didya
PRESIDENT DEFENDS LOOSE WOMAN
September 10, 1829
Washington, D.C.
Peggy Eaton, daughter of an Irish tavern-keeper- and a notorious social climber- has been causing mayhem in the Jackson presidency for years.
Now she has destroyed it.
The president’s entire cabinet has either resigned or been fired, in one day, over this woman.
This shameful event is the latest in a string of sordid episodes, from cavorting with drunken tavern rabble at a tender age, to cuckolding her unsuspecting husband and pushing him to suicide, to a secret pregnancy with her companion in adultery.
This low and fallen woman, this practitioner of the worst vices, has degraded the very fabric of our society. She destroyed one husband, corrupted a second, compromised a president, tore apart a cabinet, and, if not stopped, will single-handedly cause the destruction of our government and our way of life.
Or…
It turns out “polite society” is not so polite.
The good ladies of the social register of Washington have perpetrated a campaign of terror against an innocent woman. Through rumors, innuendos, half-remembered and made-up stories from the past, and outright lies, they have slandered the good name of Margaret Eaton, lifelong resident of our city.
The daughter of a prominent entrepreneur, and the wife of a cabinet secretary, her innocence is defended by those who know her best, including the President of the United States himself.
The unforgivable treatment of this innocent woman is the result of the jealousy and backbiting of mean and petty magpies, sanctimonious arbiters of morality, hiding a vicious and barbaric vendetta behind a mask of respectability. They have started a feud, sullied a woman’s reputation, sowed discord throughout the city, and brought disgrace onto themselves. If not stopped, they will surely cause the destruction of our government and our way of life.
But seriously…
May 31, 2022
You didn’t want to get on the bad side of Andrew Jackson.
His fierce temper was legendary. He was unbending in defending what he thought was right, and he gave no quarter to those who he felt had wronged him. But in the case of Margaret Eaton, he also showed that he had tremendous reserves of perseverance and courage defending a friend against what he believed to be slander. In fact, to a degree never seen before or since in American politics, he staked his own good name, and his entire administration, on the defense of one woman.
From the Boarding House
Margaret O’Neal was the daughter of a boarding house owner in Washington D.C. From the time she was a young girl she interacted with the boarders, including many of the town’s notable figures. She thrived in that environment; she was charming and gregarious. Growing into a vibrant, beautiful young woman, she naturally attracted the attention of the men who passed through. She ended up marrying two of them. This familiarity with her father’s customers would cause trouble for her, and would one day split the capital into those who snubbed her, and those who defended her.
She married her first husband, John Bowie Timberlake, when she was only sixteen, after only knowing him for one month. Dolley Madison was among the guests at the wedding. (Margaret had wanted to marry another man one year earlier, when she was fifteen, but her father had opposed that marriage.) John was a purser in the Navy, which involved being away at sea for long stretches. He quit his job so that he could be at home with his bride, and went into business, but a financial reversal caused him to go back to his old job, which left young, pretty Margaret alone.
John Henry Eaton, another boarder, became her companion, comforting her in her loneliness. Timberlake died at sea, and Margaret married John a few months later. It was soon discovered that Timberlake had slit his own throat. Rumor circulated that he had killed himself out of grief over being cuckolded.
The allegation that Margaret was having an affair with John, while her older husband was at sea, would create a scandal that threatened to destroy a presidency. Because while John and Margaret were still newlyweds, President Andrew Jackson chose John Eaton to be his Secretary of War.
Government By Gossip
In that era the women of Washington presided over, and regulated, polite society through two conventions: the making of visits, and the throwing of parties.
Margaret, as the wife of an incoming cabinet secretary, was expected, as a sign of deference, to pay a visit to the wife of the presiding member of the cabinet. She would then return the visit. This was a way of maintaining the social order- and the power to accept or reject any newcomers. In this case, that was Floride Calhoun, the wife of the Vice President.
John and Margaret called on Mrs. Calhoun, who decided not to return the visit. That decision, followed by the wives of three members of Jackson’s cabinet, set the tone of public social rejection of Margaret Eaton.
As we’ll see later, it also may have cost Floride’s husband the presidency.
Everyone in Washington society was pro- or anti-Eaton. Secretary of the Navy John Branch, Attorney General John M. Berrien, and Secretary of the Treasury Samuel D. Ingham each threw a party; all of them chose to not invite the Eatons. The battle lines were drawn.
