American Pioneers and Patriots

David Crockett may not have been a model man, at least not by today's standards, but he was very representative of his social culture of his time. Once there were many men like him, now it is doubtful there are few left. These men were a source of great power and influence within the republic, and shaped our country from rugged wilderness to what it is today. His wild and wondrous life is therefore worthy of the study of every patriot. Of this class, their ways of life and habits of thought, the majority of our citizens know as little as they do of the manners and customs of the Comanche Indians.No man can make his name known to the millions of this great and busy republic without being very remarkable in his character and his career. Yet there is probably not an adult American, in all these widespread States, who has not heard of David Crockett. His life is a veritable romance, with the additional charm of unquestionable truth. It opens to the reader scenes in the lives of the lowly, and a state of semi-civilization, of which but few of them can have the faintest idea. It is not the intent of this narrative to defend Colonel Crockett or to condemn him, but to present his peculiar character exactly as it was. The author has therefore been pressed to insert some things which he may have omitted.