 post-offices established, new routes opened, con- 
 tractors to be encouraged in supporting newspapers 
 to huzza for Jackson and reform; and, in fact, the 
 whole shool and boiling of the business of the de- 
 partment was put at scramblings. How could it 
 go right? No, indeed ; it was like a frolicking 
 executor or administrator getting hold of a large 
 
202 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 estate ; away he goes, the hest fellow in the world! 
 any thing you please to ask : but by-and-by the 
 settlement comes — his vouchers won't pass muster 
 before the court, and what then ? His bondsmen 
 suffer. Thank God, my name was struck off the 
 papers before they began much of this same devil- 
 try, and I han't nothing to pay. Them that danced 
 should pay the piper ; but I suppose they will all 
 say as the young man said of the old quaker when 
 the robbers stopped the mail-coach. The old gen- 
 tleman gave up his purse ; the young man held 
 back : a pistol was presented at him : " Oh," says 
 he, " don't shoot; old uncle always pays for me !" 
 So poor old Uncle Sam, I suppose, will pay for all : 
 and I am glad that the funding system has paid 
 off our national debt, so that a few hundreds of 
 thousands won't hurt us much now. General Jack- 
 son can pay off the post-office debt as he said he 
 would the old debt, hy borrowing ; and then we'll 
 burn all the books and old extra contracts, and begin 
 dee novo, as the Latin scholars say in Congress. 
 
 But what is to come out of all this ? What will 
 General Jackson do about all this ? He loves Major 
 Barry, as he calls him ; and all know that the 
 major is a mighty clever fellow, and it was wrong 
 to put him where he had too many hooks to mind 
 at once, and more particular where the underlings 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 203 
 
 fixed the bait. General Jackson has and always 
 had a powerful disposition to stick to them he 
 liked and who liked him, (every body knows this 
 but Ingham, and Branch, and a few others ;) and 
 if a little dirt did happen to be on their clothes, he 
 stuck to them till it dries ; and then there is only a 
 small blur left, as if it was intended. Like the 
 young Englishmen that rides up to the capitol, and 
 spatters their boots a little, to let you see how 
 nicely they are blacked. 
 
 God forgive me, I don't just blame the parson 
 for all that took place, and I don't think it fair that 
 he alone should bear the blame. It looks a sort of 
 run against the church, a kind of sectarian Unita- 
 rianism, that don't read pretty. I did hear say 
 there was to be a kind of quarter day, and that 
 some new hands was to be brought to their assis- 
 tants; but I reckon they only bought a new broom 
 to sweep up the memorandums. Yet I thought, 
 a few days ago, that I saw a member, when he Was 
 franking a bundle, look at it as if he could sign 
 As't. P. M. Gen'l. mighty pretty. 
 
 Well, I believe I've writ enough about the post- 
 office, and will quit, else they will think I was on 
 the committee. 
 
 Some people begin history in the middle, but as 
 I go my own gait, I'll leave off there ; and I may 
 
204 ^^^'- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 just as well, for if all was to be wrote about the 
 post-office, I had better send out and buy a flock 
 of geese, for the double purpose of getting a supply 
 of quills and watching while I wrote ; and yet I 
 suppose they would not cackle at an "old Roman," 
 and I might be took up. 
 
 Washington City, January 7, 1835. 
 Hon. David Crockett. 
 
 Dear Sir, — We have learned, because you se- 
 cretly informed us, that you have declined permit- 
 ting your name to be used as a candidate for the 
 presidency of the United States, and that you have 
 addressed a letter to that effect, some time since, 
 to the committee of the convention of Mississippi, 
 by whom you were nominated for that high office. 
 Upon a private understanding between you and 
 ourselves, and a number of our friends, held in a 
 kind of caucus, it has been concluded that we 
 should come out in a seeming open application for 
 a copy of your letter, pretending that it is import- 
 ant that your friends elsewhere, as well as in Mis- 
 sissippi, may have an early opportunity of turning 
 their attention to some other suitable person, but 
 really to give you an occasion to play off upon the 
 public one of your best efforts for effect, and to 
 keep up the humbuggery of the bank, gold cur- 
 rency, and all that sort of thing, so necessary to 
 blind the people, and keep our party together. 
 Yours, with great respect, 
 
 Nicholas Banks, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Andrew J. Bullion, of Indiana. 
 
