But the true story is even more inspiring. He was first elected to Congress as an Andrew Jackson Democrat in 1826. But he was re-elected in 1828 as an anti-Jackson “Whig” (a new party named after party that fought to limit power of king in England). Crockett opposed Jackson Democrats for ignoring Constitution and using federal government laws, spending, jobs and contracts to buy political support, reward personal friends and punish opponents—and remove Cherokee Indians from their land so it could be sold to political insiders for a fraction of its value. Crockett, like most Whigs also opposed Jackson’s brutality as a slave trader in breaking up families to sell slaves “down the river” to barbaric labor camps that cleared woods for cotton plantations in Mississippi and Alabama. He was defeated for re-election by Jackson Democrats in 1830, but won election in 1832. However, he was defeated again in 1834. In his farewell speech, Crockett told his opponents and his constituents, “Y’all can go to hell! I’m going to Texas!” In that same year, 25 year old Abraham Lincoln was elected to his first term in the Illinois State Legislature as a member of the Whig Party. ?Click here for 2011 Charlie Lyon essay in Patriot Post “Not Yours to Give.”