“I know that as obscure as I am, my name is making considerable of a fuss in the world. I can’t tell why it is, nor in what it is to end. Go where I will, everybody seems anxious to get a peep at me; and it would be hard to tell which would have the advantage if I and the ‘Government’ [Jackson] and ‘Black Hawk’ [Adam Huntsman, his competitor in the Congressional campaigns], and a great big eternal caravan of wild varments were all to be showed at the same time in four different parts of any of the big cities in the nation. I am not so sure that I should not get the most custom of any of the crew. There must therefore be something in me, or about me, that attracts attention, which is even mysterious to myself.” In one instance Davy uses the words, “Just as Clay and Webster and myself are preparing to fix bank matters, on account of the scarcity of money.” He also speaks of “a few such men as Clay and Webster and myself.” His reflections at this time throw light upon the sudden turning-point in his career, a few years later. When Davy arrived at Washington, the news of the great naval battle of Navarino had just arrived by the clipper ship _North Star_, twelve days from London. When she rounded to in Baltimore harbor, stowing her sails with trim precision almost before her anchor caught, the men of the sea were more interested in the “cracker-jack” run than in the news she brought. When Davy heard of the incidents connected with the naval battle, he is said to have remarked that “when three kinds of wild varments get to hunting together, Uncle Sam would better be looking out for his sheep.” He referred to the fact that during four hours of the afternoon of October 20, 1827, the combined squadrons of England, Russia, and France, made up of ten ships of the line, ten frigates, and nine smaller vessels, had shot to pieces or sunk under fire more than one hundred war-vessels of the Turkish navy, under Moharem Bey, four thousand Moslems being killed or drowned. The battle of Navarino failed to wake Uncle Sam to his need of a navy, and until the wolves, in the shape of the _Florida_ and the _Alabama_ and other ships quite as daring, began to thin his flock, he remained asleep. The politicians of 1827 to 1840 were men who fought each other with any weapons they could wield, and, in want of weapon, they used filth and mud. A merciful oblivion has covered with the dust of many years their words and deeds. XVI. IN CONGRESS Davy’s place in politics――He is elected for a second term――His opposition to President Jackson――After two terms in Congress, he is defeated by a contemptible trick――The influence of the Murrell gang is felt――Two years in retirement――Writing his autobiography――The Middle Fork camp-meeting――The wildcat hunter from the Wolf Creek Branch――At a shooting-match――The generosity of Davy――He is elected by a large majority.