 Thos. B. Goldwire, of New-Hampshire. 
 
 Martin V. Trasiimoney, of New York. 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 205 
 
 Washington City^ January 8, 1835. 
 Gentlemen, — I send you a copy of the letter 
 you wish. It is not my wish to take advantage of 
 any body. I never said I cared about being presi- 
 dent noiv, and so I have writ to all my friends in 
 private letters, and when I talked about it I always 
 talked that way. As Mississippi was the first 
 state (and I expected it would be the last) that 
 nominated me for the " government," I writ the 
 letter, and sent it there to be printed, to show that 
 I didn't go off half cocked, and to keep people 
 from thinking that I had refused before I was 
 ready. But as I want another man elected in the 
 north, that I may have a sort of a plea to come in 
 next time myself from the south-west, and as I 
 see some people are going to try to hunt for them- 
 selves, and don't seem to bis after the same game 
 that I am, but are scouting all about to start other 
 sport, and seem to be barking up the wrong sap- 
 ling, I want to blow 'em off, and put 'em on the 
 right trail. But as we understand each other, I 
 shan't say any more, but just send you the letter, 
 and am glad you mean to publish it. 
 Your friend, 
 
 David Crockett. 
 To the Committee. 
 
 Washington City, December 1, 1833. 
 Dear Sir, — I suppose the democratic conven- 
 tion is in earnest in recommending me to be the 
 president of the United States. There is so much 
 trickery about that thing now~a-days, and so many 
 sham nominations, just to make people show their 
 hands, that I thought I would let you see that I 
 know a thing or two myself, before I stated how 
 thankful I am for your pitching on me for the pre- 
 sidency. But I am sorry I don't want the office 
 S 
 
206 C^I^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 just now — I'm after another thing. I'm a very 
 candid man ; and when my mind is fixed upon a 
 matter, you might as well try to stop gunpowder 
 half blown up, as stop me. I can't agree to be pre- 
 sident. 
 
 The next election for president and vice goes 
 ahead of all the elections that ever took place in 
 America, except when Jefferson and the present 
 "government" was elected. Them two beat all 
 creation, because they fought for the " democratic 
 principle." Now I should think the constitution 
 quite gone, unless the " democracy" — that is, our 
 side, all the office-holders in the country, and in 
 Washington city, and at New York, and every 
 where — carried the election in 1836. To win 
 that election we must give item to one another. 
 We must hang together like a pitch plaster to a bald 
 pate. No flying off — no thinking for ourselves. 
 One man must think for all. We musn't have but 
 one candidate, and for that reason I won't go upon 
 the list. I'll be a "voter," and this is a big cha- 
 racter, able to shoulder a steamboat, and carry any 
 candidate that the caucus at Baltimore may set up 
 against the people. What's the people to a caucus ? 
 Nothing but a dead ague to an earthquake. 
 
 But, gentlemen, though I can't take the ap- 
 pointment myself, I will tell you who can, and you 
 won't have to persuade him long neither. He will 
 play shy at first, owing to his nature ; but it ain't 
 hard to bring him too. It is Mr. Martin Van Buren. 
 Perhaps you never heard of him before. He never 
 meddles in anybody's business. I have known 
 him a long time, and I can assure you he is all 
 sorts of a great man. Where any other man has 
 one good quality he has lots. We didn't set in the 
 same chair together more than two years, but fully 
 half that time he was either in my lap or I in his, 
 
COL. CROCKETI^S TOUB. 207 
 
 exchanging compliments, so that I know him bet- 
 ter than a book, and can say, take him up one side 
 and down t'other, he is the most fitting man, next 
 to General Jackson, for the president, of any man 
 that now hurrahs for hard money and the people. 
 The way he is a democrat, is a caution, all over. 
 He is dyed in the wool, through and through, and 
 comes as near to the red britches of Mr. Jefferson 
 iis a new patch upon an old garment can be made. 
 As to ability, he himself don't know how much he 
 knows ; and if he don't, who can ? 
 