Letitia Porter was the wife of the outgoing Secretary of War, and the social leader of the outgoing John Quincy Adams administration. Margaret Bayard Smith, another Washington Maven, documented a gossip session she had with Porter, wherein they discussed their low opinions of the new cabinet, and of John and Margaret Eaton in particular. Smith summed up their verdict with rhetoric that would soon become reality:
“We tore it to pieces.”
Defender of Wronged Innocence
Margaret’s staunchest defender, President Jackson himself, spoke up not only for her virtue, but that of her husband, pointing out both John Eaton and John Timberlake were Masons (as was her father, who performed the Masonic ritual at George Washington’s funeral).
Margaret’s staunchest defender was President Jackson himself, who was intensely loyal to his friends, and was outraged by what he considered outright lies about a good woman. The friendship dated back to when he himself had been a boarder in her father’s house.
President Andrew Jackson had another reason to despise the attacks on this woman’s honor: he had seen his enemies do it to his wife. Rachel had been married before her marriage to Jackson. Her divorce may not have gone through when they were married (communications being very slow at that time), though she fully believed it had.
During his presidential campaign, Jackson’s enemies used this legal irregularity to attack him, targeting Rachel with the most salacious slander they could muster.
Rachel died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, after reading one of these accusations.
Andrew Jackson blamed the slanderers for her death, and he never forgot.
Now, he wasn’t about to see another woman’s reputation dragged through that same mud.
Unfortunately, Margaret Eaton was not Rachel Jackson. Everyone who knew Rachel said she was above suspicion in her moral conduct. Those who accused her knew they were lying. It was a clear-cut case of dirty politics: slandering the good name of a good woman in an effort to damage her husband politically. She was also his beloved wife, who hadn’t wanted to be involved in politics. Jackson was justified in his anger against them.
Margaret’s case was very different. The details of her life with Eaton, along with her history before she met him, were ripe for a scandal. Still, they could have been explained away were it not for her personality: she was headstrong, blunt, opinionated, and aggressive. She didn’t behave the way a woman was expected to behave. She didn’t know her place.
Unlike Rachel, she was politically ambitious. She enjoyed the prestige of being the wife of a cabinet secretary. Her frank, open nature, which worked to her benefit in the boardinghouse, only alienated the genteel socialites she now encountered.
The grieving president-elect buried his beloved Rachel, and traveled to Washington, bringing with him his niece, Emily Donelson, who would serve as White House hostess in the absence of a First Lady. Her husband, Andrew Donelson, would serve as Jackson’s secretary. After the loss of his wife, having his niece and nephew close to him was a comfort and joy to the president. He envisioned his nephew as his successor in the presidency. Emily later gave birth to a daughter, whom Jackson called, “the sunshine of the White House.”
But his relatives, the living link with his beloved Rachel, who should have been his comfort, only caused more distress. Because Emily sided with the society ladies over Margaret.
Why? It was important to her to be in the good graces of the elite of Washington women. But she also had a personal reason: Margaret was abrasive and arrogant toward Emily. With a little diplomacy she could have won her over, but she turned a potential ally into an enemy.
Rumors
The newspapers of the day were openly pro- or anti-Jackson, and those against him showed no delicacy in airing old rumors.
In addition to the lurid rumors about Margaret, it was alleged that John had impregnated a slave, and that Jackson’s mother was a British prostitute who married a black man by whom she had Andrew.
They liked to mix racism with their slander.
Duff Green, the editor of a pro-Jackson paper, wanted to do an expose on the frequency of pregnant brides in the Adams family; Jackson refused to allow such attacks. Green later turned anti-Jackson.
Jackson tried to shake these off, but he couldn’t ignore a letter from Reverend Ezra Stiles Ely, a Presbyterian minister, who claimed he had unmistakable proof of adultery: a pregnancy while Margaret’s husband was off to sea. His source was John N. Campbell, pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, Margaret’s own church.
Jackson couldn’t let these allegations stand. Despite suffering from severe kidney problems, a chronic pulmonary infection, malaria, dyspepsia, osteomyelitis, bronchiectasis, and totally decayed teeth- not to mention an impacted bullet still in his body, decided to spend his time and energy researching old rumors. This led to the most bizarre cabinet meeting in the history of the United States.
Jackson called a meeting of his entire cabinet, minus Eaton, and invited Ely and Campbell, who presented evidence against Eaton, with the president acting as defense counsel. He proved that John Timberlake was in fact in Washington at the time of the pregnancy.
