The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-05-17

Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate.
Incorporated
Copyright: 1885: By Charles J. McGuirk
ON TWO PARTS-PART TWO
It was so welcome a duty to Senator
Eaton that Washington tongues went
wagging. Neither Andrew Jackson nor
Rachel had believed the scandals that
were spread of a clandestine love af-
fair between Peg Int the senator. And
they lived in the boarding house, as
did Eaton, when Andrew Jackson served
as the Junior senator from Tennessee.
Rachel had declared her disbelief most
emphatically and had given Peg her
full confidence and friendship. When
Timberlake died at sea in the Mediter-
ranean ON April 2 last, Eaton was the
only prop that Peg had left. Neverthe-
less, appearances must not be allowed
to betray her. Ony two weeks ago
Senator jackson, possibly remembering
a like delicate situation in his own
life, had written Senator Eaton:
DO not endanger Pegs good name
by remaining an inmate of the ONeale
household any longer. Marry her
forthwith or change your residence"
And the senator was taking his ad-
vice. They were to be married. That,
he knew from his own bitter expert
ence, would not stop the scandalous
tongues from wagging. But it would
make them wag in whispers. Yet the
hard earth thudding down on his own
Rachel's coffin on her burial day
showed what even whispers might do.
.
Official Washington waited, fearful
but noncommital, fer the arrival of the
president-elect from Tennessee. They
expected anything from him but sub
mission to the conventions. For six
years they had studied him in the SEN
ate and, disappointed, had seen no
trace of the uncouth frontiersman they
wanted to see. What they say was a
thin, quiet man Of abundant energy
who, when he rose to speak, spoke
harshly and to the point and welded
an immense influence. Even the crude
rustic wife, just dead, who was said to
smoke both pipe and cigars, smoked
neither in Washington. She had ap-
peared a quiet, gentle soul wrapped up
in her deadly husband.
Andrew jackson arrived in Wash
ington on Feb. 16 and went directly to
the Indian Queen tavern, which
straightway became the headquarters
of a motley crew of frontiersmen and
rustic officeseekers. He ignored John
Quincy Adams, the retiring president,
anxiously awaiting his arrival at the
White House. Asked if he would call
on him, following precedent, the presi-
dent-elect tersely declared, "I1l see him
in hell first" And aristocratic Amer
lea gasped at the crudity of this bar
barian and girded its loins for war;.
The president-elect launched the Of
fensive when he announced his cabinet.
Politics, the strength of John G. Cal
houn, the vice-president elect, and An
drew Jackson's own temperament had
dictated its personnel. Politics decreed
there should be two northerners, two
southerners, two westerners. Calhoun
demanded the naming of two and jack
son doubtfully agreed on John Eaton's
advice. He chose the others, including
Eaton himself over Eaton's own pro-
test.
Eaton's appointment was inevitable
from the moment the entire Tennessee
delegation waited OF Jackson at the
Indian Queen and timorously suggested
that Senator Eaton should not be in
Guided in the cabinet because the ladies
of Washington objected to his wife.
"Why," jackson inquired gently, do
they think themselves superior to the
woman who bears my best friends
name?"
NO." n told him boldly. 1T is
because she will not be countenanced
by respectable females"
BY the eternal God! Rachel's mini
allure on its chain trembled against his
breast with the humping of his heart.
Hadn't they made her name mud in
respectability's cause. The dirty de-
tractors! He would show them what