American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett
Page 32
32 Shackford, Man and Legend, 125.
33 Nashville Republican, March 18, 1828. Quoted in Davis, Three Roads, 122. Derr, Frontiersman, 146.
34 Register of Debates in Congress, vol. 5: 162.
35 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 55-56. Derr, Frontiersman, 155.
36 Letter from James K. Polk to Davison McMillen, January 16, 1829, in Herbert Weaver, ed., Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 1, 1817-1832 (Nashville, 1969), 229-231, 231n.
37 Ibid, 230.
38 Register of Debates in Congress, vol 5: 210.
39 Davis, Three Roads, 139.
40 Letter from James K. Polk to Davison McMillen, January 16, 1829, in Weaver, Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 1, 230.
41 David Crockett in Jackson [Tennessee] Gazette, March 14, 21, 28, 1829.
42 Crockett to George Patton, January 27, 1829, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society.
43 Quoted in Burstein, Passions of Andrew Jackson, 173.
Chapter 10: Crockett’s Declaration of Independence
1 Davis, Three Roads, 165. Promissory note, February 24, 1829, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Research Center, Canyon, TX.
2 Jackson [Tennessee] Gazette, March 7, 1829. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 14.
3 Derr, Frontiersman, 162. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 14n, quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 125.
4 Davis, History of Memphis, 110-11.
5 Ibid, 111.
6 J. M. Keating, History of the City of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee (Syracuse, 1880), 175-76.
7 Haley, Sam Houston, 60; Crockett to Gales & Seaton, April 18, 1829, Personal Miscellaneous Papers, New York Public Library.
8 Davis, Three Roads, 168.
9 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 14. Derr, Frontiersman, 163.
10 Arpad, Original Legendary 131 and 193-96. Davis, Three Roads, 169.
11 Catherine L. Albanese, “Citizen Crockett: Myth, History, and Nature Religion.” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 61 (1978): 89-90.
12 Shackford, Man and Legend, 101.
13 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 102. Register of Debates in Congress, 7: 391.
14 Shackford, Man and Legend, 103.
15 Derr, Frontiersman, 168.
16 Crockett to Hugh Nelson, January 24, 1830, Tennessee Historical Society, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
17 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 62.
18 Register of Debates in Congress, vol. 6: 583.
19 Ibid, 716-17. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 60-61.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Davis, Three Roads, 174. Shackford, Man and Legend, 110.
23 Remini, Indian Wars, 115.
24 Ibid, 233.
25 Ibid, 237. Davis, Three Roads, 176. Burstein, Passions of Andrew Jackson, 186-88.
26 Remini, Indian Wars, 234.
27 Ibid, 234. Burstein, Passions of Andrew Jackson, 187.
28 Quoted in Remini, Indian Wars, 232.
29 Quoted in Remini, Indian Wars, 236.
30 Crockett, Narrative, 206.
31 Remini, Indian Wars, 237.
32 Crockett, Narrative, 206.
33 Speeches on the Passage of the Bill for the Removal of the Indians Delivered in the Congress of the United States (Boston: 1830). There is controversy over whether the speech was ever actually given—and whether Crockett was the sole author of the speech. But it was published in the above citation under “A Sketch of the Remarks of Hon. David Crockett.” For discussion, see Shackford, Man and Legend, 116, 304n, and Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett” Congressman,” 63-64.
34 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 64.
35 Arpad, Original Legendary, 33-34. Davis, Three Roads, 177.
36 Alexis de Tocqueville, Journey to America, trans. by George Lawrence (Garden City, NY, 1971), 267-68. As a nobleman and French political dignitary, Tocqueville unsurprisingly argued against universal suffrage, remarking with incredulity that the people of Tennessee would have sent as their representative in Congress a man with “no education,” who “could read only with difficulty, had no property, no fixed dwelling, but spent his time hunting, selling game for a living, and spending his whole life in the woods.” Tocqueville was equally unimpressed with Sam Houston and perplexed that someone who had “risen from his own exertions” would be elected governor of a state. Toqueville ’s aristocratic mind could not comprehend how on earth voters would “wish to be represented by people of their own sort.”
37 Arpad, Original Legendary 35-37, 48-49, 73, 193. M. J. Heale, “The Role of the Frontier in Jacksonian Politics: David Crockett and the Myth of the Self-Made Man,” Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 4 (October 1973): 406.
