American Lion

by Jon Meacham

  73 The cost of the destruction Remini, Jackson, II, 178.

  74 In a long letter to her sister EDT, I, 177–79.

  75 “After the inauguration” Ibid., 177.

  76 “The crowd” Ibid.

  77 “the reign of King Mob” Miles, “The First People’s Inaugural—1829,” 305.

  78 gown of amber satin EDT, I, 171.

  79 James A. Hamilton … recalled being struck Hamilton, Reminiscences, 68.

  80 “Tired as he was that night” EDT, I, 171.

  81 a small dinner Coit, John C. Calhoun, 198; see also Poore, Perley’s Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, 95.

  82 Calhoun was one of his companions Coit, John C. Calhoun, 198.

  83 he and Mrs. Calhoun joined Emily and Andrew Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 13.

  84 the assembly hall Hunt, ed., First Forty Years of Washington Society, 210, calls Carusi’s a “large elegant assembly room.”

  85 at C and Eleventh streets Miles, “The First People’s Inaugural—1829,” 307. The dance floor was “tastefully and appropriately” decorated. (Miles’s sources were the United States Telegraph of March 9, 1829, and the New York Enquirer of March 10, 1829.) It had been advertised in advance as a “splendid ball” (Washington Telegraph, February 24, 1829); tickets were five dollars each, and organizers promised that “Police officers will be stationed at every necessary point to preserve the most rigid order” (Washington Telegraph, March 3, 1829).

  86 Calhoun was the central figure Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 15.

  87 was about three months pregnant Emily delivered her second child on August 31, 1829.

  88 “You know best, my dear” Laura Carter Holloway, The Ladies of the White House (New York, Cincinnati and Chicago, 1870), 335.

  89 a place where Jackson sat in a rocking chair Jessie Benton Frémont, Souvenirs of My Time (Boston, 1887), 88–90.

  90 liked to “keep me by him” Ibid., 88.

  91 hope to be excused Ibid.

  92 “restless and fretful” Wharton, Social Life in the Early Republic, 262.

  93 “Madam, you dance with the grace” Holloway, The Ladies of the White House, 336.

  94 “Why, Major” Parton, Life, III, 180.

  95 “Eaton was altogether” Amos Kendall to Francis Preston Blair, March 7, 1829, Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

  96 Born in Halifax County “Eaton, John Henry (1790–1856),” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000024.

  97 served in the War of 1812 Lorman A. Ratner, Andrew Jackson and His Tennessee Lieutenants (Westpoint, Conn., 1997), 84.

  98 married Myra Lewis Ibid.

  99 Eaton stepped in Remini, Jackson, I, 323–24.

  100 served as a U.S. senator “Eaton, John Henry (1790–1856),” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000024.

  101 defended Jackson in the Washington debate Arda S. Walker, “John Henry Eaton, Apostate,” East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 24 (1952), 27.

  102 and he wrote TPA, 14. See also Robert P. Hay “The Case for Andrew Jackson in 1824: Eaton’s ‘Wyoming Letters,’ ” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 29 (Summer 1970), 139–51.

  103 the daughter of a Washington innkeeper Ibid., 22.

  104 lived at the O’Neales’ TPA, 22–23.

  105 In the years before their wedding Amos Kendall to Francis Preston Blair, March 7, 1829, Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

  106 “there has been a good deal of discontent” Emily Donelson to Mary Donelson Coffee, March 27, 1829, Andrew Jackson Donelson Papers, LOC.

  107 “Her form, of medium height” Queena Pollack, Peggy Eaton: Democracy’s Mistress (New York, 1931), 81. Pollack’s book is an admiring portrait and spirited defense of Margaret Eaton.

  108 Her first husband, John Timberlake TPA, 42–44. See also Parton, Life, III, 185.

  109 despondent over her unfaithfulness Pollack, Peggy Eaton, 75.

  110 alleged to have become pregnant TPA, 93–94.

  111 She reportedly passed a man Papers, VII, 102. See also Pollack, Peggy Eaton, 89–90.

  112 pregnant by Eaton Margaret Eaton, The Autobiography of Peggy Eaton (New York, 1932), 80.

  113 said to have registered TPA, 79.

  114 “I suppose I must have been” Ibid., 5.

  115 “I was a lively girl” Ibid., 11.

