What Was The Petticoat Affair Scandal?

The Petticoat Affair, a political controversy involving members of President Andrew Jackson's Cabinet and their wives, occurred between 1829 and 1831. The women, who were reportedly led by Vice President John C. Calhoun's wife Floride Calhoun, went to great lengths to publicly shun and exclude Secretary of War John Eaton and his wife, Peggy O'Neale Eaton, from Washington, D.C.'s elite society over details pertaining to the Eatons' marriage and what they believed Peggy had failed to meet in terms of the unwritten "moral standards of a Cabinet Wife."

 

•    Between 1829 and 1831, members of President Andrew Jackson's cabinet and their wives were embroiled in a political scandal known as "The Petticoat Affair."

 

•    The women openly shun and exclude Secretary of War John Eaton and his wife, Peggy O'Neale Eaton, from Washington society under the leadership of Floride, the wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun.

 

•    Martin Van Buren was elected vice president in 1832 and became president in 1836 as a result of the resignations of Jackson's whole Cabinet and Vice President Calhoun following the controversy.

 

All but one member of the Cabinet eventually resigned after the Petticoat Affair wrecked the Jackson Administration. The scandal also contributed to Martin Van Buren's victory in the 1836 presidential election and played a role in Vice President Calhoun's transformation from a national political figure with aspirations of becoming president into a supporter of slavery as a sectional leader of the Southern states.

 

Andrew Jackson won the presidency in 1828 despite a campaign previously characterized by smear campaigns and false charges. John Eaton, Jackson's Secretary of War, wed Margaret "Peggy" O'Neill, the daughter of William O'Neill, proprietor of the Franklin House, a well-known boarding house and bar in Washington, D.C., less than a year after taking office. Franklin House, which located close to the White House, was a well-known gathering place for politicians. 

 

Peggy had learned French, played the piano, and worked at her father's pub, making her a well-educated woman for the time. Despite being young, her reputation has suffered as a result of her employment in a place of business mostly frequented by men and her casual conversation with the tavern's frequently powerful customers. When she was still wearing pantalettes and playing hula hoop with other girls, Peggy recounted in her memoirs, "I had the attention of men, young and old, enough to turn a girl's head." Jackson's Cabinet would experience turmoil and scandal as a result of Peggy O'Neill's union with John Eaton.

 

Peggy O'Neill, who was 17 at the time, wed purser (payroll officer) John B. Timberlake, who was 39 at the time, in 1816. Timberlake has a history of drinking and was deeply in debt. In 1818, Peggy and John Timberlake made friends with John Eaton, a prosperous 28-year-old widower from Tennessee who had just been elected to the U.S. Senate. Andrew Jackson and Eaton were close friends for a very long period.

 

When Eaton learned of Timberlake's financial difficulties, Eaton convinced the Senate to approve a resolution allowing the government to settle all debts Timberlake racked up while serving in the Navy. Eaton arranged for Timberlake to be given a prestigious position with the Navy's Mediterranean Squadron after clearing up his obligations. The gossip in D.C. was that- Eaton had helped Timberlake in order to get him out of Washington so he could covertly interact with Peggy.

 

John Timberlake's widow Peggy wed Eaton in 1828 after he passed away at sea. Soon, rumors in Washington began to circulate that Timberlake had committed suicide after finding out about Peggy's alleged liaison with Easton. The Navy came to the conclusion that pneumonia caused Timberlake's death.

 

President-elect Jackson reportedly persuaded Peggy Timberlake to wed John Eaton before he took office on March 4, 1829. On January 1, 1829, just nine months after Peggy's husband passed away, the couple was wed. The "appropriate" mourning phase should have lasted longer after their marriage, according to tradition.

 

After assuming office, President Jackson added Eaton as the Secretary of War to his Cabinet. Floride Calhoun, the second lady of the United States, was enraged by this. Floride organized the spouses of several prominent politicians in Washington, primarily Cabinet members, to form a "anti-Peggy" coalition that was successful in socially and publically shunning the Eatons. Few families in the Washington area welcomed them as guests, and they were not given invites to social gatherings. During the "Petticoat Affair," President Jackson sided with the Eatons, protecting the marriage both in private and in public.

 

Emily Donelson, a prominent member of Floride Calhoun's alliance, was the niece of Andrew Jackson's late wife Rachel Donelson Robards and the spouse of adviser Andrew Jackson Donelson, Jackson's adoptive son. Emily Donelson was popularly regarded as Jackson's "surrogate First Lady" as a result of their strong friendship. Jackson was enraged by Emily Donelson's choice to side with Floride Calhoun in shunning the Eatons, so he appointed his daughter-in-law Sarah Yorke Jackson as his official White House hostess in her place. Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State and future president, rose in the Jackson administration by supporting the Eatons over Floride Calhoun despite being the only unmarried member of the Cabinet.

 

Jackson was harassed by claims that his late wife Rachel had wed him in violation of the law before her first marriage was formally over during his presidential campaign. Jackson believed that these unfounded accusations were to blame for Rachel Eaton's sudden death from a heart attack on December 22, 1828, only weeks after he was elected president, which helped to explain his sympathy for the Eatons.

 

Support for Floride Calhoun's organization was further eroded by Eaton's prominent nomination as Secretary of War. Even worse, Jackson had been enraged by Floride Calhoun's husband, Vice President John C. Calhoun, who had led the opposition to Jackson's election to a second term. The goal of Calhoun and his supporters was for him to be elected president. Jackson supported the protective tariff known as the "Tariff of Abominations" in 1828, but Calhoun was also against it. This import tax, which limited foreign competition and mainly benefited industry in northern cities, was passionately resented in the rural South.

 

Southerners, led by Calhoun, argued that the states had the right to refuse to obey federal laws they believed to be illegal, even to the point of secession from the Union, during the nullification crisis that broke out in 1832 as a result of the tariff issue. But Jackson had pledged to keep the Union together. Jackson publicly accused Calhoun and his wife Floride of shunning John and Peggy Eaton in order to gain political clout in his bid for the president as they were the most prominent rival to him.

 

Finally, in the spring of 1831, Jackson removed all but one of his Cabinet members at the urging of Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, who, like Jackson, backed the Eatons. This reduced Calhoun's authority.

 

In 1830, Easton responded against Calhoun. Newspaper letters revealed that when Jackson was still a general in the U.S. Army and Calhoun was secretary of war, Calhoun privately pushed for Congress to officially condemn Jackson for ordering the invasion of Florida in the First Seminole War in 1818. Jackson was furious and falsely charged Calhoun of publishing the letters.

 

When Van Buren and Secretary of War Eaton resigned from their Cabinet positions in 1831, compelling Calhoun's friends to follow suit, the Petticoat Affair was put to rest. Van Buren was given the position of Minister to Great Britain by Jackson, who also created a new Cabinet. Van Buren became a martyr when Vice President Calhoun, who presided over the Senate as president, gave the decisive vote against the appointment. Jackson gave Eaton appointments that took him away from Washington, first as governor of the Florida Territory, and then as minister to Spain and Shortly before his term as vice president came to an end, Calhoun resigned from his position and moved back to South Carolina with his wife. 

 

After being swiftly elected to the U.S. Senate, he left Washington as a southern sectional leader who promoted states' rights and the growth and protection of slavery rather than as a national leader with presidential aspirations.Van Buren, who is now jokingly referred to as the "Little Magician," was chosen to serve as Andrew Jackson's vice president in 1832 and as president in 1836.

 

Jackson said, "I would rather have live vermin on my back than the tongue of one of these Washington women on my reputation," when he was later asked about the Petticoat incident.