Evening star., 1936-01-19
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

IN OLD Washington circles the
Jackson day dinner let loose
flood of "reminiscences concerning
i one of the Capitals bitterest So
cial wars. A war of feminine tongues
which was waged against the wife OF
one of President Jackson's warmest
personal friends and his Secretary OF
War. Before 1t had run its course
most of Washington, official and res
ldential, was taking sides pro or con:
That the maneuvers were planned
over tea cups and at dinner tables
made them no less bellicoSe than II
they had been executed on field OF
battle. Eventually the clacking tongues
brought about a controversy so acute
that President Jackson, in an effort to
end it summarily, first appointed the
official, whose sprightly but certainly
far from tactful wife was the main
spring of the ebulition. Governor of
Florida, and then diplomatic repre-
sentative to far-away Russia.
From boarding house circles to Off
cialdom might have been the soubri-
ouet for the drama that rocked the
Capitals midst as if 1t had been a
stage trod by high officials of our own
and other governments and their
ladies-chiefly their ladies, we must
admit.
Started With Wedding.
How did it begin? With the we'd
ding of the widowed. very cookbook
ing but very much undisciplined,
daughter of Billy" ONeal. pro-
prietor of the famous Franklin House,
to middle-aged Senator Eaton. whom
President jackson later invited into
his cabinet to preside over the war
portfolio. The bride, Margaret ONeal
Timberlake Eaton, one of three sisters
and the only one to become famous.
became known to the social world OF
her time as the invincible Peggy"
Her first husband, dissipated young
naval officer, deserted her and their
young child and then removed him.
self from the picture by suicide in a
distant foreign port.
The young widows failure to mourn
her scapegrace husbands demise in
conventional fashion of deepest
mourning probably set the tongues
to wagging.
Friends of the vivaciouS Peggy were
later wont to remark, How could she
have known that she was expected to
kow-tow meekly to the wives of Wash
hgton's politically great when from her
childhood days she had greeted most
of their husbands in the informal
daily life of Washington's most famous
llostelry?"
Entertained Lafayette.
Certainly Franklin House. presided
over by her father, with coaches sup
piled for members Of Congress" and
q coal and wood business conducted
as side line, housed the most dis
tinguished folk of this era. who came
from near and far to reside with Mr.
O'Neal when business or politics
brought them to live in the Nation S
Capital.
Gen. La Fayette was quartered
there when he was officially enter
tanned by the City of Washington in
the course of his farewell visit to
President Clinton during his term of
Office. Senators and members of Con-
gress galore felt fortunate when they
were able to secure accommodations
at Billy O'Neals. 1t was here that
Andrew jackson lived during his last
short term in the United States Sem
ate, when Mrs. Jackson visited him
av,J mt oy11, rr,eJ m Ey,ou, ooI
love Peggy. but herself felt the icy
chilliness of pompous wives of her
husbands political associates hidden
to call upon this shy but sincere
helpmate of the militant Senator from
Tennessee.
Washington's most exclusive host
esses managed more or less to ignore
Mrs. Eaton. the Senator's bride, but
Mrs. Eaton, the wife of the newly ap-
pointed Secretary of War in President
Jackson's cabinet, could not quite so
readily be overlooked or condescend-
1ngly frowned upon. Besides, Peggy
O'Neal Eaton had not grown up on
q snubbed or overlooked basis. As
little girl she had been the pet
Of many of the men whose wives
were eYeing her askance. With them
she had been accustomed to exchange
ready banter on basis somewhat
less conventional, possibly, than had
been the childhood rearing of their
decorous wives. We know that as
an older girl she attended one of
Washington's well known private
schools in the vicinity of her fathers
establishment on street. Just little
later, in a smart dancing school of
the era, she was crowned the most
graceful of terpsichore's patrons by