  116 “The fact is” Ibid., 14.

  117 “It must be remembered” Ibid., 24.

  118 “Just let a little common sense” Ibid., 34.

  119 “Why, yes, Major” Parton, Life, III, 185.

  120 When Eaton said Ibid.

  121 “Well, your marrying her” Ibid.

  122 “I will sink or swim” Hamilton, Reminiscences, 102.

  123 “The ladies here” Emily Donelson to Mary Donelson Coffee, March 27, 1829, Andrew Jackson Donelson Papers, LOC.

  124 “The whole will be traced” Correspondence, IV, 227.

  125 “It is odd enough” Poore, Perley’s Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, 125.

  126 “trivial Things” Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (New York, 1902), 13.

  Chapter 5: Ladies’ Wars Are Always Fierce and Hot

  1 Frightened by a spate of sickness Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, I, 340–41.

  2 the year before Ibid., 343.

  3 had given up their Georgetown mansion Ibid., 343.

  4 Oakly (later known as Dumbarton Oaks) Ibid., 269. The Calhouns had bought the house, which sits high atop Rock Creek, in 1823.

  5 the Calhouns took lodgings PJCC, XI, 435.

  6 well known and high toned Washington Evening Star, February 18, 1884.

  7 came to pay a call My version of the Eatons’ call at the Calhouns is drawn from several sources. See Coit, John C. Calhoun, 198–99; Eaton, Autobiography of Peggy Eaton, 54–55; Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 28–29; and TPA, 53–54. In a public letter published on September 15, 1831, John Eaton claimed that the Calhouns made the first social overture, calling on the Eatons while the Eatons were honeymooning. In her Autobiography, Margaret goes on at some length about this, asserting that her father showed a “foolish gratification” at the visit and that a nurse then attending her sister knew and recognized Floride. Calhoun explicitly denied this, and my guess is that the Calhouns’ version of events is probably the truth of the matter: an early visit from the secretary of war and his wife to the vice president and his wife, which would have been customary since the vice president was the higher ranking official, makes more sense. See Eaton, Autobiography of Peggy Eaton, 54–55.

  8 “You could not fail to love and appreciate” Wharton, Social Life in the Early Republic, 192. The friend was Mrs. William Seaton.

  9 Diminutive but powerful This is a common verdict about Mrs. Calhoun’s nature. See, for instance, TPA, 54, and Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 28.

  10 “suspicious and fault-finding temper” Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 164.

  11 Each summer her family had climbed into a beautiful coach Coit, John C. Calhoun, 32.

  12 after a quarrel Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 164.

  13 “As to the suspicion” Ibid.

  14 had long been “the cause” Ibid.

  15 felt a disparity Coit, John C. Calhoun, 198. A more personal biographer than Wiltse, Coit writes of Calhoun: “He was not under the control of his wife. No one ever controlled John C. Calhoun. But neither did anyone, least of all her husband, control Floride Bonneau Calhoun.”

  16 the vice president was out PJCC, XI, 476.

  17 the servant had failed Ibid.

  18 “She of course treated them” Ibid.

  19 “The relation which Mrs. Eaton bore” Ibid.

  20 She made her dec
ision overnight Ibid.

  21 his scholarly interests Nevins, ed., Diary of John Quincy Adams, xiii.

  22 “much scandalized” Diary of John Quincy Adams, February 26, 1829, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  23 the vice president “forsooth was” John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, April 28, 1830, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  24 Floride gave “public notice” Ibid.

  25 “War is declared” Louisa Catherine Adams to Charles Francis Adams, January 24, 1830, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  26 his first evening in Washington Remini, Jackson, II, 192–93.

  27 just one candle burning AMVB, 232. 72 thought Jackson’s health “poor” Ibid.

  28 “The cast of the Cabinet” Ibid., 340.

  29 “partook largely of this feeling” Ibid., 341.

  30 Small in stature Widmer, Martin Van Buren, 2.

  31 son of a tavern keeper “Life Before the Presidency,” American President: An Online Reference Resource, Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/vanburen/essays/biography/2.

  32 guests included Alexander Hamilton Ibid.

  33 A careful dresser Widmer, Martin Van Buren, 28.

  34 “the planters of the South” Ibid., 56.

  35 “You might as well” Martin Van Buren to C. C. Camberling, December 17, 1828, Martin Van Buren Papers, LOC.

