The
Petticoat Affair
1829-1831
Margaret (Peggy) Timberlake [right]
was a lively young lady from Washington DC married to John
Timberlake, a US Navy officer posted overseas. One day
she received word that her husband had died of pneumonia while on patrol in the
Mediterranean. Nine months later she married President Jackson's
Secretary of War, John Eaton. The ladies of Washington were horrified
that she had not waited a proper mourning period. They began to gossip
that the only way she could have gotten married so quickly was if she
had already started her affair with Mr. Eaton before her husband had
died. In fact, they wouldn't put it past the Eatons to have murdered
poor Mr. Timberlake to clear the way.
All the other wives of Cabinet officers made a unified effort to snub the Eatons at
every Washington social event, and they pressured their husbands to do the same. The ringleader of the cabinet wives was
Floride Calhoun, [lower left]
the wife of D.C. powerhouse, Vice President John C. Calhoun. President
Jackson himself was still bitter over the way high society had gossiped
about his own wife in her day, so he stuck by the Eatons. When his own
niece and (acting) First Lady, Emily
Donelson, took the side of the cabinet wives, Jackson transfered her first lady duties to his adopted son's wife, Sarah Yorke Jackson, [below center] who supported the Eatons.
Eventually, Secretary of State Martin Van Buren (the only unmarried man
in the cabinet and therefore under no pressure at home to snub the
Eatons) showed off his diplomatic skills and did President Jackson a
solid favor by resigning from the cabinet. This gave President Jackson
an excuse to reorganize and clean house, removing every cabinet
secretary who had crumbled before a troublesome wife. To reward Van
Buren for his cooperation, Jackson made him the new Vice President and
eventual successor.
