Can someone elucidate, what was DM’s standing during the Peggy Eaton matter? I’m guessing that, although she owned the house on H Street, she spent that time and most of the Jackson Administration in Orange County. Maybe?
I do know that the house she lived and died in on H Street has quite a history. McClellan lived there and I believe it is where the President was sitting in the parlor when Little Mac came home and went upstairs to bed, cutting his commander. Then in 1959 it is where the Mercury astronauts were announced to the public.
Thank you very much. Although the work you recommend is not, that author’s A Perfect Union is available in digital format; I have purchased it and learned:
Thoughtless of me, though I otherwise knew, DM was not a widow until nearly the end of Jackson’s Presidency, and she and her husband spent not only Jackson’s time but Adams’s before it at Montpelier. Dolley was in constant contact with her nieces and others in Washington City for the 15 years or so (at times reporting Capital events second-hand to other correspondents). Of course, she deplored the collapse of civility as the Eaton affair came and went. To be further explored: besides her concern for communal, societal, and national comity, she also experienced a certain reverberation of her own past in Peggy’s predicament.
I got into this series a little late - where can I find all back issues?
You can find them all here: https://inpursuit.substack.com
Can someone elucidate, what was DM’s standing during the Peggy Eaton matter? I’m guessing that, although she owned the house on H Street, she spent that time and most of the Jackson Administration in Orange County. Maybe?
I do know that the house she lived and died in on H Street has quite a history. McClellan lived there and I believe it is where the President was sitting in the parlor when Little Mac came home and went upstairs to bed, cutting his commander. Then in 1959 it is where the Mercury astronauts were announced to the public.
I don't quite remember what Dolley was up to during the Eaton controversy, but Catherine Allgor writes about both women and the Eaton matter in "Parlor Politics" https://bookshop.org/p/books/parlor-politics-in-which-the-ladies-of-washington-help-build-a-city-and-a-government-catherine-allgor/3f324d75ab099711?aid=120828&ean=9780813921181&listref=books-by-in-pursuit-authors&next=t
Thank you very much. Although the work you recommend is not, that author’s A Perfect Union is available in digital format; I have purchased it and learned:
Thoughtless of me, though I otherwise knew, DM was not a widow until nearly the end of Jackson’s Presidency, and she and her husband spent not only Jackson’s time but Adams’s before it at Montpelier. Dolley was in constant contact with her nieces and others in Washington City for the 15 years or so (at times reporting Capital events second-hand to other correspondents). Of course, she deplored the collapse of civility as the Eaton affair came and went. To be further explored: besides her concern for communal, societal, and national comity, she also experienced a certain reverberation of her own past in Peggy’s predicament.
Again, thanks very much.
It’s my pleasure, happy reading!
"that depended on virtuous legislators..." It seems like such a distant time.