A Petti Affair in Washington

Margaret O'Neale Eaton's marriage to Andrew Jackson's Secretary of War, John Henry Eaton, was the first major sexual scandal surrounding an American Executive.

The seventeen year old Margaret O'Neale married thirty-nine year old John Timberlake, a purser in the United States Navy, in 1816, and in 1818, Margaret was introduced to an up and coming young Tennessee Senator by the name of John Henry Eaton. John was the youngest United States Senator to ever be elected, being only twenty-eight years old upon taking the oath of office. Senator Eaton was boarding at at small tavern in Washington known as the "Franklin House" owned by Margaret's father.

It was during his stay here that John Timberlake and John Eaton were first acquainted. At some point Senator Eaton found out about Timberlake's rising financial debts. Senator Eaton vehemently tried to assist Timberlake by presenting petitions in Congress. The first petition brought before the Senate was by the Hon. Thomas Hill Williams of Mississippi on December 28,1818, presumably concocted by Eaton himself but presented by Williams. The petition was referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs but was tabled. Senator Eaton brought the next petition on March 1, 1820, and it was referred to the same committee and was withdrawn before the close of the session. After several other petitions, the claims to help recover Timberlake's debts were severally denied.

John Timberlake was forced back to sea due to being unable to recover his debts and was at sea when he reportedly committed suicide, presumably due to his defrauding the United States government to cover up debts incurred by his wife. The scuttlebutt around Washington was that Margaret Timberlake was actively demonstrating a rumor concerning her sexual habits by having an illicit relationship with Senator John H. Eaton. The rumor abounded when, on January 1, 1829, John H. Eaton and Margaret O'Neale Timberlake married. Prior to their nuptials, John Eaton approached his long time friend and confidant, the newly elected President of the United States, Andrew Jackson and asked his opinion on the matter of marriage. The president-elect gave the couple his blessing, which was exactly what Eaton wanted to hear. Louis McLane, a Senator from Delaware and future Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson, quipped, "Eaton has just married his mistress and the mistress of eleven doz.others" (McLane to James A. Bayard, February 19,1829, Bayard Papers, L.C.)...to be continued...