 He aint like any other living cretur ; he can't be 
 attacked ; fights just as well behind as before ; sees 
 as well one way as another. They say his life is 
 like a clean copy-book ; there is not a blot in any 
 part of it ; not a word nor letter scratched out, and 
 every i dotted, and every t crossed from one eend 
 to t'other. In his natral disposition he is as tame 
 as the present "government," and will just suit to 
 come after it. The way his own state thinks of 
 him outshines the yellar jackets. They have been 
 stall-feeding him for twenty-two years, and have 
 got him as slick as an ingon. His state is the big- 
 gest in the union ; has got two millions of people, 
 forty-two members in Congress, the longest canals, 
 the largest ships, more banks, smaller notes, less 
 cunning, and more honesty than any state in the 
 union, and has never had a president yet:. a great 
 reason this for giving her one now, though she has 
 had three vice-presidents out of seven, besides 
 other high officers, from Alexander Hamilton down. 
 But ignorant people, with a glib sort of a tongue, 
 says, what has he done ? They ought to ask, what 
 has he not done ? I wouldn't answer the first ques- 
 tion so far as the people is concerned ; but for hifi 
 sake, I will tell you what he has done.. And not 
 tp get ahead of my story, I will go back to the 
 
208 ^'0^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 time he began to be a politician. He set out with 
 this rule — never to choose sides till he found out 
 which was which ; and if he happened to make a 
 mistake, it was nothing to nobody, and things soon 
 got straight. He never was wrong in any dispute, 
 if either side was right ; that is, he was always 
 right, unless both sides was wrong. He broke up 
 a whole legislature in New York, to support Mr. 
 Madison in the war, and threatened to turn him 
 out of his government, and put Mr. Clinton in ; but 
 failing in this, he turned over again, and tried to 
 break down Mr. Clinton in New York. All the 
 time he was for the war, he was making the people 
 believe Mr. Madison was not to be trusted ; and 
 there has been pieces printed from his speeches, 
 and will be printed over, I suppose, showing how 
 he abused Mr. Madison's government. Then he 
 praised Mr. Clinton, and afterwards turned right 
 round, and talked t'other way. He was all sorts 
 of a member in the New York legislature. He was 
 one of the litter of great men that was got by the 
 war out of the old United States Bank. He 
 took sides with his father, and went his death 
 against his mother. He was the very man for the 
 times ; talk, write, fight, bring in bills, laugh, make 
 bows, draw state papers, which finally made the 
 federal party smell the patching that drove them 
 from the field in April, 1814. This was a rale New 
 Orleans scrape, and it was a long time before the 
 people at Washington found out which was the 
 biggest affair. But Mr. Van Buren always give 
 up that Orleans was the greatest. Now so much 
 for the question, what has he done ? 
 
 It is true, he voted for the tariff of 1828, "that 
 bill of abominations," as it was then called, but he 
 was obliged to do that; his legislature instructed 
 him : but some have said tiiat they instructed him 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 209 
 
 by his own request ; for his friends have boasted 
 that he has never seen the day, for the last ten 
 years, that he couldn't make a New York legisla- 
 ture do as he wanted them. But this vote proves 
 what I said before. He went against the tariff at 
 home ; called the Harrisburg convention, while it 
 was hatching this very tariff bill of 1828, a trick 
 and turn over to make a president, and then goes 
 to Congress and votes for it. Don't this look like 
 a man can't well be wrong that takes both sides .'' 
 It looks a little curious that a man should go against 
 a measure at home, speak it in public, write agin 
 it, abuse it as a fraud and a trick, and get elected 
 under these circumstances, and then get the very 
 legislature that elects him to tell him to vote against 
 his own " graphic" speeches, and for a " measure 
 proceeding more from the closet than from the 
 WORKSHOP.'^ This is the way he got the name of 
 a MAGICIAN : and it looks a good deal like it to a 
 man up in a tree. -- 
 
