Petticoat Affair: Peggy Eaton, a Cabinet Purge and Van Buren's Rise

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Margaret O'Neale, known as Peggy, grew up in her father's Franklin House in Washington, D.C., a boarding house where legislators and officers did their deal making after hours. At 17 she married John B. Timberlake, a 39 year old Navy purser with a drinking problem and heavy debts. Senator John Eaton of Tennessee, a close friend of Andrew Jackson, paid off those debts and secured Timberlake a post with the Mediterranean squadron, where he died on April 2, 1828. Medical examiners blamed pneumonia, but Washington gossip said suicide. Jackson urged Eaton to marry Peggy, and they wed on January 1, 1829, about nine months later, cutting short the expected year of mourning.

When Jackson made Eaton secretary of war, Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun, led cabinet wives in a total social boycott of the Eatons, and even Jackson's niece and White House hostess Emily Donelson joined it. Jackson, who blamed slander for the death of his wife Rachel, defended Peggy fiercely. The episode ties the fight to the Tariff of Abominations and Calhoun's nullification doctrine. Martin Van Buren, the only widower in the cabinet, befriended the Eatons and then offered to resign, giving Jackson cover to clear out nearly the entire cabinet. Calhoun later became the first vice president to resign.

• Eaton was seated in the Senate at 28, despite the constitutional minimum age of 30.
• Postmaster General William T. Barry was the only cabinet member to survive the purge.
• Eaton challenged departing Treasury Secretary Samuel Ingham to a duel and allegedly staked out his home for two nights, forcing Ingham to leave the city under guard.
• Calhoun cast the tie breaking vote against Van Buren as minister to Britain, reportedly vowing it would kill him dead, which instead made Van Buren Jackson's 1832 running mate.
• Jackson later said he would rather have live vermin on his back than the tongue of a Washington woman on his reputation.