Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-01-15

progress when he was materially help
ed by receiving a letter from the Rev.
Mr. Ely. clergyman of Philadelphia
containing definite charges against
Mrs. Eaton, which he declared he was
In position to prove. Mr.. Ely was
one of the persons to whom General
Jackson had traced some of the stories
and tho clergyman's charges were the
result of a letter Jackson had sent to
him. This was not all. Another clergy
man. the Rev. Mr.. Campbell OF Wash
ington, was discovered to be the source
from which most OF the Washington
women had hear the reports deroGatory
to Peggy O'Neal.
The president now had something
definite to work on. He summoned
the two clergymen to the White House.
He had been chief justice in Tennes-
see. and he held regular judicial in
Qulry, with the two men as witnesses.
Every question and every answer was
taken down. Ely had no proof. Worse
than that. he had no basis even for
suspicion. Campbell was in a worse
plight. He was the pastor of the Pres
byterian church the president attend
ed. He broke down completely when
General Jackson questioned him. This
examination of the two clergymen was
held In the presence of the cabinet IN
September. 1929. more than six months
after Jackson had assumed office. 1t
was as absolute an expose of the falsi-
ty Of the stories circulated as possibly
could be obtained. and the president
was delighted. He was sure now that
the women of Washington. knowing
how base were the ISLANDERS against
Mrs. Eaton and how greatly they had
wronged her, would do everything to
right the injury done the much ma
llgned Peggy. Poor man. he did not
know women. II having been proved
that she was guiltless, they decided
that she was all the more guilty And
so deciding. they renewed the warfare
with a more savage fury than before.
RETRIBUTIoN.
Jackson could not believe the affair
was personal to Mrs Eaton. AS
politician. he always looked on any
thing that affected his career adversely
as being the work of his political enc
mics. He saw or thought he saw In
the attacks on Peggy O'Neal the same
hands that struck at him In other mat
ters. He got to think that Henry Clay
was at the bottom of it. There Is an
idea, too. that he suspected Vice Pres
ident Calhoun He and Calhoun had
been close friends. but had begun to
drift apart. A little later, when he
received a letter from Senator Craw-
ford of Georgia disclosing the fact that
II was Calhoun. sitting in Monroes
cabinet with Crawford. who had pro-
posed Jackson's arrest for what he had
done In the Seminole war. Jackson
broke completely with the vice presi-
dent Up to the time of receiving this
letter Jackson had believed that Craw-
ford had been his enemy and Calhoun
his defender In the Monroe cabinet
Whether it was the Peggy O'Neal
matter or the Crawford incident, or
both, that actuated Jackson is hard to
determine, but he decided to get rid of
the three members of his cabinet whose
wives led the war on Mrs. Eaton. 1t
happened that these three cabinet
members were followers of Calhoun.
To have peremptorlly called for their
designations would have provoked all
sorts of rumors, so a rounda bout way
was resorted to in order to get rid of
them.
Van Buren, apd Eaton resigned and,
on Jackson's intimation that 1t was
necessary to reorganize the cabinet.
Ingham, Branch and BerrIen followed
suit Barry. it will be noticed. did not
resign. He was a Peggy O'Nealite
Van Buren, was sent to England as
United States minister and Eaton, aft