United States. There were two great parties then
dividing the country, the Democrats and the Whigs. The great object of
each was to find an available candidate, no matter how unfit for the
office. The leaders wished to elect a President who would be, like the
Queen of England, merely the ornamental figure-head of the ship of
state, while their energies should propel and guide the majestic
fabric. For a time some few thought it possible that in the popularity
of the great bear-hunter such a candidate might be found.

Crockett, upon his return home, resumed his deerskin leggins, his
fringed hunting-shirt, his fox-skin cap, and shouldering his rifle,
plunged, as he thought, with his original zest, into the cheerless,
tangled, marshy forest which surrounded him. But the excitements of
Washington, the splendid entertainments of Philadelphia, New York, and
Boston, the flattery, the speech-making, which to him, with his
marvellous memory and his wonderful fluency of speech, was as easy as
breathing, the applause showered upon him, and the gorgeous vision of
the Presidency looming up before him, engrossed his mind. He sauntered
listlessly through the forest, his bear-hunting energies all paralyzed.
He soon grew very weary of home and of all its employments, and was
eager to return to the infinitely higher excitements of political life.

General Jackson was then almost idolized by his party. All through the
South and West his name was a tower of strength. Crockett had
originally been elected as a Jackson-man. He had abandoned the
Administration, and was now one of the most inveterate opponents of
Jackson. The majority in Crockett's district were in favor of Jackson.
The time came for a new election of a representative. Crockett made
every effort, in his old style, to secure the vote. He appeared at the
gatherings in his garb as a bear-hunter, with his rifle on his
shoulder. He brought 'coonskins to buy whiskey to treat his friends. A
'coonskin in the currency of that country was considered the equivalent
for twenty-five cents. He made funny speeches. But it was all in vain.

Greatly to his surprise, and still more to his chagrin, he lost his
election. He was beaten by two hundred and thirty votes. The whole
powerful influence of the Government was exerted against Crockett and
in favor of his competitor. It is said that large bribes were paid for
votes. Crockett wrote, in a strain which reveals the bitterness of his
disappoint