About the time we were getting under good headway in our new government,
a Capt. Matthews came to me and told me he was a candidate for the
office of colonel of a regiment, and that I must run for first major in
the same regiment. I objected to this, telling him that I thought I had
done my share of fighting, and that I wanted nothing to do with military
appointments.
He still insisted, until at last I agreed, and of course had every
reason to calculate on his support in my election. He was an early
settler in that country, and made rather more corn than the rest of us;
and knowing it would afford him a good opportunity to electioneer a
little, he made a great corn husking, and a great frolic, and gave a
general treat, asking every body over the whole country. Myself and my
family were, of course, invited. When I got there, I found a very large
collection of people, and some friend of mine soon informed me that the
captain's son was going to offer against me for the office of major,
which he had seemed so anxious for me to get. I cared nothing about the
office, but it put my dander up high enough to see, that after he had
pressed me so hard to offer, he was countenancing, if not encouraging, a
secret plan to beat me. I took the old gentleman out, and asked him
about it. He told me it was true his son was going to run as a
candidate, and that he hated worse to run against me than any man in the
county. I told him his son need give himself no uneasiness about that;
that I shouldn't run against him for major, but against his daddy for
colonel. He took me by the hand, and we went into the company. He then
made a speech, and informed the people that I was his opponent. I
mounted up for a speech too. I told the people the cause of my opposing
him, remarking that as I had the whole family to run against any way, I
was determined to levy on the head of the mess. When the time for the
election came, his son was opposed by another man for major; and he and
his daddy were both badly beaten. I just now began to take a rise, as in
a little time I was asked to offer for the Legislature in the counties
of Lawrence and Heckman.
I offered my name in the month of February, and started about the first
of March with a drove of horses to the lower part of the state of North
Carolina. This was in the year 1821, and I was gone upwards of three
months. I returned, and set out electioneering, which was a bran-fire
new business to me. It now became necessary that I should tell the
people something about the government, and an eternal sight of other
things that I knowed nothing more about than I did about Latin, and law,
and such things as that. I have said before that in those days none of
us called Gen'l. Jackson the government, nor did he seem in as fair a
way to become so as I do now; but I knowed so little about it, that if
any one had told me he was "the government," I should have believed it,
for I had never read even a newspaper in my life, or any thing else, on
the subject. But over all my difficulties, it seems to me I was born for
luck, though it would be hard for any one to guess what sort. I will,
however, explain that hereafter.
I went first into Heckman county, to see what I could do among the
people as a candidate. Here they told me that they wanted to move their
town nearer to the centre of the county, and I must come out in favour
of it. There's no devil if I knowed what this meant, or how the town was
to be moved; and so I kept dark, going on the identical same plan that I
now find is called "_non-committal_." About this time there was a great
squirrel hunt on Duck river, which was among my people. They were to
hunt two days: then to meet and count the scalps, and have a big
barbecue, and what might be called a tip-top country frolic. The dinner,
and a general treat, was all to be paid for by the party having taken
the fewest scalps. I joined one side, taking the place of one of the
hunters, and got a gun ready for the hunt. I killed a great many
squirrels, and when we counted scalps, my party was victorious.
The company had every thing to eat and drink that could be furnished in
so new a country, and much fun and good humour prevailed. But before the
regular frolic commenced, I mean the dancing, I was called on to make a
speech as a candidate; which was a business I was as ignorant of as an
outlandish negro.
A public document I had never seen, nor did I know there were such
things; and how to begin I couldn't tell. I made many apologies, and
tried to get off, for I know'd I had a man to run against who could
speak prime, and I know'd, too, that I wa'n't able to shuffle and cut
with him. He was there, and knowing my ignorance as well as I did
myself, he also urged me to make a speech. The truth is, he thought my
being a candidate was a mere matter of sport; and didn't think, for a
moment, that he was in any danger from an ignorant back-woods bear
hunter. But I found I couldn't get off, and so I determined just to go
ahead, and leave it to chance what I should say. I got up and told the
people, I reckoned they know'd what I come for, but if not, I could tell
them. I had come for their votes, and if they didn't watch mighty close,
I'd get them too. But the worst of all was, that I couldn't tell them
any thing about government. I tried to speak about something, and I
cared very little what, until I choaked up as bad as if my mouth had
been jam'd and cram'd chock full of dry mush. There the people stood,
listening all the while, with their eyes, mouths and ear all open, to
catch every word I would speak.