 Mr. Van Buren has been more scandalized than 
 any man in the world, not excepting Mr. Jeffer- 
 son. Everybody has combined against him. He 
 has never interfered with anybody at all. If it 
 hadn't been for this, he would have been General 
 Jackson's favourite, and he would have made him 
 his successor. But they poured so much poison in 
 the old man's ears about his conduct against the 
 Seminoles, that he never could bear Van Buren 
 any more: and he, poor man! gave up his secre- 
 taryship, rather than have any fuss. He has never 
 complained ; and bore it all like a Christian. Now, 
 some people have said that he was first for Craw- 
 ford, against Jackson and Jackson's South Carolina 
 friends ; and then he was for Adams ; and finally, 
 he came in at the eleventh hour for Jackson, got 
 into the nest of Jackson's first and fast friends, 
 s2 
 
210 ^'^L. CROCKETrs TOUR. 
 
 rooted 'em out, took their place ; and they even 
 go so far as to say that he is the choice of General 
 Jackson for president. But this an't so ; if it was, 
 it would make him look again a little like a magi- 
 cia7i. 
 
 He has been accused about the safety fund banks 
 in New York. Now, people don't know any thing 
 about these banks. Mr. Van Buren has always 
 been in favour of ^^ hard money;" and he always 
 obstinately refused to let any more than one hun- 
 dred and fifty banks be chartered at one time in New 
 York ; and then he said — and stood to it — they 
 should 'nt issue notes lower than a quarter of a dol- 
 lar; for if they went for notes under that, it would 
 drive all the specie out of the country. And then, 
 again, he provided, that for every sixty -three dol- 
 lars issued in paper, there should be one dollar in 
 silver. But, not satisfied with making the notes 
 secure, by providing the above specie to take 'em 
 up, he said that if one bank failed, all the others 
 should make it good. Now, this is the safety fund 
 system of New York. These banks are all in a 
 league ; and, to keep their privileges, and to keep 
 up one another, and to keep up their party, they 
 have a joint fund, that is always subject to party 
 purposes — ^to pay for votes, for treating, for travel- 
 ling, for printing, for handbills, and for every thing 
 that is necessary to carry an election. All this is ma- 
 naged at Albany, and is called the Albany Regency. 
 Now, by this system. New York has sound politics, 
 sound morals, and hard money. How can any- 
 body blame him for the safety fund banks ? 
 
 Then, too, he has gone with all his might against 
 the United States' Bank ; but is in favour of its 
 branches, if they will put 'em in New York. Bad 
 as that bank is, he wrote for one to be put up in 
 Utica ; and his friends denied this, till they proved 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 211 
 
 it upon him by his letter ; and because they hap- 
 pened to forget about his trying to get this branch. 
 His enemies want to make out that he rows one 
 way and looks another : and this is the kind of 
 proof that is to make a man a double-dealer! a rria- 
 gician! 
 
 They call him non-committal, too, and this is 
 because he always looks before he leaps. They 
 say he never gives the measure of his foot. Now 
 how can this be, when it is shown that he speaks 
 against the Tariff at home, and votes for it in Con- 
 gress ; goes for internal improvement by the ge- 
 neral government in New York, but against it out 
 of it; goes against the Bank at Philadelphia, but 
 in favour of it at Utica ; goes for all the candidates 
 for president in turn, Jackson last, notwithstanding 
 which they say he is in higher favour there now 
 than those that began before him. Went for the 
 war, but went against Madison ; wanted to turn 
 out Madison and put in Clinton, and then turned 
 Clinton out from the little office he held in New 
 York. Goes for gold and hard money, and has 
 more rag money in his state than all the other 
 states put together. Call you this non-committal ? 
 As well may you call the fingers of a watch non- 
 committal, that goes regular round to every figure 
 on its face. 
 
