Secetary of War in Jackson's Cabinet, March 9, 1829 to June 18, 1831; United States Senator from Tennessee 1818-1829; Governor of Florida 1834-1836; Minister to Spain 1836-1840. See Chapters 13 and 22. CHAPTER 22. Appeal to the public in 1831 by Major John H. Eaton in reply to Messrs. Ingham, Branch and Berrien in the Peggy O'Neal Eaton controversy. A carefully prepared defense of his wife, whose character had been made a political issue. "It is with extreme reluctance that I appear before the public upon a subject purely of a personal character. To me, nothing could be more painful than the necessity of bringing into discussion, in the newspapers, anything which concerns my private and domestic relations. In civilized society, a man's house is his castle, and the circle of his family a sanctuary never to be violated. He who drags before the public its helpless inmates, and subjects them to rude assaults, deserves to be considered worse than a barbarian. Against those who commit such sacrilege, and shun an honorable accountability, the public will justify an appeal, which, under other circumstances, might not be considered admissable. I expect not by this effort to silence those who have been assailing all that is dear to me. It may open afresh the fountains of their abuse. It is probable, that the very remorse and shame which an accurately drawn picture may produce, will excite my persecutors to raise clouds of fresh calumnies to break upon me with redoubled fury. Let it all come! My head is uncovered, and my bosom bare. "There is another consideration which would seem to impose silence. These are times of angry political contest, unsuited to dispassionate inquiry. Already have the enemies of the President made use of my private relations to injure and harrass him. In attempting to represent him as devoting his thoughts and his power to further my views and wishes, they seek to blind the people to the principles and acts of his administration. They will doubtless seize even upon my humble efforts at self-vindication as means of promoting that design, seriously calculating by their machinations, that the people of the United States may be wrought into a tempest of passion,' and thus induced to forget the signal success of his foreign negotiations, and the unparalleled prosperity and happiness which, under his administration, our country enjoys. "But to all these consequences I submit myself with entire resignation. A portion of the community will at least do me justice. They will perceive that the President is in no need of any developments from me to give proofs of his integrity, and that it is not for his sake that I present myself before the public. It is a paramount duty which I owe to myself and to my family, and which shall be performed. Others may conceive, but I cannot describe, the pain those attacks have inflicted. It was indeed enough that I was assailed in private circles, while I was in office; but retiring from its labors, with a view to sit down at my own home, in Tennessee, it was but a reasonable expectation to indulge, that I might escape a repetition of these assaults, and be permitted to enjoy my fireside and friends in peace. But instead of putting an end to this unfeeling war, my resignation served to make my enemies more bold. What before was whispered in dark corners, now glared in the columns of the newspapers. Men who had been my friends, who had received favors at my hands, who had partaken of the hospitalities of my house, and given pledges of friendship at my own board, became my deadliest enemies, while I still confided in them. I sought that redress which wrongs so wanton and deadly provoked, and which public opinion, under such circumstances, has always justified. It was refused in a way which added insult to injury; and I was then accused, by one of the malignant calumniators, as having sought revenge at the head of a band of assassins. Not satisified with privately injuring me in my own, and the honor of my household, and shrinking from an honorable and just account-. ability, these persons have, one after another, come before the public, to give countenance and sanction to the calumnies of a reckless press. Mr. Ingham, Mr. Branch, and Mr. Berrien, with evident concert, and deliberate design, by filling the country with erroneous and discolored statements, and substituting falsehood for truth, have sought to consummate the ruin which their conduct in office so insidiously began. "What can I do? What course adopt? There are persons committed to my charge who are dear to me. I am their only protector. Shall I see them worse than murdered, by men who claim the polish and the culture of civilized life, and not lift my hand and my voice for their rescue? These gentlemen express a desire to preserve their characters, as a precious inheritance for their children. Is the good name of a mother, of less value to her orphan daughters? Did they forget, that she whom so relentlessly they pursue, and who in nothing ever wronged them, has two innocent little children, whose father lies buried on a foreign shore? Had these little ones ever injured them? Were they and their mother so much in the way of these gentlemen, that in their malignity they should consent to sap the foundation of their future prospects in life? Had they no remorse, in conspiring and seeking to rob them of all that villany and fraud had left them, the inheritance of a mother's good name? And if they could be stimulated in their addresses to the public, by the desire of transmitting to their children a spotless honor and unsullied name, what might not be expected of me, in defense of the slandered wife of my bosom, and her helpless, unprotected children? Attacks on myself, I disregard. A man's character is in his own hands; in his bosom he knows how to protect it. It is by his own acts only, that he can be degraded. Not so with a female. The innocent and the guilty alike, the envenomed tongue of slander may reach and destroy. It is a withering blast, which can blight the sweetest rose, as well as the most noisome weed. "Although I expect nothing at the hands of those who can violate the laws of social life, and all the precepts of holy charity;' yet by an exposure of their motives and designs, I may be able to render their future malignity powerless. This induces me to make this appeal to my countrymen, and to their award to trust it. There is in the public mind intuitive honor, a native sense of justice, which revolts at wanton attacks on female character, and in the end will visit the unfeeling assailants with terrible retribution. To these I appeal, and on these rely; not in the hope to silence the malignant and the vindictive, but to make their attacks to recoil upon themselves. "A place in General Jackson's Cabinet, by me, was never desired. My ambition was satisfied with a seat in the Senate which thrice had been kindly bestowed upon me, by my fellow citizens |