That’s alright. Interestingly, Here’s a page about the Gales and Seaton era of being the chroniclers of debate in Congress. You need to go to the 5th paragraph to find where it begins...
Was there supposed to be a link?
Some additional points: The link in my post #23 identifies the “Reports of Debate” as “an abstract of most House and Senate floor statements”. Being an abstract we can assume it does not detail the entirety of debates or a representative’s complete statements on an issue.
Thus, where the abstract reads (first image) “The latter [Crockett] offering to subscribe his quota, in his private character, to make up the sum proposed”, this could be a simplification of an actual speech given by Crockett similar to the story where he supposedly states “I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay to the object...”.
OTOH, in the story Crockett responds with ““Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some other members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown.” when asked about the vote he cast. The “Reports and Debate” record shows a date of April 2, 1828 for the record. Crockett was first elected to Congress in 1827. There is no way he was accosted by an angry voter during a re-election campaign “Several years [before]”.
Also, the story implies the bill was voted down (applying strength to Crockett’s argument and veracity). The “Reports and Debate” record shows the bill as passing, although Crockett did indeed vote against it.
Thus, we have kernels of truth among a great deal of embellishment.