In 1824, Benton, a supporter of presidential candidate William H. Crawford, published an anti-Jackson pamphlet accusing him of nepotism, corruption, and grossly abusive behavior to subordinates.

Benton was an early pioneer of the Republic of Texas; he left the Alamo to recruit reinforcements for the fort just days before the storied battle with the Mexican army.

Senator from Missouri Thomas Hart Benton was in the capital city, Washington, D.C., lobbying on behalf of Jackson, who had launched the Natchez Expedition without funding from the U.S. Department of War, and thus needed to get a funding appropriation made by Congress to cover his substantial expenses.

Thus it was that, in 1813, the Benton brothers fought Andrew Jackson, John Coffee, and Stockley D. Hays in a tavern in Nashville.

[6] The same account of the Bentons in Williamson County stated, "Jesse is represented as having been a man of awful temper and of indomitable preservance.

[11][12] According to the memoir of an early surveyor, "No other persons had settled in Shelby County at that time that I know of unless Jesse Benton had done so on Big Creek.

He ordered his overseer and slaves to take the man across the river and box him up in a hollow tree where he would have to stand upright without food and water until he disgorged or told the truth about the money.

When the treed man stuck to the story that he was robbed, Benton ordered his men to saw the tree down.

When the incarcerated man felt the teeth of the saw ripping through his clothing he begged not to be sawn asunder and confessed that he had lost Benton's money in a New Orleans gambling house.

The pamphlet and a similar broadside charged Jackson with nepotism, corruption, and grossly abusive behavior to subordinates and his supporters described it as "scurrilous.

"[21][22][23][24] According to historian Louis Harlan, the pamphlet "accused the General of 'every known offense against Divine and human laws,' among other things, of bulldozing and corruption in the Senate election of 1823, of speculation in Florida lands and the salt lick reservation, and barbaric personal conduct.

"[25] William Berkeley Lewis, one of Jackson's circle of political promoters, wrote an point-by-point rebuttal in anonymous letter form that was published in the for the Philadelphia Columbia Observer on September 20, 1824.

"[27] Benton was part of a group that traveled together from Nacogdoches, Texas in 1836, several of whom, including Davey Crockett, were later killed defending the Alamo from the Mexican Army.

Benton, Peter Harper, and H. S. Kimble separated the group at Washington, Texas, rather than continuing on to San Antonio.

[28] A scrawled note on an 1829 letter written by Benton that is held in the San Jacinto Museum manuscript collection reads, "The gamest man I ever saw, killed in the Alamo, Texas, 1835.

Badgett saw him near Nacogdoches about the 25th, on his way to Jonesborough, Miller county, in this Territory, where a volunteer company was organizing, and with whom he intended marching for the seat of war.

Official information has just reached us that Santa Anna has crossed the Rio Grande, and is marching against us with a large army for the purpose of exterminating us.

The country becomes too soft for cavalry and artillery in wet weather—and if the Mexican troops confine themselves to the sea coast to receive supplies, the climate will destroy them.

"[29] According to Republic of Texas military records, Benton "enlisted April 9, 1836 in the company of Columbia Volunteers, commanded by Captain William H. Patton.