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THE COURIER
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PEGGY BATON'S ORDEAL
The name of Mrs. John H. Eaton, or Peggy Eaton, as she has been
more commonly called, has como down to us through history. There
are but few persons of any reading who have not heard something of
her. Sho is, remembered chiefly for the merciless war waged upon
her by her own sex in the early days of Jackson's administration,
and as having been, in popular belief, the cause of tbe.disruption of
Jackson's first Cabinet. Thero are but few at this day who know
the real ground of this hostility to Mrs. Eaton, the manner in which
it was exhibited or the extent to which it was carried. To properly
understand these things it is necessary to know something of Mrs.
Eaton herself and of the peculiar characteristics of Washington se
lect society society as it then existed.
Mrs. Eaton was tho daughter of an Irishman named O'Ncalo, who
had for many years kept an inn in Washington on the present sito of
tho Metropolitan hotel. Gay, lively, vivacious, and of uncommon
beauty, she had a quick wit and a sharp tongue. Her early associa
tions at her father's hostelry were not calculated to refine her na
ture, too add graco to her manner, or to improve her tastes. Sho
had, however, a kind heart, was the pet of tho household, and a gen
eral favorite with her father's guests. Sho had, when but little more
than a child, married a man named Timberlake, who was a purser
in the navy. He was a hard drinker, and in a drunken fit at sea had
taken his own life, leaving his own accountswith the government
in hopeless confusion and his family destitute.
Jackson, immediately after his first election, offered to Maj. John
H. Eaton, then a senator from Tennessee, the position of Secretary
of War. Eaton was a widower. His deceased wife had been the
niece of Mrs. Jackson. He had shown marked attention to Mrs.
Timberlake after she had become a widow. Ho boarded at her
father's hotel, which had always been the home of Mrs. Timberlake,
and report said that his attentions to her before her husband's death
had been such as to occasion remark. But these attentions did not
appear to have been more than to escort her occasionally to and
from the capitol. Other members had done this without causing
scandal.
Before accepting Jackson's offer Eaton wrote to him, saying, that
as a Cabinet officer, he would be expected to maintain an establish
ment and asking his advice as to the propriety of his offering him
self in marriage to the widow Timberlake. Jacksen, who had known
Mrs. Timberlake from her early childhood, advised him to marry
tho lady, and tho marriago came off in Jannary, 1829.
This marriage did not occasion any special comment at tho time.
But in a few months, after Eaton had become Secretary of War,
assaults were openly made, and they wero kept up without abate
ment, and with increasing virulence, until her husband, with tho
other membors of tho cabinet, resigned.
Washington upper society was then oxocedingly exclusive. Its
female leaders were then chiefly from tho old families of Virginia
and Maryland, and wore the types of an aristocracy tho last rem
nents of which wero swept away by tho downfall of tho rebellion.
Tiie spirit of casto ruled strangly among them. Thoy could not
bring themselves to recognize as their equals any who could not
boast of an ancestry in which was mingled Borne of the blood of
the old nobility.
In tho inteival between her marriago with Eaton and and his ap
pointment at the head of the war department Mrs. Eaton waH for
tho first timo brought into social contact with tho upper circlo at
parties, dinners and receptions Sho was treated by them with
cool and distant civility. Sho made no effort to cross tho barrier
which their manner plainly implied lay botween them and her.
When, however, her husband became a cabinet minister she
reached a position that placed her above tliem. Stung at the
thought that they would now bo compelled to yiold social prece
dence to one whom everybody knew was nothing but tho daughter
of a country Irish tavern keeper, bo far below them in birth and
breeding, these proud, haughty dames resolved to mako her life
uuendurable in her new position, She was a giddy, thoughtless
young woman, whose education was imperfect, who had been
given no previous training of tho elevated station to which she had
suddenly raised, and who, they said, brought into tho parlors the
manners of the kitchen. She had in her early girlhood been called
Peggy, but this name was droped as Bhe grow oklor. To civo a
keener edge to their contempt they spoke of her as "Peg Eaton,"
the name by which she is known to posterity.
to be continued.)
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