e; at any rate, I was of age, and determined to trust them. I voted
against this Indian bill, and my conscience yet tells me that I gave a
good, honest vote, and one that I believe will not make me ashamed in
the day of judgment. I served out my term, and though many amusing,
things happened, I am not disposed to swell my narrative by inserting
them.

"When it closed, and I returned home, I found the storm had raised
against me sure enough; and it was echoed from side to side, and from
end to end of my district, that I had turned against Jackson. This was
considered the unpardonable sin. I was hunted down like a wild varment,
and in this hunt every little newspaper in the district, and every
little pinhook lawyer was engaged. Indeed, they were ready to print
anything and everything that the ingenuity of man could invent against
me."

In consequence of this opposition, Crockett lost his next election, and
yet by a majority of but seventy votes. For two years he remained at
home hunting bears. But having once tasted the pleasures of political
life, and the excitements of Washington, his silent rambles in the
woods had lost much of their ancient charms. He was again a candidate
at the ensuing election, and, after a very warm contest gained the day
by a majority of two hundred and two votes.

CHAPTER X.

Crockett's Tour to the North and the East.

His Reelection to Congress.--The Northern Tour.--First Sight of a
Railroad.--Reception in Philadelphia.--His First Speech.--Arrival in
New York.--The Ovation there.--Visit to Boston.--Cambridge and
Lowell.--Specimens of his Speeches.--Expansion of his Ideas.--Rapid
Improvement.

Colonel Crockett, having been reelected again repaired to Washington.
During the session, to complete his education, and the better to
prepare himself as a legislator for the whole nation, he decided to
take a short trip to the North and the East. His health had also begun
to fail, and his physicians advised him to go. He was thoroughly
acquainted with the Great West. With his rifle upon his shoulder, in
the Creek War, he had made wide explorations through the South. But the
North and the East were regions as yet unknown to him.

On the 25th of April, 1834, he left Washington for this Northern tour.
He reached Baltimore that evening, where he was invited to a supper by
some of the leading gentlemen. He writes:

"Early next morning. I started for Philadelphia, a place where I had
never be