He Defied a President and Lost RoadyGoat
1823Davy Crockett's last home in Tennessee was out here in West Tennessee, near Rutherford, and from this country he went all the way to Congress. Sent to Washington in 1827, the frontier bear hunter became a national character. But Crockett had a stubborn streak about doing right. When President Andrew Jackson, a fellow Tennessean, pushed his 1830 law to force the Cherokee off their lands, Crockett voted against it, almost alone in his state's delegation. He said he would rather be honestly beaten than win by going against his conscience. That stand helped end his political career. He lost, won, and lost again, and after the final defeat he turned toward Texas. A reconstructed cabin museum stands in Rutherford today, near a grave long honored as that of his mother, Rebecca. (Sources: David Crockett Cabin Museum, Rutherford; Congressional records; standard biographies.)