  36 cutting his arm Parton, Life, III, 63–64. See also Goff, “A Physical Profile of Andrew Jackson,” 307–8.

  37 “a calamitous event” Bernard Mayo, ed., “Henry Clay, Patron and Idol of White Sulphur Springs: His Letters to James Caldwell,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 55 (October, 1947), 306. 73 Jackson himself to be “feeble” Ibid.

  38 “We must never forget” PHC, VIII, 87–88.

  39 “Disguise it as we may” Richard B. Latner, “The Eaton Affair Reconsidered,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 36 (Fall 1977), 334.

  40 “A display there” David R. Williams to Martin Van Buren, November 17, 1829, Martin Van Buren Papers, LOC.

  41 James Parton looked back Parton, Life, III, 287.

  42 “If I had a tit for every one of these pigs” Correspondence, IV, 21.

  43 Jackson’s interpretation of the Eaton affair The best summary of the historical debate over the political causes and effects of the Eaton affair is found in Latner, “The Eaton Affair Reconsidered,” 330–51, and Professor Latner was kind enough to discuss the matter with me. Jackson believed Margaret a good woman, but he also knew that the battle was as much about the mammon of office, salary, influence, and political control as it was about the sexual morality of Margaret Eaton. When Eaton’s appointment to the Cabinet had been announced, a delegation of rival Tennessee congressmen—the state was riven with feuding political factions, and Jackson and Eaton represented just one of several—tried to stop it, infuriating Jackson, who ascribed their hostility to the fact that Eaton would now control patronage in the expansive War Department. Always vigilant for any hint that Clay, his rival from the West, might be meddling, Jackson decided that the anti-Eaton party was being encouraged by the departing Clay and his allies. For the strongest pro-Calhoun, anti–Van Buren case, see Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II; for the strongest anti-Calhoun, pro–Van Buren case, see, unsurprisingly, AMVB.

  44 Cultural interpretations of the Eaton affair Kirsten Wood, “ ‘One Woman So Dangerous to Public Morals’: Gender and Power in the Eaton Affair,” Journal of the Early Republic 17 (Summer 1997), 237–75; Catherine Allgor, Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government (Charlottesville, Va., 274), 198–238; and Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 335–42.

  45 “sink with honor to my grave” Correspondence, IV, 31.

  46 Jackson heard allegations Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Bank War, 49–50.

  47 John McLean … wrote Nicholas Biddle Nicholas Biddle, The Correspondence of Nicholas Biddle, Dealing with National Affairs, 1807–1844 (Boston, 1919), 63–64. The letter from McLean to Biddle was dated January 5, 1829 (ibid., 63).

  48 Even if, he said, “the impression” Ibid., 64.

  49 In naming directors, Biddle told McLean Ibid., 70. Biddle’s reply was dated January 11, 1829.

  50 “Being friendly to the Bank myself” Ibid., 64.

  51 Born in Vermont in 1781 For my portrait of Evarts and his work, I drew on: John Andrew, From Revivals to Removal (Athens, Ga., 1992); Evarts Family Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University; and E. C. Tracy, Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts (Whitefish, Mont., 2007).

  52 the college was suffused Andrew, From Revivals to Removal, 17–19.

  53 “In whatever sphere” Ibid., 14.

  54 referred to as “religious enthusiasts” Correspondence, IV, 483.

  55 “Gentlemen, do what you please” Parton, Life, III, 641.

  56 “My dear, if I were to do it now” Ibid., 101.

  57 “I have not seen” Andrew, From Revivals to Removal, 179.

  58 watched the stirrings of nullification Papers, VI, 476.

  59 “There is nothing that I shudder at more” Ibid.

  60 “The South Carolinians get nothing” Amos Kendall to Francis Preston Blair, March 7, 1829, Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

  61 “Some foundation there must be” Louisa Catherine Adams to John Quincy Adams, September 27, 1829, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  62 “Clay and his minions” Correspondence, IV, 15.

  63 “these satellites of Clay” Ibid., 31.

  64 “we must submit” PJCC, XI, 17.

  65 said to be “not friendly” Ibid., 31.

  66 states’ rights elements in South Carolina Latner, “The Eaton Affair Reconsidered,” 347.

  67 “Eaton and others” Ibid.

