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THE COURIER
PEGGY BATON'S ORDEAL.
Continued.
Washington has alwads been noted for tho scandals set afloat by
gossiping tongues. The leaders of its upper society were by no
means exempt from this weakness. Reports affecting the character
of Mrs. Eaton were started. As is usual, they gathered in their
progress many fresh additions. Indiscretions of which little was
thought at the time, were magnified into criminal acts.
Timberlake, it was well known, was an intemperate man when
he married her. It was also known that he had, after his marriage,
lost large sums of money at play while under the influence of liquor.
But notwithstanding these things it was reported that her extrava
gance had forced Timberlake to becomo a large defaulter to the
government, and that her gross improprieties as a wife had driven
him to drink and finally to suicide. These reports spread with
amazing rapidity, and among all ranks of society. The men
laughed and ridiculed them. The women generally believed them.
She could not go out on the street without meeting the stare of
impudent curiosity. If she went to church women would draw
away from her as though contamination would follow the touch of
her garments.
The wives of other cabinet officers knew little or nothing of
Mrs. Eaton nntil after they came to Washington. The stories
told them by the society leaders had their effect. They assumed a
, hostile attitude toward Mrs. Eaton, ceased to recognize her, and
if 'they could avoid it would not sit next to her at presidential
dinners or other parties. The wives of foreign ministers were
in like manner approached, and they too were persuaded to re
gard her with abhorrence. One of them created great disturb
ance at a dinner party by refusing to Bit next to her at the
table.
'These ladies of gentle blood had done all that they could to hu
miliate and make miserable the life of Mrs. Eaton. They had
blasted her reputation as a woman; they had turned the great
body of her sex against her and made her the object of aversion
and contempt, but their triumph would not be complete unless
they could have the doors of the president's house shut in her
face.
Mrs. Donelson was the mistress of the White house. She was
the wife of Major A. J. Donelsou, a nephew of Mrs. Jackson,
had been raised by Jackson, and who was his private secre
tary. She could not doubt the truth of the stories constantly
rung in her ears by ladies of first standing in Washington. She
believed Mrs. Eaton to be bad in nearly every sense. She told
Jackson she would receive Mrs. Eaton when she came to the pres
ident's house, but that she would not otherwise recognize her nor
return her calls. To all the remonstrances of Jackson, whose
faith in the innocence of Mrs. Eaton was immovable, she turned
a deaf ear. JacKson, in the presence of ladies, was one of the
most courteous of men. When he believed a woman to be
wronged he was one of the most chivalrous. He could not
tolerate indignity to Mrs. Eaton from the female head of his
own household. Finding that he could not overcome the in- '
fluences that had been brought to bear on Mrs. Donelson or
shake her resolution, he said to her in the gentlest manner:
'My dear, then you had better return to Tennessee."
She and her husband went back to their old home, but re
turned and resumed their former places a few months later,
when the disturbance was over.
Jackson had a pew in the Presbyterian church at Washing
ton, and was on friendly terms with the Rev. Mr. Campbell, its
pastor. To him these ladies came with their charges against
"Mrs. 2aton. They urged him to see and talk with the presi
dent on the matter, but the pastor shrunk from the task.
The Rev. Dr. Ely, a Presbyterian "clergyman, was in Phila
delphia. It was known that he and Jackson had been warm
friends for many years. In his desire to oblige the ladies, Mr.
Campdell wrote to Dr. Ely, recounting all the stories he had
heard about Mrs. Eaton and vouching for the high standing of
the ladies from whom these stories had come, and begged him
to write to Jackson on the subject.
The good old doctor, who knew nothing of Mrs. Eaton except
what he had heard through the letter of Campbell, was shocked
at liis statements; and at once wrote to the president. The
fiagarant acts of immorality of which Mrs. Eaton was guilty, he
for some time
smoothed over,
to the woman,
cabinet ladies,
said, were notorious in Washington, and that tho ladies of Wash
ington would not and could not recognize a woman of her disso
lute character. In concluding ho implored Jackson, in the
memory of his dead wife and for tho honor of his administra
tion, to withhold all countenance from Mrs. Eaton in the fu
ture. Jackson had known the O'Neale family for many years, and on
coming o Washington had always made his home, at O'Neale
hotel. Mrs. Jackson in her lifetime had usually camo with him
on these trips, and had shown great fondness for Mrs. Timber
lake and her children. Jackson at once answered Dr. Ely.
Hi j vindication of Mrs. Eaton was complete. He showed the
utter improbability of the stories against her, referred to his
long acquaintance with the O'Neale family, and to the interest
Mrs. Jackson had taken in Mrs. Timberlake and her little family,
and said he had no doubt that these stories were the inven
tions of political enemies.
Troubles had been brewing in tho cabinet
from other causes, but they might have been
The war upon Mrs. Eaton, originally confined
made itself felt in the cabinet councils. The
through the influence of the local society leaders, were resolute
in their determination not to recognize Mrs. Eaton, and their
husbands dutifully submitted.
The etiquette of the White house is different from "that of a pri
vate house. The president is expected to ,jive state dinners and
public receptions, to which the cabinet officers and their wives are
at times invited, and their attendance expected. Jackson
would not quietly sit down and see a woman whom he believed to
be the victim of unjust prosecution exposed to insult by guests
whom h e had invited. He could not degrade the wife of one
of his own cabinet by excluding hei from the White house and
thus give the color of truth to tho charges he believed to be
false and malicious. The obduracy of the cabinet ladies and its
effect upon their husbands brought matters to a climax. The
harmony of the cabinet was destroyed, and necessity for its re
organization was apparent.
They all resigned within short intervals of each other, except
Ingham, who was secretary of the treasury, who seemed disposed
to stay. Mrs. Ingham had been particularly outspoken against
Mrs. Eaton, and had treated her more oppressively than any of
the others. After waiting a proper length of time Jackson sent
for Ingham and asked why he had not resigned as the others had
done. Ingham stammered out that he did not think that he ought
to resign because of a quarrel among women. His resignation
came the next day.
The resignation of the entire cabinet within so short a period
after its appointment was something new, and public curiosity
was naturally aroused as to what caused it. The Peggy Eaton
imbroglio with all its circumstances was published in tho news
papers all over the country, varied of course to suit tho political
complexion of the paper publishing it. It became the subject of
editorial comment, of stump oratory and personal gossip. The
name of Mrs. Eaton became known in every honsehold, and she
found herself suddenly lifted into fame. Other causes were as
signed to the retiring ministers for their resignation but the people
very generally believed that the real cause lay in the Eaton trou
bles. Jackson, on Eaton's resignation immediately appointed him gov
ernor of the then territory of Florida, and soon after sent him as
minister to Spain. Here he remained until after the close of
VanBuren's administration, when he and Mrs. Eaton came back
and for some time made their home in Washington. This of
course recalled the gossip of former years. But Mrs. Eaton had
given no room for talk when abroad nor any after her
return.
In the mean time public sentiment had among her own sex re
acted in her favor. The current of opinion was that her sudden
elevation in the placo where she grew up from an humble posi
tion to a superior social rank as the wife of a cabinet minister, had
aroused wrath, and was the real cause for the savage onslaught
made on her by the female aristocracy of Washington.
Mrs. Eaton did not bear meekly the scorn that was heaped upon
her. She returned it with interest, and said many bitter and cut
ting things against the ladies arrayed- against her. These things
were duly -reported, with the usual exaggerations, and made mat
ters worse. They had, it is true, destroyed all pleasure to her in
her new position, but she was full of fight to the last. She would
not allow her husband to resign while his wife was under fire.
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