 I have gone through what they say against Mr. 
 Van Buren, and now I must speak about our stick- 
 ing together ; every thing for Van Buren, nothing 
 for nobody else — that is, nothing for Judge White ; 
 for, to tell you the truth, the whole of this letter is 
 just intended to keep the people from opening their 
 eyes. Some very good, honest Jacksonmen are 
 foolish enough to think they ought to have an 
 opinion of their own, and talk about it quite grave. 
 The words ^ magician,' ' little magician,' ' non- 
 
219 t;OL. CKOCKETT'8 TOUR. 
 
 committal,' 'safety fund/ 'Albany regency/ ' New- 
 York tactics/ and such like, have been named so 
 often, they begin to think there is something in it, 
 and say, where there is so much smoke there must 
 be fire 5 or, as we hunters used to say, where there 
 is so much sign there must be game. Now Mr. 
 Van and me, and the men that wrote to send 'em 
 this letter to be published, and a good many of our 
 folks, have all got together, and we think by 
 making a great rush upon these free-thinkers, we 
 can whip 'em back into the party, and make 'em 
 stand up to their rack, fodder or no fodder. This 
 letter is all for that purpose. I know, and we all 
 know, that one-half of it isn't true, and the other 
 is trash. My friends said to me, your name sounds 
 big, and if you come out and make believe that you 
 don't want to be president, and talk about demo- 
 cracy, aristocracy, Jefferson, Madison, Crawford, 
 persecution, the war, the bank, gold currency, hard 
 money, but, above all, Jackson and the battle of 
 New Orleans, and then hurra for union, harmony, 
 concession. Van Buren, and the great state of New 
 York ; the seceders will tack and run back into the 
 democratic republican fold, which means the Van 
 Buren fold. 
 
 You must take notice that I am slabb'd off from 
 the election, and am nothing but a "voter/' and 
 this gives me the right to dictate to the rest, and 
 to tell them that I have no concern but to keep the 
 democratic party united. Shallow-headed men 
 won't see into this, and then I can go on to say 
 you ought to elect Mr. Van Buren, because he is 
 from the North. If we can keep things straight 
 till we do this, the next time the president must 
 come from the Southwest ; and then, where do I 
 ^tand ? By that time the party will be so well 
 drilled that they will take anybody the party says 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 213 
 
 they must take ; and, in the mean time, 1 think I 
 can cry Bank! Bank! Monster! Corruption! Gold! 
 Hard-money! Democracy! and all that; so that, 
 if you will recommend me then, I'll be your man- 
 If White should be elected now, that Avill be two 
 presidents from the Southwest ; and then I can't 
 possibly get in. But take Van Buren, and by the 
 time his term is up. Judge White will never be in 
 my way. It is true. Judge White is as good a 
 Jeffersonian as Martin Van Buren, but no better ; 
 and besides, he shouldered his musket, and fought 
 bravely through the last war, (to say more might 
 look like envy.) But if we elect him, it will be 
 greedy — look like we wanted all the presidents. 
 It would break up the democratic party, set all the 
 states together by the ears, and place the country 
 in the frightful situation in which it was situated 
 when Virginia gave us four democratic presidents 
 — three hand-running. It won't do. Let the next 
 president come from the North ; and then I go 
 with all my heart for a Southwest president, the 
 time after ; and that president shall be myself. 
 
 Hoping that you will not forget me eight years 
 hence, and that we can keep the people from think- 
 ing for themselves against a caucus nomination, 
 I am, your fellow citizen, 
 
 David Crockett. 
 
 On the aforegoing I make no remarks. Poste- 
 rity will do me justice. 
 
 Coming into the house one morning, I heard the 
 clerk reading, " Resolved, that in all elections for 
 officers, &c. of this house, &c. &c., the same shall 
 be viva voce.'''' Where did that come from ? From 
 
£14 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 Illinois; and by whom? Governor Reynolds. I'll 
 bet six rounds of powder that Blair wrote the words 
 down — that's him. Well, if the Jackson men can 
 bear that, we will see the cat and nine tails brought 
 in here before long. Glorious confession for him ! 
 Straws show how the wind drives. He's scared ; 
 can't trust his men ; afraid they won't stand up to 
 the rack. Give him rope. Don't put him to the 
 trouble of sending all round the country for certi^ 
 ficates to prove that he was elected again, 
 
 I tell you, reader, it was a Jackson-Van-Blair 
 trap ; and if they can get it to work, every mother's 
 son of them will have to vote with the fear of An- 
 drew Jackson before his eyes, and woe be to him 
 that thinks and acts for himself. Farewell presi- 
 dential favours, farewell presidential dinners. 
 Globe puffs, and all. 
 
