The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-02-24
SOCIAL FEuD MADE HISTORY.
How Peggy OMEN Blasted CaIhouu's
Presidential Ambition.

| (From the st. Louis be-Demoorat)
An exciting quarrel between Presi-
dent an chieftains Of his party began
soon after jackson went to the White
House. In this feud Calhoun was the
principal figure on the anti-Jackson side.
The quarrel was melted by two causes
| Jack sons discovery that Calhoun, who
was Secretary of War in Monroe's Cabi.
net was hostile to jackson during the
Florida war, In Monroes days, and the
refusal of the wife of Calhoun and those
of the memb of Jackson's Cabiaet in
1899 to recognize Mrs. Eaton, wife of
Jackson's Secretary of War. socially.
The origin of the social war which
changet factors in politics, and Indirectly
resulted in the formation OF the Wing
party, was this:
,lJohn II. Eaton, ia personal friend OF
jackson, was appointed by jackson Sec
rotary of War and took his seat in the
Cabinet in March 1899, on Jackson's en-
| trance into the White House. Eaton a
| few months earlier married Mrs. Timber
lake, whose maiden maine was Margaret
l.. O'Neill commonly called Peggy
o 'Neill } II woman of great beauty, Of
some accomplishments, and of unbounded
| am ition. She was the daughter of n
Washington tavern keeper. Gossip ad
| been free with her name during her we'd
ded life with Iimberlake, and when.
after Eaton's marriage to her ard the IN
| tslligence that he was to be n member Of
the Cabinet reached the public, some Of
jackson S friends told him that Eaton's
entrance inc the Cabinet would cause
some embarrassment to the AumiDlstra-
ton, jackson, who was creditably slow
to believe anything Ill of woman, re-
spond I'd that Mrs. Eaton was not to be in
. ka o..1,f I!a n h ].
personal friends ediately after the
administration beyan that he desired that
| Mrs Eaton should be accorded all the
oourtesies to which her station entitled
her. The wife of Vioe-President Calhoun
! and the wives of all the members Of the
Cabinet who had any wives refused to
recognize Mrs. Eaton. jackson took up
her cause with his usual energy. aud the
question entered politics. Van Buren,,
| the Secretary of State, had no wife The
was IA widower). He had no daughters
| He was thus free to extend to Mrs. Eaton
| thu cow sntional oourfesiss, which no did
with the dignity and grace for which he
was noted.
This made Van Buren's political for
tune Trere had been keen rivalry be-
| tween Calhoun and Van Buren, previous
| ly for the succession to jackson in the
| Presidency. The Democratic party was
invincible, and the mnu who got the
fTSslueIiliui cAuuluaC! WIS Ctrtaih VI
election. jackson was the party Is dicta-
tor. Calhoun. by his position as Vice
| President and by his prominence in the
party, was popularity believed 10 stand
next in the line to jackson. In the first
year or two OF jackson 5 first term. Jack
| sons feeble health was thought to be
| barrier in the way of his acceptance of "a
| nomination for second tenn, and Cal
houp was popularity supposed to be his
political heir. The discovery, through
the Crawford disclosures. Of the uDfriend-
illness of Calhoun for jackson in 1873. in
the Monroe Cabinet, and the quarrel
which the Mrs. Eaton incident brought
destroyed this hope Van Burens cham
pionship of Mrs. Eaton's cause endeared
him TO jackson.
Vnn Burens call upon Mrs Eaton at
her residence had mighty political conse
qGences. Like the shot of the 'em-
battled farmers" at Concord bridge, the
sound of the silver knocker. touched at
Mrs. Eaton's door by Martin Van Buren,
was heard round the world, or at least
round that part of the world comprised
in the United States. AS IA result of the
Peggy O'Neil war supplemented in
Calhoun's case by the Crawford oisclos-
ures) Calhoun was shut out from the
Presidency. WAS dwarfed from national
into a sectional dGure, and his brooding
over his effacement probably assisted in
melting that system of political philoso
ply out of which resulted secession and
civil war. Eaton and Van Buren, re-
signed in April, 1881, in order to facili-
tate general reconstruction of the eabi-
net which would free jackson from the
husbands of the wives who had disre-
garded his Eaton ukase--espeoially of
Ingham, Secretary Of the Treasury !;
Branch, Secretary of the Navy. and Ber
rien, Attorney General. The country
was conyulsed, u large fragment of the
Democratic party was cast of and united
with the elements which founded the
Wing party three years later, and that
darty received a strength which ii would
not otherwise have gained ut the outset.