38 Davis, Three Roads, 178.
39 Shackford, Man and Legend, 118.
40 Davis, Three Roads, 179.
41 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 112.
42 Jackson [Tennessee] Gazette, March 27, 1830.
43 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 130.
44 Burstein, Passions of Andrew Jackson, 173-74.
45 Derr, Frontiersman, 178.
46 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 105-6. David Crockett ’s Circular to the Citizens of the Ninth Congressional District of the State of Tennessee, February 28, 1831. A copy resides in the McClung Collection, Lawson McGhee Library, Knoxville, TN.
47 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 107.
48 Quoted in Davis, Three Roads, 181. Jackson to Samuel J. Hays, April 1831, quoted in Emma Inman Williams, Historic Madison: The Story of Jackson, and Madison County, Tennessee (Jackson, TN, 1946), 403.
49 Davis, Three Roads, 182. Crockett to Michael Sprigg, May 5, 1830 [1831], Philpott Collection, catalog item no. 222.
50 Heale, “Frontier in Jacksonian Politics,” 406.
51 Ibid.
52 Weakley County [Tennessee] Court Minutes, 1827-1835, vol. 1, 279. Shackford, Man and Legend, 136. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett, Congressman,” 67.
53 Shackford, Man and Legend, 136.
54 Derr, Frontiersman, 182. Shackford, Man and Legend, 139-41, 151. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 69.
55 Derr, Frontiersman, 183.
56 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 132-33. This incident is based, according to Shackford, on an anecdote “with substantial basis in fact” characterizing a discrepancy between Crockett and Fitzgerald in Paris, Tennessee, in the summer of 1831.
57 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 133.
58 Crockett to James Davidson, August 18, 1831. Crockett Biographical File, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, quoted in Davis, Three Roads, 185.
59 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 67.
Chapter 11: “Nimrod Wildfire” and “The Lion of the West”
1 Albanese, “Citizen Crockett,” 88-90. Arpad, Original Legendary, 3-4. Slotkin, Mythology of the American Frontier, 414-15.
2 Quoted in Arpad, Original Legendary, 85.
3 James K. Paulding to John Wesley Jarvis, n.d. [1829-1830], Ralph M. Alderman, ed., The Letters of James Kirke Paulding (Madison, WI: 1962), 113.
4 Derr, Frontiersman, 189.
5 Quoted in Arpad, Original Legendary, 37. James Kirke Paulding, The Lion of the West, ed. James N. Tidwell (Stanford, CA, 1954).
6 Arpad, Original Legendary, 112.
7 Alderman, Letters of James Kirke Paulding, 113.
8 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 254. Arpad, Original Legendary, 112-13.
9 Albanese, “Citizen Crockett,” 90-91. Arpad, Original Legendary, 48, 73-74.
10 Derr, Frontiersman, 185.
11 David Crockett letter to Richard Smith, January 7, 1832, Connaroe Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Folmsbee and C
atron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 67.
12 Derr, Frontiersman, 186. Letter to Doctor Jones, August 22, 1831, Jones Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 67. Davis, Three Roads, 310.
13 Davis, Three Roads, 313, 670n. Crockett to Daniel Webster, December 18, 1832, American Book Prices Current 1987-1991, Index (Washington, CT, 1992) 167-68.
14 Hauck, Bio-Bibliography, 68.
15 Hauck, Bio-Bibliography, 66-67. Shackford, Man and Legend, 27, 296n.
16 Arpad, Original Legendary, 182. Adam Huntsman to William Harris, Southern Statesman [Jackson, TN], June 20, 1833.
17 Burstein, Passions of Andrew Jackson, 188.
18 Ibid, 194. Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 3, 447.
19 Burstein, Passions of Andrew Jackson, 200-1.
20 Crockett, Narrative, 210.
21 V. L. Parrington, Main Currents in America Thought: The Romantic Revolution in America (New York, 1927), vol. 2, 166.
22 Hauck, Bio-Bibliography, 3-4. The authorship of this work has long been in question. Before Shackford’s 1956 biography, the work was thought to have been written by James Strange French of Virginia. Shackford, Man and Legend, 258-64, makes a strong case for Mathew St. Clair Clarke. This case is echoed by Hauck, Bio-Bibliography, as cited above.