  68 troubled Calhoun Ibid.

  69 “To please Uncle” Emily Donelson to Mary Donelson Coffee, March 27, 1829, Andrew Jackson Donelson Papers, LOC.

  70 “I think if Eaton” Ibid.

  71 he had been Donelson’s chaperone Cheathem, Old Hickory’s Nephew, 15.

  72 “I think as Uncle wanted” Emily Donelson to Mary Donelson Coffee, March 27, 1829, Andrew Jackson Donelson Papers, LOC.

  73 women such as Floride Allgor, Parlor Politics, 202.

  74 “I am prepared” Wood, “ ‘One Woman So Dangerous to Public Morals’: Gender and Power in the Eaton Affair,” 252.

  75 speak of Emily as “a poor, silly thing” Heiskell, AJETH, III, 330.

  76 “I was quite as independent” Ibid.

  77 “For God knows” James Hamilton, Jr., to Martin Van Buren, July 16, 1829, Martin Van Buren Papers, LOC.

  78 At Gadsby’s Hotel one morning Papers, VII, 102. See also Pollack, Peggy Eaton, 89–90.

  79 “Mrs. Eaton brushed by me” Ibid. Ely’s report is secondhand—as were so many of the stories told of Margaret Eaton.

  80 “I’ve just returned from Mr. Clay’s” Edward Bates to Julia Bates, December 4, 18[29], Edward Bates Papers, Virginia Historical Society.

  81 “hard-featured” Ibid.

  82 “Of course, there is no getting along” Ibid.

  83 On Sunday, March 8, 1829 Hunt, ed., First Forty Years of Washington Society, 299.

  84 The Smiths had come to Washington Ibid., v–vi.

  85 Clay came to Washington Remini, Henry Clay, 59.

  86 on the square between Pennsylvania Avenue Hunt, ed., First Forty Years of Washington Society, 238.

  87 “the patriot to the patriot” Ibid., 300.

  88 Smith had served as an interim secretary of the Treasury Ibid., vi.

  89 Clay had risen through the Congress “Clay, Henry (1777–1852),” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000482.

  90 The weather outside Ibid., 300. “The weather
without was gloomy, cold and cloudy,” wrote Mrs. Smith, “but the circle around our bright fire was not only cheerful but gay and witty.”

  91 “The characters and administrations” Hunt, ed., First Forty Years of Washington Society, 300.

  92 the dishes were being cleared away Ibid.

  93 “Your father … would not yield” Ibid.

  94 late for Lucretia Ibid., 304. “Altogether,” Mrs. Smith concluded, “this day and evening have been the most interesting that have occurred this winter.”

  95 “the greatest … apprehension” PHC, VIII, 8.

  96 a big Washington wedding Diary of John Quincy Adams, February 22, 1830, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  97 By James Parton’s count Parton, Life, III, 207–8. For a breakdown of Jackson’s removals, see Carl R. Fish, “Removal of Officials by the Presidents of the United States,” Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, 2 vols. (Washington, 1900) 1, 84.

  98 about 919, just under 10 percent Cole, Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 41.

  99 a particularly high number Cole, A Jackson Man, 124.

  100 “At that period” Parton, Life, III, 213.

  101 “A large portion of the population” Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 149.

  102 “They see nothing wrong” Register of Debates in Congress, 22nd Congress, 1st session, VIII, 1833, 1325.

  103 “the Augean Stable” Wilentz, Andrew Jackson, 47.

  104 a “struggle between the virtue” Ellis, Union at Risk, 18.

  105 There was always graft In a revisionist view of what historians long called the Era of Good Feelings, Robert Remini argued that it would be more fitting to call the period after the War of 1812 “the Era of Corruption” (Remini, Jackson, II, 15). Quoting one visitor to Washington in the last months of President Monroe’s administration, Remini captured the prevailing view: “I did, before I came to this city, entertain a most exalted opinion of the high officers of gov’t; but since I have been here it has abated greatly. I find they are not, in reality, quite so good as other men” (ibid., 25). A devastating indictment, really: the Monroe and Adams administrations had more than their share of graft and contentious congressional investigations, and there was a flow of stories about how the Second Bank of the United States, a private institution whose wealth and influence derived from its near monopoly on federal deposits, kept key lawmakers and officials on retainer.