 Who doubts that this was the object. Glorious 
 confession, I repeat ; not enough of Van-Burenism 
 in this house to elect his printer, or at least they 
 fear it ! ! If the election is not so determined, de-* 
 pend on it Blair is routed. We'll see how the gan^ 
 der hops before the session is over. 
 
 Reader, I told you some time ago, for I've been 
 a good while getting this far, that if you did not 
 hear before, I would tell you some news. Hugh 
 Lawson White is a candidate for the presidency, 
 and can't be bought off, and they know it. His 
 steel is too pure for them to think of bending him ; 
 the atmosphere that surrounds him keeps off all 
 busy bodies. The people have called, and are call- 
 
COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 215 
 
 ing him out, and he has put himself into their 
 hands. The Van-Burenites are cut to the quick. 
 The work is going on too well for their comfort, 
 and yet they dare not attack him. He has been 
 considered, and justly praised by th6m as the no- 
 blest work of God-^an honest man. What are 
 they to do ? Hang off, and try to throw their cause 
 upon his kind feelings ; persuade him that if he 
 runs, he will cause defeat to the Jackson party, and 
 an anti will be elected. Thank heaven we are 
 nearly done with that word Jackson party, and 
 are about to form an Jlmerican party, deep-rooted 
 in the affections, and honour, and honesty of the 
 American people. 
 
 Every body has heard of Lawrence shdoting, or 
 attempting to shoot at the president. This of it- 
 self was a horrible affair ; and every man in the 
 nation must have shuddered when he heard that 
 the president of the United States escaped, as it 
 were, by a miracle, from the hands of a madman, 
 and that the assault should have been made upon 
 the occasion of his attending a funeral. One would 
 have thought that in the gratitude which ought to 
 have been poured forth to Got! for his preserva- 
 tion, every thing like personal animosity would 
 have been quiet, and that no one would have been 
 implicated without " confirrnation, strong as proof 
 from holy writ." Poor human nature ; the man 
 will show himself, let " Providence" do as he may. 
 Who said it's a damnM Poindexter plot ? Let 
 those gentlemen who were ajound himi-and^wkoir 
 
216 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 
 
 endeavoured to quiet hirrij say. The world is 
 made up of rumours. Thus the cue was given. 
 Some of you may have seen the proceedings ; some 
 may not. 
 
 Certain dirty dogs, calculating that nothing 
 would be more acceptable to the president than 
 affidavits that G overnor Poindexter was concerned 
 in this affair, by hook and by crook made out to 
 get two, and put them in his possession. He kept 
 them in his pocket, and showed them to every 
 body, for a number of days. This circumstance 
 clearly convinced me that General Jackson did not 
 believe what these fellows swore, and only used 
 them for effect against Poindexter. For I ask any 
 man, the humblest individual in the country, if he 
 had in his possession two affidavits which he be- 
 lieved were from credible witnesses, that a cer- 
 tain person was seen, under suspicious circum- 
 stances, in company with a man who had made an 
 attempt on his life, whether he would not lay them 
 instantly before the first justice he could find, and 
 have him arrested ; or at all events, that he would 
 have kept them quiet until he had exhausted every 
 effort to procure additional proof But this was 
 not done. It did not serve the purpose in one re- 
 spect, and it failed in another. It is believed by 
 Governor Poindexter and many of his friends, that 
 they intended to keep the thing snug among the 
 initiated until after the 3d of March, and then ar- 
 rest him ; or to send them, before him, to Missis- 
 sippi, wheie, it is known, the election for senator is^ 
 still undecided. 
 

 
 %- 
 
 
 
 
 
 <^^^ 
 
 
 9 I 
 
 

 3^ ,0-a, ^. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o « o