45. Ham, “Recollections,” UT.
46. The account of the expedition that follows is drawn, unless otherwise noted, from three participants' narratives: James Bowie to Ramón Múquiz, December 10, 1831, Nacogdoches Archives, TXSL; Rezin Bowie, “An Indian Battle,” Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post and Bulletin; A Family Newspaper, Devoted to Literature, Morality, Science, News, Agriculture and Amusement 13, August 17, 1833; and Ham, “Recollections,” UT. It should be noted that the two accounts by the Bowie brothers were much reprinted in the late 1800s, though not in their entirety, and very inaccurately. Only the originals cited above have been used here.
47. While it is nearly impossible to locate this spot exactly, it would seem to be in the vicinity of Calf Creek, not far from the small town of the same name.
48. A. J. Sowell, Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwestern Texas (Austin, 1900), 406-7, tells a fanciful story supposedly given to Sowell's father by James Bowie, that has his black servant being asked to go for the water, and refusing until Bowie threatened him, after which one of the Indians came after the slave and was brought down just in time by Armstrong. The story is either apocryphal or else a gross exaggeration due to poor memory. Sowell has the slave's name as Jim instead of Charles, the attackers Comanche instead of Tawakoni, and the location one hundred miles southwest of San Antonio, about two hundred miles from where it actually took place.
49. Ham, “Recollections,” UT, is the only source that locates Stephen Bowie in Texas at this time, and it could be mistaken. Certainly Stephen's last appearance in any known contemporary record was in September 1831. Given Ham's usual surprising accuracy in spite of his age when he wrote his “Recollections,” it seems probable that Stephen's being in San Antonio on his brothers' return is correct, the more so since the brothers very soon went back to Louisiana, which might suggest that Stephen came with some important news that called them back.
Chapter 13 Crockett 1831-1834
1. Crockett, Narrative, 208.
2. Crockett to Carey and Hart, March 25, 1834, in Shackford, Crockett, 152.
m
3. Crockett to Biddle, January 2, 1832, Nicholas Biddle Papers, Crockett to Richard Smith, January 7, 1832, Conarroe Autograph Collection, HSP.
4. Crockett to Smith, January 7, 1832, Conarroe Autograph Album, HSP.
5. Crockett to Jones, August 22, 1831, Jones Papers, SHC, UNC.
6. Arpad, “Crockett,” 186.
7. J. V. Drake to the editor of the News, October 17, 1877, Crockett Biographical File, DRT.
8. Christopher Baldwin, “Diary of Christopher Baldwin,” Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society 7 (1911): 239-40.
9. Arpad, “Crockett,” 182-83.
10. Crockett to T. J. Dobings, May 27, 1834, U.S. Manuscripts, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
11. St. Martinville, Attakapas Gazette, April 26, 1834.
12. Arpad, “Crockett,” 36; Folmsbee, “West Tennessee,” 19; Shackford, Crockett, 140-41.
13. Crockett to Thomas Henderson, March 10, 1834, in Shackford, Crockett, 151.
14. William Kennedy, Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas (London, 1841), 557n. Crockett's acquaintance with Webster at this time is established by Crockett to Webster, December 18, 1832, American Book Prices Current 1987-1991, Index (Washington, Conn., 1992), 167-68.
15. Richard B. Hauck, Crockett: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Conn., 1982), 66-67, and Shackford, Crockett, 26-27, 296n, give some discussion of the aphorism's origin, and while not coming to an actual conclusion, both seem to favor the notion that it was not original to Crockett. Of course, one cannot prove or disprove the origin of a colloquialism like this, but no instance of anyone else using the expression has been found prior to Crockett's May 1831 notations cited in Shackford, 136.
16. Hauck, Crockett, 57ff; Heale, “Self-Made Man,” 406.
17. Controversy continues over the authorship. See Hauck, Crockett, 3-4, and Shackford, Crockett, 258-64, for well reasoned arguments in favor of Clarke as author.
18. Heale, “Self-Made Man,” 407-8.
19. Hauck, Crockett, 83ff.
20. Paul A. Hutton, “Introduction,” in David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee (Lincoln, Nebr., 1987), vii.
21. Crockett to Carey and Hart, February 3, 1834, J. S. H. Fogg Collection, Maine Historical Society, Portland.
22. Arpad, “Crockett,” 179.
23. Philadelphia Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post, August 17, 1833.
24. Crockett, Narrative, 209-10.
25. Undated newspaper clipping, August 15, 1833, Jones Papers, SHC, UNC.
26. Clay to Polk, August 19, 1833, Herbert Weaver and Paul H. Bergeron, eds., Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 2, 1833-1834 (Nashville, 1972), 101.
27. London and Westminster Review 32 (1839): 139.
28. Nile's Register 45 (September 7, 1833): 20.
29. Jackson, Tenn., Southern Statesman, September 14, 1833.
30. Heale, “Self-Made Man,” 409.
31. Crockett to Carey and Hart, January 8, 1835, David Crockett Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore.
32. There is only Crockett's word for this presidential offer, but there is no reason for it not to be genuine. It is dated to late 1833 because in late 1834 the Mississippi convention made the same approach to Thomas Hart Benton, and in the letter Crockett makes it clear that the offer to him had come previously. Meeting only once a year, the convention could only have made the Crockett approach the previous fall (1833).