At last I told them I was like a fellow I had heard of not long before.
He was beating on the head of an empty barrel near the road-side, when a
traveler, who was passing along, asked him what he was doing that for?
The fellow replied, that there was some cider in that barrel a few days
before, and he was trying to see if there was any then, but if there was
he couldn't get at it. I told them that there had been a little bit of a
speech in me a while ago, but I believed I couldn't get it out. They
all roared out in a mighty laugh, and I told some other anecdotes,
equally amusing to them, and believing I had them in a first-rate way, I
quit and got down, thanking the people for their attention. But I took
care to remark that I was as dry as a powder horn, and that I thought it
was time for us all to wet our whistles a little; and so I put off to
the liquor stand, and was followed by the greater part of the crowd.
I felt certain this was necessary, for I knowed my competitor could open
government matters to them as easy as he pleased. He had, however,
mighty few left to hear him, as I continued with the crowd, now and then
taking a horn, and telling good humoured stories, till he was done
speaking. I found I was good for the votes at the hunt, and when we
broke up, I went on to the town of Vernon, which was the same they
wanted me to move. Here they pressed me again on the subject, and I
found I could get either party by agreeing with them. But I told them I
didn't know whether it would be right or not, and so couldn't promise
either way.
Their court commenced on the next Monday, as the barbacue was on a
Saturday, and the candidates for governor and for Congress, as well as
my competitor and myself, all attended. The thought of having to make a
speech made my knees feel mighty weak, and set my heart to fluttering
almost as bad as my first love scrape with the Quaker's niece. But as
good luck would have it, these big candidates spoke nearly all day, and
when they quit, the people were worn out with fatigue, which afforded me
a good apology for not discussing the government. But I listened mighty
close to them, and was learning pretty fast about political matters.
When they were all done, I got up and told some laughable story, and
quit. I found I was safe in those parts, and so I went home, and didn't
go back again till after the election was over. But to cut this matter
short, I was elected, doubling my competitor, and nine votes over.
A short time after this, I was in Pulaski, where I met with Colonel
Polk, now a member of Congress from Tennessee. He was at that time a
member elected to the Legislature, as well as myself; and in a large
company he said to me, "Well, colonel, I suppose we shall have a radical
change of the judiciary at the next session of the Legislature." "Very
likely, sir," says I, and I put out quicker, for I was afraid some one
would ask me what the judiciary was; and if I knowed I wish I may be
shot. I don't indeed believe I had ever before heard that there was any
such thing in all nature; but still I was not willing that the people
there should know how ignorant I was about it.
When the time for meeting of the Legislature arrived, I went on, and
before I had been there long, I could have told what the judiciary was,
and what the government was too; and many other things that I had known
nothing about before.
About this time I met with a very severe misfortune, which I may be
pardoned for naming, as it made a great change in my circumstances, and
kept me back very much in the world. I had built an extensive grist
mill, and powder mill, all connected together, and also a large
distillery. They had cost me upwards of three thousand dollars, more
than I was worth in the world. The first news that I heard after I got
to the Legislature, was, that my mills were--not blown up sky high, as
you would guess, by my powder establishment,--but swept away all to
smash by a large fresh, that came soon after I left home. I had, of
course, to stop my distillery, as my grinding was broken up; and,
indeed, I may say, that the misfortune just made a complete mash of me.
I had some likely negroes, and a good stock of almost every thing about
me, and, best of all, I had an honest wife. She didn't advise me, as is
too fashionable, to smuggle up this, and that, and t'other, to go on at
home; but she told me, says she, "Just pay up, as long as you have a
bit's worth in the world; and then every body will be satisfied, and we
will scuffle for more." This was just such talk as I wanted to hear, for
a man's wife can hold him devlish uneasy, if she begins to scold, and
fret, and perplex him, at a time when he has a full load for a rail-road
car on his mind already.
And so, you see, I determined not to break full handed, but thought it
better to keep a good conscience with an empty purse, than to get a bad
opinion of myself, with a full one. I therefore gave up all I had, and
took a bran-fire new start.