All the family were neatly dressed in home-made garments.  Mrs. Crockett was a grave, dignified woman, very courteous to her guests.  The daughters were remarkably pretty, but very diffident.  Though entirely uneducated, they could converse very easily, seeming to inherit their father’s fluency of utterance.  They were active and efficient in aiding their mother in her household work.  Colonel Crockett, with much apparent pleasure, conducted his guest over the small patch of ground he had grubbed and was cultivating.  He exhibited his growing peas and pumpkins, and his little field of corn, with as much apparent pleasure as an Illinois farmer would now point out his hundreds of acres of waving grain.  The hunter seemed surprisingly well informed.  As we have mentioned, nature had endowed him with unusual strength of mind, and with a memory which was almost miraculous.  He never forgot anything he had heard.  His electioneering tours had been to him very valuable schools of education.  Carefully he listened to all the speeches and the conversation of the intelligent men he met with.

John Quincy Adams was then in the Presidential chair.  It was the year 1827.  Nearly all Crockett’s constituents were strong Jackson-men.  Crockett, who afterward opposed Jackson, subsequently said, speaking of his views at that time: 

“I can say on my conscience, that I was, without disguise, the friend and supporter of General Jackson upon his principles, as he had laid them down, and as I understood them, before his election as President.”

Alluding to Crockett’s political views at that time, his guest writes, “I held in high estimation the present Administration of our country.  To this he was opposed.  His views, however, delighted me.  And were they more generally adopted we should be none the loser.  He was opposed to the Administration, and yet conceded that many of its acts were wise and efficient, and would have received his cordial support.  He admired Mr. Clay, but had objections to him.  He was opposed to the Tariff, yet, I think, a supporter of the United States Bank.  He seemed to have the most horrible objection to binding himself to any man or set of men.  He said, ’I would as lieve be an old coon-dog as obliged to do what any man or set of men would tell me to do.  I will support the present Administration as far as I would any other; that is, as far as I believe its views to be right.  I will pledge myself to support no Administration.  I had rather be politically damned than hypocritically immortalized.’”

In the winter of 1827, Crockett emerged from his cabin in the wilderness for a seat in Congress.  He was so poor that he had not money enough to pay his expenses to Washington.  His election had cost him one hundred and fifty dollars, which a friend had loaned him.  The same friend advanced one hundred dollars more to help him on his journey.

“When I left home,” he says, “I was happy, devilish, and full of fun.  I bade adieu to my friends, dogs, and rifle, and took the stage, where I met with much variety of character, and amused myself when my humor prompted.  Being fresh from the backwoods, my stories amused my companions, and I passed my time pleasantly.