Petticoat Affair

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Margaret O'Neill Eaton in later years

The Petticoat Affair (English; in German also known as Eaton Affair or Eaton Malaria ) was a US scandal in which members of President Andrew Jackson's cabinet were involved in 1831 .

Margaret "Peggy" O'Neale (also O'Neill, later Margaret O'Neill Eaton ) was the daughter of a Washington pensioner. She was known for her lively temperament - which resulted in her flirting publicly at a time when respectable women mostly didn't. Peggy's husband, Navy Seaman John B. Timberlake, allegedly heard that she miscarried while on a voyage at sea for more than nine months, so the father was probably a different one. Timberlake soon died at sea. The official cause of death was lung disease, but it was widely believed that he chose suicide because of O'Neale's affair with John Henry Eaton , a US Senator from Tennessee . O'Neale and Eaton married shortly after Timberlake's death, which was perceived by some circles in the capital as a scandal. After Jackson's election as president, his confidante Eaton became Secretary of War in his cabinet.

The Anti-Peggy Association was led by Second Lady Floride Calhoun , wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun , and other wives of Cabinet members, while Martin Van Buren , widowed the only unmarried member of the Cabinet, rallied with the Eatons allies. Jackson sympathized with the Eatons because his own wife, Rachel Donelson Robards, had been the victim of equally vicious allegations and died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, shortly before he was elected president. Her first marriage was not fully resolved when she married Jackson. Rachel Jackson's niece Emily Donelson , who had taken over the duties of first lady during Jackson's tenure , was nevertheless on the side of the Calhoun faction.

The scandal caused such a big stir that some cabinet members eventually resigned, including Samuel D. Ingham and John Branch , while Van Buren rose to the position of favorite Jackson. He replaced Calhoun as vice-president, was Jackson's comrade in his re-election and was de facto his heir in the Democratic Party . Eventually Eaton resigned as Minister of War.

John Calhoun returned to South Carolina , where he won a Senate seat in 1832 . He campaigned for the rights of states, slavery and economic concerns in the south. Finally he spoke out in favor of secession of the South from the United States.

Film adaptations

The 1936 film The Gorgeous Hussy tells the fictional story of "Pothouse" Peg. Peggy O'Neill is played by Joan Crawford .

literature

  • John F. Marszalek: The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 2000, ISBN 0807155772

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