33. Crockett to G. W. McLean, January 17, 1834, Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection, Library of Congress.
34. Crockett to Biddle, December 8, 1834, Simon Gratz Collection, HSP.
35. Crockett, Narrative, 4-5.
36. Crockett to McLean, January 17, 1834, Miscellaneous Manuscripts, Library of Congress.
37. Allan Nevins, ed., The Diary of John Quincy Adams, 1794-1845 (New York, 1928), 444-45, November 26, 1833.
38. Arpad, “Crockett,” 113; Shackford, Crockett, 256. Shackford commits an error either in his text or in the supporting note, for he says Crockett saw the performance on December 30, 1833, but then cites a source published on December 13, 1833, seventeen days before the event, which is hardly possible. The original source has not been examined for this narrative.
39. Chapman in Galveston Daily News, January 27, 1895.
40. Jackson Southern Statesman, September 14, 1833.
41. Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 478, 480-81.
42. Arpad, “Crockett,” 60-61.
43. Ibid., 182.
44. Blair, “Six Davy Crocketts,” 456-57.
45. Crockett to Dear Friend [believed to be Henry Slorrs], January 9, 1834, Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Archives, Buffalo, N.Y.
46. Crockett to McLean, January 17, 1834, Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection, Library of Congress.
47. Crockett, Narrative, 210-11.
48. There are several examinations of the literary impact of Crockett's book. The best are probably Arpad, “Crockett,” and Hauck, Crockett.
49. Crockett to Carey and Hart, February 3, 1834, Fogg Collection, Maine Historical Society.
50. Ibid.; Crockett to Carey and Hart, February 20 to [or 23 or 28], 1834, Mellen Chamberlain Collection of Autographs, Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass.
51. Crockett to Carey and Hart, February 20 [23 or 28], 1834, Chamberlain Collection, Boston Public Library; Arpad, “Crockett,” 189.
52. Blair, “Six Davy Crocketts,” 456-57; Paul Hutton, ed., A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee (Lincoln, Nebr., 1987), vi.
53. Chapman in Galveston Daily News, January 27, 1895.
54. With the Indian Removal Bill an accomplished fact, he tried to help secure the appointment of a competent agent to help the Florida Seminole with their move (Crockett to Lewis Cass, November 28, 1833, Ford Collection, Pierpont Morg
an Library, New York).
55. Crockett to A. M. Hughes, December 8, 1833, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society, TSL. Jackson preempted him for a time with the furor raised by his veto of a land bill passed at the end of the previous session. It had been Clay's measure, and one not dear to Crockett either, for it provided for the government retaining public lands in the several states and selling it to raise revenue to support internal improvements and other “American System” measures. In his veto Jackson said such a policy would naturally keep land prices high, out of the reach of the poor. The land should be sold at the lowest possible prices and at liberal terms to the people, said Old Hickory, and what remained should go to the states for their own uses.
Had it been anyone but Jackson saying such things, Crockett might have cheered, for the president's policy did not stand at a great remove from his own, and it seemed to bode well for getting his bill back on the floor and passed at last. But Clay lambasted Jackson on the Senate floor for the veto, and Crockett's friend George Poindexter of Mississippi was nearly as severe, which aroused the ire of Democrats who might otherwise have supported Crockett.
56. Crockett to William Rodgers, January 8, 1834, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society, TSL.
57. Crockett to John W. Crockett, January 10, 1834, Thomas W. Streeter Collection of Texas Manuscripts, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
58. McKay W. Campbell to Polk, January 7, 1834, Weaver and Bergeron, Correspondence of James K. Polky, vol. 2, 222.
59. Crockett to Dobings, May 27, 1834, U.S. Manuscripts, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
60. Crockett to William Hack, June 9, 1834, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society, TSL.
61. Crockett to Hughes, December 8, 1834, ibid.
62. Crockett to Rodgers 8, 1834, ibid.
63. Crockett to McLean, January 17, 1834, Miscellaneous Collection, Library of Congress.
64. Crockett to John O. Cannon, January 20, 1834, Philpott collection Catalog, item no. 225.
65. Crockett to John W. Crockett, January 10, 1834, Streeter Collection, Yale.
66. Joel R. Smith to Polk, January 21 1834, Weaver and Bergeron, Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 2, 269.