Jackson had won the argument, but the specter of an ailing president devoting so much time and energy to this distraction couldn’t be ignored. This couldn’t go on.
Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s secretary of state, solved the problem for him, by offering to resign, suggesting that Eaton also resign- giving the president an excuse to jettison Eaton under the guise of a restructuring of the cabinet. This led to the entire cabinet either resigning or being fired- unheard of before or since.
In the wake of the cabinet breakup, John Eaton challenged two of his fellow cabinet secretaries, Ingham and Berrien (along with Reverend Campbell and one other man) to duels. The president, a famous dueler himself, supported him. So did Margaret. She told her husband,
“Give me the pistol and I will load it.”
Two Widowers
So, how did Floride Calhoun’s rejection of Margaret doom her husband’s path to the White House?
John C. Calhoun had been Secretary of War under Monroe, and Vice President under John Quincy Adams and then again under Jackson. He craved the presidency.
But the vice president was not about to argue with his wife. Floride had brought money into the marriage, allowing John to live the life of a wealthy man. She also had a temper, about which Calhoun said,
“It has been the only cross of my life.”
So he deferred to his wife. If Floride would snub Margaret, so would John.
Before long, President Jackson would view Vice President Calhoun as a traitor. By 1830, the president was referring to his own vice president as the most profound hypocrite he had ever known.
This provided an opportunity for another man who was close to the president, who also harbored presidential ambitions.
Martin Van Buren was the Secretary of State, the premier cabinet position.
An urbane New Yorker, the short and round Van Buren cut a very different figure from the tall, thin wild man from Tennessee.
Once on the stump he wore an orange cravat with lace tips, yellow kid gloves, and silk hose.
Another backwoodsman, Davy Crockett, said that Van Buren
“struts and swaggers like a crow in a gutter. He is laced up in corsets, such as women in a town wear, and, if possible, tighter than the best of them.”
Though very different than Jackson, he was just as wily.
When Calhoun rejected Margaret Eaton, Van Buren embraced her. He was naturally gregarious, adept at cultivating friendships, and eager to be liked, so accepting Margaret was in keeping with his personality. But there was something else about Martin that allowed him to support the Eatons.
He was a widower. Just as Jackson was.
He didn’t have, as Calhoun had, a wife who wanted to be accepted by the society ladies of Washington. So Van Buren was solidly in the pro-Eaton camp.
And that won for him the admiration and confidence of the president.
The two men became close, taking daily horseback rides together around the city. Before long it was clear that Van Buren, not Calhoun, was Jackson’s chosen successor.
It was Van Buren who solved Jackson’s Eaton problem for him, by offering to resign, suggesting that Eaton also resign- giving the president an excuse to jettison Eaton under the guise of a restructuring of the cabinet. This led to the entire cabinet either resigning or being fired- unheard of before or since.
After Van Buren’s resignation, Jackson nominated him as ambassador to England. On January 25, 1832, Van Buren’s nomination came up for a vote in the Senate. The vote was 24-23 against- with Vice President Calhoun casting the tie-breaking vote.
Calhoun’s short-term vengeful success redounded to his long-term failure, because Jackson was not about to take this insult without responding, and because Van Buren, now unemployed, was available for another job: the vice presidency.
Jackson replaced Calhoun on the presidential ticket for the 1832 election with Van Buren, and they won. Van Buren then became president in 1836.
More Scandals
Margaret wasn’t finished finding herself in the middle of scandal after her days in Washington. John was made Ambassador to Spain, where Margaret’s outspokenness almost caused an international incident.
While waiting in an unheated room for an audience with the queen, Margaret threatened to leave if the queen wouldn’t see her immediately, saying she “would not die of the pneumonia for any Queen of Spain.” A diplomat got word to the queen, who came and apologized.
After John’s death, Margaret became Margaret O’Neale Timberlake Eaton Buchignani, after getting married, in New York City, on June 7, 1859, to her grandchildren’s nineteen-year-old Italian dancing teacher, Antonio Buchignani.
First he stole $700 in silver from her, then convinced her to not tell the police. She then deeded all her property to him. He repaid her by running off to Italy, with seventeen-year-old Emily, her youngest granddaughter, with whom he had a baby.
Antonio was killed in a barroom in Memphis in 1872.
If Andrew Jackson hadn’t already been dead by that time, he might have been the one who killed him.
Sources
The Petticoat Affair, Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House, John F. Marszalek
A Being So Gentle, The Frontier Love Story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson, Patricia Brady
American Lion, Jon Meacham