23 Crockett, Narrative, 3-4.
24 Parrington, Main Currents (New York, 1927), vol. 2, 166.
25 Shackford, Man and Legend, 258.
26 Ibid, 261.
27 Arpad, Original Legendary, 179. Shackford, Man and Legend, 158.
28 Quoted in Arpad, Original Legendary, 181. Alan Nevins, ed., The Diary of John Quincy Adams, 1794-1845, New York, 1928), 444-45.
29 Heale, “Self-Made Man,” 405.
30 Paul Andrew Hutton, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of Tennessee (Lincoln, NE, 1987), xxi. Arpad, Original Legendary, 33-38. Davis, Three Roads, 317. Heale, “Self-Made Man,” 406.
31 Davis, Three Roads, 317, 671n. Letter from David Crockett to Carey & Hart, January 8, 1835, David Crockett Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore.
32 Ralph C. H. Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1902).
33 Shackford, Man and Legend, 147. The Congressional Globe, vol. 1: 37. See Shackford, 307n.
34 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 147.
35 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 69. Crockett to Nicholas Biddle, January 2, 1832, Nicholas Biddle Papers. Crockett to Richard Smith, January 7, 1832, Conarroe Autograph Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
36 Crockett, Narrative, 172.
37 Ibid, 5.
38 Ibid, 7.
39 Hauck, Bio-Bibliography, 47. Shackford, Man and Legend, 255-6. Spirit of the Times, Batavia, NY, December 21, 1833. Also in Arpad, Original Legendary, 113.
40 Letter to Carey & Hart, February 23, 1834, in the Boston Public Library. Shackford, Man and Legend, 267-68, 315n.
41 Ibid, 267.
42 Crockett, Narrative, 8-9.
43 Quoted in Walter Blair, “Six Davy Crocketts,” Southwest Review 25 (July 1940): 457.
Chapter 12: A Bestseller and a Book Tour
1 Davis, Three Roads, 324.
2 Hutton, Life of David Crockett, vi. Broadside reproduced in Hutton, Life of David Crockett, vi, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
3 Blair, “Six Davy Crocketts,” 457.
4 Arpad, Original Legendary, Shackford, Man and Legend, 310.
5 Davis, Three Roads, 323.
6 Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought, vol. 2: 165.
7 Arpad, Original Legendary, 195. Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought, vol. 2: 170-71.
8 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 148, 307n. It appears that the original letter has been lost.
9 Arpad, Original Legendary, 193-96.
10 Derr, Frontiersman, 203.
11 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 148. Arpad, Original Legendary, 185.
12 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 148.
13 Arpad, Original Legendary, 187-88.
14 Letter to William T. Yeatman, June 15, 1834. quoted in Davis, History of Memphis, 155.
15 Shackford, Man and Legend, 154. Derr, Frontiersman, 203.
16 Haley, Sam Houston, 101. Shackford, Man and Legend, 308n.
17 Haley, Sam Houston, 101. Brands, Lone Star Nation, 235.
18 Quoted in Haley, Sam Houston, 438n. Sam Houston to John H. Houston, 31 July 1833, in Amelia Williams and Eugene C. Barker, eds. Writings of Sam Houston (Austin, TX, 1938-1943), vol. 5: 5-6.
19 Arpad, Original Legendary, 187. Shackford, Man and Legend, 154, 307n.
20 Arpad, Original Legendary, 187.
21 Derr, Frontiersman, 205.
22 Shackford, Man and Legend, 157.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid, 158.
25 Crockett to Carey & Hart, May 27, 1834. Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection, New York Public Library. Quoted in Davis, Three Roads, 390 and 688n.
26 Derr, Frontiersman, 206. Shackford, Man and Legend, 158.
27 Quoted in Davis, Three Roads, 391. Helen Chapman to Emily Blair, May 1, 1834, William W. Chapman Papers. Center for American History, Austin, TX.
28 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” no. 28 (1957): 69-71.
29 Shackford, Man and Legend, 158.
30 Ibid, 159.
31 Derr, Frontiersman, 207; Hamlin Garland, The Autobiography of David Crockett (New York, 1923), 149.
32 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 159. The book tour is summarized in Shackford, Man and Legend, 156-61.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid, 161. Niles [Washington, DC] Weekly Register, ed. H. Niles, 4b: 252.