67. Crockett to Thomas Henderson, February 26, 1834, in Shackford, “Narrative,” 474.
68. Crockett to John Drury, April 4, 1834, Gilder-Lehrman Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library.
69. St. Martinville Attakapas Gazette, April 26, 1834.
70. Crockett to Drury, April 4, 1834, Gilder-Lehrman Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library.
71. Crockett to Hack, June 9, 1834, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society, TSL. At every turn Crockett detected Jackson's arbitrary usurpation and corruption. The shortfall in the Post Office Department now ran to $375,000, and he believed it might top $1 million. The true total, he said in December, “is yet unknown but they can hide it no longer and the thing has to come before the world in its true coulers.” The postmaster general acknowledged having to borrow from some thirty or more banks to keep the department running, and risked defaulting on earlier loans, All this in the administration that had promised to clean house and set operations on a sound footing. “Glorious reforme and retrenchment under King Andrew the first,” he sneered. “Will the people be blinded always to uphold a name destitute of principle.” Crockett himself investigated the expenditures on printing jobs given to the administration organ the Washington Globe, and found it to be $42,000. At the same time he found ten other contracts by which $112,000 of public funds were paid to Jackson favorites. “This is Jackson retrenchment,” he accused. “Jackson is determined to feed his pets out of a silver spoon.” Everything now seemed to be a test of strength and will more than principle. The House spent most of the session trying to decide a contested election for a seat in Kentucky between Thomas Moore and Robert Letcher. In the previous Congress, Letcher had helped Clay outwit the Jackson forces in pushing through a tariff bill, and now they strove for revenge by backing Moore. Crockett, naturally, favored Letcher, if only to spite Jackson (Crockett to Hughes, December 8, 1833, Crockett to Rodgers, January 8, 1834, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society, TSL; Cricket to Drury, April 4, 1834, Gilder-Lehrman Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library; Crockett to Cannon, January 20, 1834, in “Davy Crockett vs. Andy Jackson,” Confederate Veteran 11 [April 1903]: 163; Crockett to Dobings, May 27, 1834, U.S. Manuscripts, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington).
72. Drake to the editor of the News, October 17, 1877, Crockett biographical File, DRT.
73. Crockett to Drury, April 4, 1834, Gilder-Lehrman Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library.
74. Crockett to Joseph Wallis, May 26 1834, Crockett Papers, UT.
75. Crockett to William Yeatman, June 15, 1834, in Davis, Memphis, 155.
76. Crockett to John W. Crockett January 10, 1834, Streeter Collection Yale.
77. Crockett to Wallis, May 26, 1834, Crockett Paper, UT.
78. Crockett to Carey and Hart, February 20 [23 or 28], 1834, Chamberlain Collection, Boston Public Library; Crockett to Carey and Hart, February 25, 1834, Edward Carey Gardiner Papers, HSP; Crockett to Carey and Hart, March 8, 1834, Miscellaneous Personal Collection, New-York Historical Society.
79. Crockett to Carey and Hart, February 20 [23 or 28], 1834, Chamberlain Collection, Boston Public Library.
80. Chapman in Galveston Daily News, January 27, 1895.
81. Hutton, Narrative, vi.
82. Crockett to Carey and Hart, March 25, 1834, quoted in Shackford, Crockett, 152.
83. Chapman in Galveston Daily News, January 27 1895. Chapman only states that Crockett's sittings for him took place in 1834, but it is evident that they were during a House session. It seems more likely to have been the first session, which lasted until June 30, rather than the second, of which only the month of December was in 1834.
84. Crockett to Carey and Hart, April 10 1834, Manuscript Vault File, Beinecke Library, Yale.
85. Crockett to Carey and Hart, April 1, 1834, Philpott Collection Catalog, item no 227.
86. Inscription, March 19, 1834, quoted in John H. Jenkins, Texas Revolution and Republic Catalog 188 (Austin, 1986), item no. 71.
87. Arpad, “Crockett,” 201.
88. Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 475.
89. Chapman in Galveston Daily News, January 27, 1895.
90. Ibid.
91. Crockett to Slorrs, January 9, 1834, Buffalo and Erie county Historical Society.
92. Crockett to Hughes, December 8, 1833, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society, TSL.
93. Crockett to Rodgers, January 8, 1834, ibid.
94. Ephraim Dickinson to Polk, February 16, 1834, weaver and Bergeron, Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 2, 317.
95. Crockett to Dobings, May 27, 1834, U.S. Manuscripts, Lilly library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
96. New York Sunday Morning News, May 1, 1836.
97. Chapman in Galveston Daily News, January 27, 1895.
98. Arpad, “Crockett,” 216.
99. Niles's Weekly Register 46 (May 3, 1834): 148.
100. Chapman in Galveston Daily News, January 27, 1895.
101. Folmsbee and Catron, “Congressman,” 71.
102. Crockett to Carey and Hard, March 25, 1834, in Shackford, Crockett, 152; Crockett to Jacob Dixon, April 11, 1834, American Book prices Current, Index 1960-1965 (New York, 1968): 1878.
Chapter 14 Bowie 1831-1833
1. Some writers have mistakenly assumed that Bowie's report indicates that he was on a mission for the political chief, of that he held some official command, an echo of the myth that he was made a captain of rangers in 1830. Such is not the case. His was purely a personal venture that neither had nor required official sanction, and other than Rezin and Caiaphas Ham and the two servants, most of the men with him were nominally his employees in the cotton mill enterprise.
/>
Three Roads to the Alamo Page 86
