Peggy Eaton: The Petticoat Affair Essay Example

in constant association with visitors, many of whom happen to be powerful politicians. But these men, became powerless before Peggy’s dark-haired attractiveness, shapely body, and spirited manners. Such qualities were too much to resist for the men who frequent their establishment --- both young and old alike.

The numbers were far from few (if all the rumours were to be believed), who scrambled for her returned affection. There were no records so far, which spoke of Peggy complaining. In fact, her audacious streak was already well demonstrated during her teen years when she attempted an aborted elopement. She was also said to have driven one spurned admirer to commit suicide, caused rivals to a duel, and almost destroyed a promising military career.

Worried, Peggy’s father thought it best for her daughter’s interest to send her off to New York. But even her father could not resist Peggy’s charms that, after a short stint in New York persuaded him to allow her return home.

But among those long queues of suitors, one that became most significant for Peggy was the very young senator of Tennessee, John Henry Eaton who just might become as the unrivalled youngest senator in US history (“Youngest Senator”). The senator took up residence at the Timberlake’s boarding house who took a special liking to the place, much more on the owner’s daughter. It was perhaps the fatal combination of the smell of power and the allure of youth on John Eaton which proved irresistible for Peggy.  Since she did not seem to deter the special attention which the young senator accorded her, and the close association that ensued between

the two, it easily set wagging tongues on fire about an affair. It did not help either for the two’s reputation that the senator was encroaching on someone else’s wife.

Long before they met, Peggy was already the wife of a navy purser, John Timberlake and the mother of their three children. Strange as it was, Timberlake then begun to be assigned out to sea more often than what was required. Accounts of their story say that Eaton was using his clout as a senator to manipulate orders to dispose Timberlake’s presence by way of ‘official duties’. For whatever reason, Timberlake died out at sea.

III. The Cabinet Crisis: The Eaton Malaria

With Timberlake’s death, Peggy and Eaton’s romance bloomed. It was a big blow though, for Andrew Jackson’s presidency, which had a long standing friendship with Eaton. After being sworn in as the 7th US president, Jackson was planning to appoint Eaton as the secretary of state. However, Eaton’s personal affairs particularly with Peggy, was getting on the way. And so, upon the president’s insistence, Peggy and Eaton were married less than a year from her husband’s death. It was a case which was considered extremely inappropriate by the ‘proper’ ladies of society at that time (Harper, “Thoroughly Modern Margaret”). And so the proper ladies of the cabinet ministers continued to snob Peggy off from their social circles. In their own notion, the mere act of matrimony is not enough to wipe out the scandals that adorned Peggy Eaton.

The rejection on Peggy hit a soft spot for Jackson, who likened Peggy’s situation as those experienced by his wife Rachel,

who was accused of bigamy but died before he was sworn in for presidency. The president was highly displeased therefore to see Peggy deliberately avoided during official functions and took it upon himself to defend her to the point of saying the now infamous line: “she is chaste as a virgin” (Trumbore, “Andrew Jackson: Part One – Peggy Eaton”).

Leading the pack of those who ostracized her was Floride, Vice President Calhoun’s wife. As hygienic as the sound of her name, Floride Calhoun took it upon herself to keep off the social ‘cavities’ from the circle of power in Washington and influenced the other wives and their husbands to do the same. But the Secretary of State Van Buren, eyeing for the presidency, saw an opportunity between the rifts. He sponsored dinner parties to show support for Peggy to please Jackson. The “war” between Jackson and his cabinet members had gone so bad that nothing was done for the president’s first year of office. The president even threatened to fire any of his cabinet members who would continue to reject Peggy. But Jackson’s threats fell on deaf ears and later forced their resignation en masse.

These turn of political events eventually determined Jackson’s successor, with Van Buren replacing Calhoun. This political alliance birthed the Democratic Party and US politics thus progressed into what it is has now become.

But as for the Eaton’s, they fought for a couple of years over the snobbery in America’s elite. Eaton settled as Florida’s governor but was never able to secure another term in the Senate due to the unsavoury reputation of his wife. After serving

as Minister to Spain for four years, the Eaton’s finally retired to Washington. Upon John Eaton’s death, Peggy became a widow once more; only this time, with a hefty fortune at her disposal.

However, scandal did not rest with her husband’s death. Once again, Peggy got into another nonconforming situation. Now at age 59, she married her grandchildren’s dance instructor --- the 19 year old Buchignani. It ended with Buchignani running off with her granddaughter, and her fortune. Interestingly, Peggy kept a vibrant outlook even towards the end of her life (“The Story of Peggy Eaton, Andrew Jackson, and the Making of a President”). Not even life’s challenges could bring down the spirited Peggy Eaton.