35 Shackford, Man and Legend, 161.
36 Quoted in Curtis Carroll Davis, “A Legend at Full-Length: Mr. Chapman Paints Colonel Crockett—and Tells About It,” American Antiquarian Society (October 1959), 165.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid, 166.
39 Shackford, Man and Legend, 167. Davis, Three Roads, 392.
40 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 163, 309n. Letter to William Hack, June 9, 1834, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society. Also in American Historical Magazine, 2, 2 (April 1897): 179-80.
41 Register of Debates in Congress, 10: 4,586-88.
42 From Chapman, quoted in Davis, “Mr. Chapman Paints Colonel Crockett,” 173.
43 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 164.
44 Davis, History of Memphis, 155.
Chapter 13: “That Fickle, Flirting Goddess” Fame
1 Davis, “Mr. Chapman Paints Colonel Crockett,” 171.
2 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 167.
3 Jim Cooper, “A Study of Some David Crockett Firearms,” East Tennessee Historical Society Papers 8 (1966): 66. Shackford 309-310n. Attakapas Gazette [St. Martinville, LA], June 12, 1834. Davis, Three Roads, 393.
4 Shackford, Man and Legend, 168. For an in-depth discussion of Crockett’s numerous rifles, see Cooper, “Crockett Firearms,” 62-69.
5 Quoted in Robert V. Remini, Daniel Webster: The Man and His Times (New York, 1997), 420.
6 Remini, Daniel Webster, 9.
7 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 20.
8 Ibid. Shackford, Man and Legend, 168.
9 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 168. David Crockett, An Account of Col. Crockett’s Tour to the North and Down East, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Four (Philadelphia, 1835).
10 Crockett presumably nicknamed this new gun “Pretty Betsey” to differentiate it from his favored “Betsey.” See Shackford, Man and Legends, 169. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 20n. Cooper, “Crockett Firearms,” 66.
11 Shackford, Man and Legend, 169.
12 Quoted by W. Frederick Worner, “David Crockett in Columbia,” Lanc
aster County Historical Society Papers 27: 177.
13 Letter from Crockett to Nicholas Biddle, October 7, 1834, Nicholas Biddle Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
14 Quoted in Derr, Frontiersman, 214. Nicholas Biddle to David Crockett, December 13, 1834, in President’s Letter Book, 279, Library of Congress.
15 Letter from Crockett to Carey & Hart, December 8, 1834, in Houghton Library, Harvard University. Davis, Three Roads, 395. Derr, Frontiersman, 214.
16 Letter from Crockett to Nicholas Biddle, December 16, 1834. Nicholas Biddle Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
17 Shackford, Man and Legend, 173.
18 Crockett to Carey & Hart, December 21, 1834, Rosenbach Museum and Library.
19 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 174. Crockett to John P. Ash, December 27, 1834, University of the South Archives.
20 Quoted in Derr, Frontiersman, 219; Letter from Crockett to Carey & Hart, January 8, 1835, Crockett Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society, and Manuscript Department, New-York Historical Society.
21 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 184-86. Crockett to Carey & Hart, January 22, 1835, Rosenbach Museum and Library.
22 Derr, Frontiersman, 218.
23 Crockett to John P. Ash, December 27, 1834, University of the South.
24 Quoted in Davis, Three Roads, 397. Crockett to Charles Schultz, December 25, 1834, Gilder-Lehrman Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library.
25 Arpad, Original Legendary, 192-93.
26 Ibid, 192.
27 Davis, Three Roads, 396.
28 Crockett to John P. Ash, December 27, 1834.
29 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 183.
30 Davis, Three Roads, 399.
31 Crockett to John P. Ash, December 27, 1834.
32 Adam Huntsman to James Polk, January 1, 1835, quoted in Weaver and Hall, Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 3, 1835-1836 (Nashville, 1975), 3.
33 Congressional Debates 11: 1,191-92.
34 Shackford, Man and Legend, 193.
35 Crockett, Col. Crockett’s Tour, 173.
36 Shackford, Man and Legend, 196.
37 Davis, Three Roads, 402. Shackford, Man and Legend, 196.
38 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 75. Shackford, Man and Legend, 200-2.
39 Derr, Frontiersman, 221. Shackford, Man and Legend, 119, 188-89.