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By Root 366 0

2, 1833, Crockett was ready for action. He openly condemned Jackson, whom the Whigs now referred to as “King Andrew the First,” for his assault on the Bank of the United States and opposition to renewal of the bank’s charter. Jackson had been wary of banks since he was a young man in the 1790s and had lost a sizable amount of money in a bank investment. He believed the Second Bank of the United States, chartered in 1816 just five years after the First Bank of the United States lost its charter, was nothing but a monopoly and that its president, Nicholas Biddle, was guilty of corrupt lending practices. While Congress was out of session, Jackson not only vetoed the bank charter but also removed all government funds and deposited them in privately owned state financial institutions that became known as “pet banks.” Crockett favored keeping the government’s money in the Second United States Bank, and believed that Jackson was acting out of personal spite. A loan that Crockett had received in the past had been forgiven by Biddle, an action that endeared him and the institution to Crockett.1 Besides joining the other lawmakers battling Jackson on the banking issue, Crockett also introduced proposals concerning his Tennessee Land Bill. Apparently he labored under the false belief that all of his newfound notoriety would somehow ensure passage of the land legislation that had previously eluded him. “My land Bill is among the first Bills reported to the house and I have but little doubt of its passage during the present Session,”2 Crockett boasted in a letter to one of his constituents. It would never come to pass.

Another dream, however, would soon be realized. By December 1833, Crockett was hard at work on his autobiography. At last he would have a book of his own done that would clear up some of the misconceptions caused by the earlier works about his life. It also would bring in money and earn him increased recognition among the press and the public. After watching others profit from his life and adventures, Crockett figured that—as one of his many chroniclers later put it—“he might as well taste the pie he had helped bake.”3

To accomplish this daunting task, Crockett knew he would need a great deal of help. He turned to his friend Thomas Chilton, the Kentucky lawyer who also had first entered the House of Representatives in 1827. Like Crockett, Chilton had served two terms, was voted out of office, and had just been reelected as an Anti-Jacksonian.4 Chilton and Crockett not only shared a room at the boardinghouse but they also “sang out of the same hymnal” when it came to their political views, particularly a mutual disillusionment with Jackson and an extreme dislike of his heir apparent, Vice President Martin Van Buren, a native of Kinderhook, New York, who grew up speaking Dutch as his first language. Over the years, Chilton had helped Crockett write legislative documents, speeches, and circular letters for constituents, so he seemed the obvious choice for collaborator on the autobiography.

“I am ingaged [sic] in writing a history of my life and I have Completed one hundred and ten pages and I have Mr. Chlton [sic] to correct it as I write it,”5 Crockett wrote to his son John Wesley, on January 10, 1834. He also explained that publishing houses in New York and Philadelphia had expressed some interest in the book and that he expected it would “contain about two hundred pages and will fully meet all expectations.” Crockett went on to tell John Wesley that he would likely tour the eastern states to promote and sell the book once it was published. “I intend never to go home until I am able to pay all my debts and I think I have a good prospect at present and I will do the best I can,” Crockett wrote.

In much of his correspondence to friends, Crockett urged them to tell their local booksellers about the autobiography, which, he promised, would be “just like myself, a plain and singular production.” This mission statement was repeated in the book itself: “I want the world to understand my true history, and how I worked along