What is the petticoat affair?

Answer 1

The Petticoat Affair involved Andrew Jackson, his Secretary of War John Eaton, and Eaton's second wife, Margaret O'Neill Timberlake Eaton. She was from the lower class, Irish and was raised in her father's Washington boarding house. From birth, she personally knew senators, congressman, ambassadors and supreme court judges. She felt she owned Washington and knew more about the government than anyone. When her first husband was at sea, she was seen everywhere in the company of John Eaton, a rich widower from Tennessee and was banned from society. When her husband died, she quickly married Eaton. When Jackson then made Eaton Secretary of War, Peggy became the second highest ranked woman in Washington society. The women of Washington shunned her, which caused the Petticoat Affair that lasted for two years and ended up with Jackson firing his entire cabinet, and the Sec of War chasing the Sec of the Treasury with loaded weapons and intent to kill.

See "The Breath of Suspicion" on kindle. It's a well documented historical novel on the affair.