The Petticoat Affair (also known as the Eaton Affair or the Eaton Malaria) was an 1831 U.S. sex scandal involving members of President Andrew Jackson's Cabinet. Leopold I 1831 (MDCCCXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... United States is the current Good Article Collaboration of the week! Please help to improve this article to the highest of standards. ... A sex scandal is a scandal involving allegations or information about embarrassing sexual activities, such as adultery, being made public. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Cabinet meeting on May 16, 2001. ...

Margaret "Peggy" O'Neale (or O'Neill, later Margaret O'Neill Eaton) was the daughter of a Washington, D.C. boarding-house owner and was renowned for her "vivacious" temperament—the coded implication being that she was overtly flirtatious and sexual at a time when "respectable" women, as a group, were not—who lost her first husband, sailor John B. Timberlake, to suicide. He was allegedly driven to it because of rumors of Peggy's love affair with Jackson's Secretary of War John Henry Eaton. Peggy and Eaton were married shortly after Timberlake's death, throwing the respectable women of the capital into a tizzy. Margaret ONeill Eaton Margaret ONeale Eaton (1799-1879), better known as Peggy ONeale, was the daughter of the keeper of a popular Washington, D.C. tavern, and was noted for her beauty, wit and vivacity and her central role in the Petticoat Affair that disrupted the cabinet... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... John B. Timberlake was a purser in The United States Navy, and during his initial service in the military, fell into massive debt. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ... The Secretary of War was a member of the Presidents Cabinet, beginning with George Washingtons administration. ... John Henry Eaton (June 18, 1790–November 17, 1856) was an American politician from Tennessee. ...

The anti-Peggy coalition was led by Second Lady Floride Calhoun, the wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun and a phalanx of other Cabinet wives, while Martin Van Buren, the only unmarried member of the Cabinet, having been widowed, allied himself with the Eatons. Jackson was sympathetic to the Eatons, in part, perhaps, because his own beloved late wife, Rachel Donelson Robards had been the subject of equally nasty innuendo. (Her first marriage turned out to have not been completely dissolved prior to her wedding to Jackson.) That said, Jackson's First Lady, Rachel's niece Emily Donelson, nonetheless sided with the Calhoun faction. Lynne Cheney, the current Second Lady of the United States The Second Lady of the United States is an unofficial title for the wife of the Vice President of the United States styled relatively to the formal title of the First Lady who is wife to the President and principal... Floride Calhoun (February 15, 1792-July 25, 1866, was the wife of prominent U.S. politician John C. Calhoun. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries â€¢ Politics Portal      The Vice President of the United States is the first in the presidential line of succession... John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was a prominent United States Southern politician and political philosopher from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. ... Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862), nicknamed Old Kinderhook, was the eighth President of the United States. ... Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson (June 1767 - December 22, 1828) was the wife of 7th U.S. President Andrew Jackson. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Emily Tennessee Donelson (June 1, 1807 - December 19, 1836) was the niece of US President Andrew Jackson. ...

The scandal was so intense that several members of the Cabinet finally resigned, including Samuel D. Ingham and John Branch, and Van Buren was elevated to a position as Jackson's favorite (replacing Calhoun) and the de facto heir to the Democratic party. Eventually, Eaton also resigned from the cabinet. Peggy Eaton was made the "Official Hostess" under Jackson. Samuel Delucenna Ingham (September 16, 1779–June 5, 1860) was a U.S. Congressman and U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Andrew Jackson. ... Gov. ...

References

• The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House by John F. Marszalek ISBN 0-8071-2634-9
• The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini ISBN 0-06-093735-1

Robert V. Remini (b. ...

See also

• Kitchen Cabinet
• Political scandals of the United States

The Kitchen Cabinet was an informal group of unofficial advisers that U.S. President Andrew Jackson consulted in place of his official Cabinet. ... This article provides a list of major political scandals of the United States. ...

External links

• Andrew Jackson and the Tavern-Keeper's Daughter
• Andrew Jackson on the Web : Petticoat Affair
• Andrew Jackson's 'Petticoat Affair' by J. Kingston Pierce, American History (June 1999)