The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1884-03-22

jackson Her Personal Champion-The
Woman Who Seriously Troubled
JackSOn'S Cabinet
From ReUieD Of Parton's Noted Women.

| woman VINO seriously Troubled
Jackson's Cabinet.
From ReUie,O of Partons Noted Women.
Another woman of a different kind,
Peg O'Neal, better known as Mrs. Eaton,
is recalled by Mr.. Parton in very read
able chapter. She was the pretty and
vivacious but not over-prudent tavern
keepers daughter in Washington, you
know, who became the wife of General
Jackson's Secretary of War, and in
whose social behalf the whole power of
the Jackson Administration was brought
to bear with SO much determination and
with such unusual consequences. The
ladies of Washington made up their
minds with one accord that Mrs Eaton
was an improper and unworthy woman,
and they would not call upon her nor
recognize her in any way as the wife of
Cabinet Minister. Gen. Jackson took
her part, and became her personal
niiHiIdTf mand fo0 compel attention AMI consid-
Grafton for her 81 have had in my
hands," says Mr.. Parton, "hundreds
sons writing, all relating to this affair. "
He summoned the propagators of the
scandals concerning her; he made her
case topic of Cabinet discussion; he
threatened representatives of foreign
governments with dismissal on her ac-
count; he sent his own niece away from
the White House because she refused to
second his efforts in the tabooed wo-
mans favor. But it was all futile
"Gen. Jackson's will was strong" Mr..
Parton observes, "but he discovered
on this occasion that woman'S won't
was stronger" In spite of all his flu
ming and storming, the ladies resolutely
refused to have anything to do with
Mrs. Eaton. When she appeared in a
cotillon at fashionable ball they would
Immediately retire from it; when seat
ed next to her at supper, they would
quit the table; when brought tete-a-
tete with her in conversation, they
would turn their backs upon her and
otherwise manifest their utter disap-
proval of her presence.
1t was this controversy over Mrs.
Eaton that really contributed more than
anything else to General Jackson's quar-
rel with Calhoun and drove the latter
into the notification project. The
Cabinet was convulsed and broken up
under the same pressure. And it is
unquestionably true that Mr. Van Buren
gained the Presidency by siding with
Jackson in this matter. Mrs. Eaton
does not appear to have been specially
remarkable woman in any way. She
was passably handsome and intelligent,
and her father had been an old friend
ofGeneral Jackson. When Major Eaton
married her she was widow, her first
husband, purser in the navy, having
committed suicide, leaving her with
two children and a very little fortune.
According to the best testimony she
was not in fact wanton or bad woman,
ht menf fn buf Has aaEse5Sf R5f 0d9 s0d R@aseEesd vi 0ns
to intrigue and calculation, and the
circumstances which made her such a
prominent factor in Washington affairs
were principally accidental rather than
of her own choosing or causing. 1t is
none the less true, however, that she
was the occasion gilmore contention and
more political manoeuvring and ami
mostly than any other one woman who
has ever figured in American history.
Soon after the close of the Jackson Ad
ministration she was again left widow,
and rich one at that, and she contin-
ued to live in Washington for many
years in elegant style, though she never
succeeded in overcoming the old pre-
judice against her or in winning the
measure of social recognition which
Gen. Jackson strove SO hard and perse-
veringly to secure for her. Near the
close of her life, when experience should
have saved her from such folly, she
took third husband in the person of a
worthless young Italian dancing-master,
who squandered her fortune and brought
her in poverty and sorrow to the grave
at the age of eighty-four years.