Though very few people had seen Crockett, he had obtained very considerable renown in that community of backwoodsmen as a great bear-hunter.  Dr. Butler, a man of considerable pretensions, and, by marriage, a nephew of General Jackson, was the rival candidate, and a formidable one.  Indeed, he and his friends quite amused themselves with the idea that “the gentleman from the cane,” as they contemptuously designated Crockett, could be so infatuated as to think that there was the least chance for him.  The population of that wilderness region was so scarce that the district for which a representative was to be chosen consisted of eleven counties.

A great political gathering was called, which was to be held in Madison County, which was the strongest of them all.  Here speeches were to be made by the rival candidates and their friends, and electioneering was to be practised by all the arts customary in that rude community.  The narrative of the events which ensued introduces us to a very singular state of society.  At the day appointed there was a large assembly, in every variety of backwoods costume, among the stumps and the lowly cabins of Jackson.  Crockett mingled with the crowd, watching events, listening to everything which was said, and keeping himself as far as possible unknown.

Dr. Butler, seeing a group of men, entered among them, and called for whiskey to treat them all.  The Doctor had once met Crockett when a few weeks before he had been in Jackson selling his furs.  He however did not recognize his rival among the crowd.  As the whiskey was passing freely around, Crockett thought it a favorable moment to make himself known, and to try his skill at an electioneering speech.  He was a good-looking man, with a face beaming with fun and smiles, and a clear, ringing voice.  He jumped upon a stump and shouted out, in tones which sounded far and wide, and which speedily gathered all around him.

“Hallo!  Doctor Butler; you don’t know me do you?  But I’ll make you know me mighty well before August.  I see they have weighed you out against me.  But I’ll beat you mighty badly.”

Butler pleasantly replied, “Ah, Colonel Crockett, is that you?  Where did you come from?”

Crockett rejoined, “Oh, I have just crept out from the cane, to see what discoveries I could make among the white folks.  You think you have greatly the advantage of me, Butler.  ’Tis true I live forty miles from any settlement.  I am poor, and you are rich.  You see it takes two coonskins here to buy a quart.  But I’ve good dogs, and my little boys at home will go to their death to support my election.  They are mighty industrious.  They hunt every night till twelve o’clock.  It keeps the little fellows mighty busy to keep me in whiskey.  When they gets tired, I takes my rifle and goes out and kills a wolf, for which the State pays me three dollars.  So one way or other I keeps knocking along.”

Crockett perhaps judged correctly that the candidate who could furnish the most whiskey would get the most votes.  He thus adroitly informed these thirsty men of his readiness and his ability to furnish them with all the liquor they might need.  Strange as his speech seems to us, it was adapted to the occasion, and was received with roars of laughter and obstreperous applause.