David Crockett_ The Lion of the West - Michael Wallis [103]
The letters of denial eventually were printed in various newspapers, including the Jackson Gazette, but as Crockett geared up for a reelection campaign for another two-year term, yet another story, written by someone using the pen name Dennis Brulgrudery, described Crockett’s politicking style as a mixture of flattery, drunkenness, venality, and dishonesty.15
In early 1829, while forced to defend his reputation and counter personal attacks, Crockett composed one of the more difficult letters he would ever have to write. It was scrawled to his brother-in-law George Patton in Buncombe County, North Carolina.16 In the long epistle Crockett spoke of the tragic news “of the death of our poor little niece Rebecca Ann Burgin.” The little girl had been killed in a horrible accident at Crockett’s farm in Tennessee while playing near the ox-driven grain mill that had been built several months earlier. “She was with my children…walking round after the oxen and stopped opposite one of the outside posts and caught her head against the post and mashed it all to peaces [sic]. Poor little creature never knew what hurt her. I thought almost as much of her as one of my own.”
In the same letter, Crockett also explained that he was attempting to alter the course of his life by giving up spirits and that he intended to imbibe nothing stronger than cider. “I trust that god will give me fortitude in my undertaking,” he wrote. “I have never made a pretention [sic] to religion in my life before. I have run a long race tho I trust that I was called in good time. I have been reproved many times for my wickedness by my dear wife who I am certain will be no little astonished when she gets information of my determination.”17
In March 1829, just after he watched the swearing-in of Andrew Jackson as the seventh president of the United States, along with Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Crockett launched his own campaign for reelection to the Twenty-first Congress of the House of Representatives. When newspaper smears accused him of every sin imaginable, including adultery, drunkenness, and gambling, Crockett replied with humor and sarcasm. “They accuse me of adultery! It’s a lie. I never ran away with any man’s wife that wasn’t willing…they accuse me of gambling! It’s a lie; I always plank the cash…and, they accuse me of being a drunkard! It’s a d—d lie, for whisky can’t make me drunk.”18
Although Crockett’s chief opponent was once again Colonel Adam Alexander, he remained quietly confident of victory throughout the reelection campaign. He may not have been able to get his land bill through Congress, but it was not for any lack of trying. He knew that effort would be in the voters’ minds when they went to the polls, and he was correct.
In the August election Crockett was rewarded with another term in Congress. Alexander gathered 3,641 votes and two minor candidates pooled a total of 168 votes. Crockett received 6,773 votes for a plurality of 3,132 votes.19
While he basked in another clear victory over Alexander, Crockett had to wonder exactly who was most responsible for all the defamatory stories and ugly accusations that had been heaped on him both before and during the campaign. He had his suspicions that the responsible parties were not only the Whigs but also some Jacksonian Democrats. As the new decade came around, Crockett realized that he had become a man without a party.
TWENTY-NINE
TRAILS OF TEARS
WITH THE BEGINNING of the 1830s, time was running out not only politically but physically as well for David Crockett. He had reached his midforties, then viewed by some as the beginning of old age. Taking into consideration his vigorous lifestyle, the privations he had endured, and his many near-encounters with death, Crockett remained in fairly good