During Jackson's first term his troubles were exacerbated by a scandal involving a woman. Needless to say, it would not be the last time in American history that such occurred.
Margaret O'Neale Timberlake Eaton was not the focus of the first sexual scandal in American history, but she was at the center of one of the most interesting ones. Daughter of the keeper of a popular Washington tavern and boarding house, where she often charmed the clientele, Peggy was an attractive, vivacious young woman. She captured the attention of some of the most powerful men in America, including Senator John Eaton, a close friend of Andrew Jackson.
As a young woman Peggy had married John Timberlake, a Navy purser who spent considerable time at sea. It was said that his untimely death in a foreign port was a suicide brought about by Peggy's infidelity, a charge never proven. Whether true or not, p c fn Peggy got married again, this time to John Eaton, whom she had
Met in her father's establishment and who soon became a Secretary of War in Andrew Jackson's cabinet. Jackson had in fact urged Eaton to marry Peggy to quiet wagging tongues.
Soon after Jackson's inauguration it became apparent that the wives of the other cabinet members did not approve of Mrs. Eaton's allegedly lurid past. She was snubbed at White House receptions, and Washington political society refused to accept or return social visits from Mrs. Eaton; they pronounced themselves scandalized that Mrs. Eaton was even invited to participate in polite Washington company.
Jackson had known Peggy Eaton for some time and liked her. Perhaps more important, Jackson felt tenderly the loss of his wife, Rachel, just months before his inauguration, and he blamed her death in part on what he saw as slanderous attacks on his own marriage (the old charge that Rachel and Andrew Jackson had been living in sin.) Always one to take offense at an attack on his own personal honor, Jackson naturally sided with Peggy and John Eaton and became furious with the allegations. He fumed: "I did not come here to make a cabinet for the ladies of this place, but for the nation!"
The situation deteriorated to the point where it even became difficult for Jackson's cabinet to conduct its regular business, so preoccupied were the members with the Eaton affair. Martin Van Buren, Jackson's Secretary of State, was a widower and therefore safe from wifely criticism of Mrs. Eaton. Van Buren could therefore afford to be kind to Peggy, which gratified Jackson. Finally, as a way out of the "Eaton malaria," Van Buren offered to resign and suggested that the rest of the cabinet do so also. Jackson gratefully accepted his offer and promised to aid Van Buren, which he did, naming him Ambassador to Great Britain.
There was more to this story, however. The attack on Mrs. Eaton had been led by Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun had been elected vice president both in 1824 and 1828 and had run separately from Jackson. Old animosities between Jackson and Calhoun dating back to Calhoun's tenure as Secretary of War under President James Monroe resurfaced. Secretary Eaton discovered evidence in War Department files that were critical of Jackson when he was chasing Indians in Florida. Van Buren's appointment to the Court of St. James had to be approved by the Senate, and because of growing opposition to Jackson's policies in the Senate, the vote for approval turned out to be a tie.
Vice President Calhoun, presiding over the Senate, was thus able to cast the deciding vote against Van Buren. Henry Clay, a savvy politician himself, remarked to Calhoun that he had destroyed an ambassador but created a Vice President.
And so it was. In 1832 Andrew Jackson asked Van Buren to join him on the Democratic Party ticket as his running mate and candidate for vice president. Jackson and Van Buren were elected, and Van Buren succeeded President Jackson in the election of 1836. Thus the Peggy Eaton affair, rather than remaining a low-level scandal, altered the course of American political history, not the first time nor the last in which a woman would play that role.
Peggy's colorful life did not end there. Some years later John Eaton died, leaving his widow a small fortune. But she was not destined to live a quiet retirement—at age 61 she married twenty-one year old Antonio Buchignani, her granddaughter's dancing teacher and deeded all her belongings to him. Less than a year later he eloped to Italy with Peggy's young granddaughter, and Peggy was forced to work as a dressmaker to support herself. She died in 1879 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in a grave next to that of John Eaton, whose name she reclaimed. At her funeral a large floral piece of white roses sent by President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes was placed on Peggy's grave.
In her own autobiography Peggy Eaton wrote, "My likes and dislikes are not small. The fact is I do not believe I ever did exactly like or dislike anybody. I think they always hated everybody I did not love and always loved everybody I did not hate."
The literature on Margaret O'Neale Timberlake Eaton Buchignani Eaton is considerable.
States' Rights versus Union: Daniel Webster's Union Address
The issue of "Union" does not resonate with Americans today because we take it for granted. During the early 19th century, the idea of Union was for many Americans very much like our current feelings of patriotism, what many Americans feel on the 4th of July, or when they chant "U. S.A." at an international sports event, or when the nation is successful in some significant endeavor. But the idea of "America," was not universally shared in those times, as regional loyalties often outweighed national feelings. Robert E. Lee famously refused command of the federal armies at the outset of the Civil War, saying he could not raise his sword against his "country"—Virginia.
Yet people like John Marshall felt strongly about the meaning of the Union. When reflecting on his service during the American Revolution, he recalled it as an experience "where I was confirmed in the habit of considering America as my country and Congress as my government." Nathan Hale's famous dying declaration, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," expresses the same sentiment. During the Civil War President Lincoln thanked soldiers for offering their lives in the service of "this dear Union of ours."
The idea of Union was very strong among Americans, especially in the North. In 1861 thousands of young northern men and boys went off to fight for the concept of the Union. Prior to the Civil War, the prime articulator of that idea was Daniel Webster.
In 1830, when South Carolina was contemplating nullification of the "Tariff of Abominations" and perhaps even secession, a debate arose in the United States Senate over the use of public lands. Westerners were arguing essentially a state sovereignty position with regard to federal lands, and South Carolina Senator Robert Hayne entered the debate on the side of the West, hoping to gain an ally for South Carolina's states' rights position.
Calling himself a Unionist, Daniel Webster deftly turned the debate from one over western lands and the tariff to an argument on states' rights versus national sovereignty. Rejecting the charge that the eastern states, including his native New England, had attacked Southern
Or Western interests, Webster also rejected Haynes's claim that a state had the right to interpose itself between the federal government and its own citizens and expounded upon the meaning of the United States Constitution. Asking rhetorically whose Constitution it was, Webster Stated:
It is, sir, the people's Constitution, the people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. The people of the United States have declared that this Constitution shall be the supreme law. We must either admit the proposition or dispute their authority.
Rising to the full height of his oratorical power, Webster claimed at the conclusion of his lengthy address that he could not contemplate life without the Union. Referring to the American flag, "the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, he rejected notions of "Liberty first and Union afterwards," but staked his claim firmly upon, "that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart,—Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and inseparable!" It was said that ladies fainted and strong men wept at the power of the Divine Daniel's words.49
A young Whig politician in Illinois no doubt read Webster's famous oration. Abraham Lincoln later incorporated the concept of "government of the people, by the people, for the people" into his Gettysburg Address.
World History
