Random Thoughts

Davy Crockett, politician – Part 2

 

August 4, 2017



As a boy growing up in Tennessee, I knew about Davy Crockett, the larger-than-life folk hero who had been born in the state.

A popular folk song about him had become a hit and was often heard on radio stations. At the same time, Crockett’s life was also being portrayed on television.

In doing some research for this article, I discovered that the song mentions that Crockett was a politician, something that escaped my notice at the time. If any of the television shows ever discussed his political career, I don’t remember it.

I do remember that I was surprised when – as a college student majoring in history – I learned that Crockett had, in fact, been more than just a frontiersman. He had served in the state legislature and six years in Congress.

Crockett served in the lower house of the Tennessee legislature from 1821 to 1825. In 1824, he gave up his legislative seat to run for Congress – but he lost that election.

Crockett was, however, elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1826 and 1828, and he served from 1827 to 1831.

His Congressional career was stymied by his defeat in 1830 – in large part due to his outspoken opposition to President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act, which Congress had approved that year.

Crockett had begun his political career as a protégé of Jackson, the political hero of most people on the American frontier (which at that time was west of the Appalachian Mountains). Jackson was the first president from that region.

But many people in Jackson’s Democratic Republican Party (which became, in time, simply the Democratic Party) left because of the president’s autocratic style. Crockett joined the opposition National Republican Party (which became the Whig Party and then the modern-day Republican Party).

Crockett rebounded in 1832 and was once again elected to Congress, serving from 1833 to 1835. In 1834, however, he was again defeated – prompting his decision to leave Tennessee and go to Texas. We will examine that fateful decision in Part 3 next week.

 

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