Eaton Affair

The Eaton Affair

Any congregation located so near the seat of national power can expect at some point in its existence to encounter the intermingling of congregational and national politics.  Perhaps this was no more likely than during the period from 1825 to 1830, when Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson attended the Second Presbyterian Church, one of the two churches that merged to form the New York Avenue Church some 30 years after.  In 1830, a situation occurred that led to the resignation of the entire Jackson cabinet, the eventual replacement of the Vice President, and the departure of President Jackson and the Senior Minister from the Second Church.  It has been called the Eaton Affair.

President Jackson's Secretary of War was John Eaton.  Mr. Eaton became enamored with Peggy O'Neale, the daughter of a Georgetown innkeeper and wife of a Navy burser.  When Ms. O'Neale's husband committed suicide, the President recommended that Eaton marry her.  In Jackson's words, "Your marrying her will disprove these charges [of infidelity], and restore Peggy's good name."  The marriage did not produce the desired effect.  Social Washington blackballed Mrs. Eaton, and the ringleader of the blackballers was Mrs. Calhoun, wife of John C. Calhoun, the Vice President.  Although he disavowed interest in the snubbing, the Vice President was reportedly resentful of the close political ties of the President and his Secretary of War.  Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun also attended the Second Church, and so the political upheaval was manifested in congregational upheaval.

Neither the President nor Social Washington would back down in the battle of wills.  Only Martin Van Buren, a widower [who also occasionally attended Second Church], and the British and Russian ministers, both bachelors, attended White House parties in honor of Mrs. Eaton.  When clergymen criticized the Eatons, Jackson invited them to a cabinet meeting to discuss the subject.  Subsequently, the President left the Second Church after denouncing its minister, the Reverend John N. Campbell, for repeating the story that, prior to their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Eaton had been seen together at lunch in Philadelphia without a chaperone.  Not long thereafter Reverend Campbell resigned as Pastor of Second Church, whereupon President Jackson wrote the Clerk of Session, "I take pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of your letter of yesterday as it affords me an opportunity of expressing my concurrence with the results of the election in the Second Presbyterian Church to supply the place of Mr. Campbell."

Finally, Secretary of State Van Buren arrived at a stratagem to break the impasse.  He persuaded Eaton to resign from the cabinet, and then he did so himself.  The rest of the cabinet followed suit.  Jackson named Eaton Governor of the Florida Territory and Van Buren Minister to England.  In 1832, Van Buren replaced Calhoun as Jackson's Vice President, and in 1837 he was elected the next President.

Information from Paul F. Boller, Jr.
Presidential Anecdotes
New York: Oxford University Press, 1981;
ane Frank E. Edgington.
A History of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church
Washington. 1962.