John Eaton (politician)
American politician and diplomat from Tennesse
1790 CE to 1856 CE
John Henry Eaton (June 18, 1790 – November 17, 1856) is an American politician and diplomat from Tennessee who served as U.S. Senator and as Secretary of War in the administration of Andrew Jackson.
He is twenty-eight years old when he enters the Senate, making him the youngest U.S. Senator in history.
Eaton is a lawyer in Tennessee who becomes part of a network that supported the political campaigns of Andrew Jackson.
He also serves in the militia as a major, and during the War of 1812 becomes an aide to Jackson; Eaton serves with Jackson in all his wartime campaigns and battles, including the Battle of New Orleans.
After serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1815 and 1816, in 1818 Eaton is elected to the United States Senate, though he has not yet reached the constitutionally mandated age of thirty.
Following Jackson's election to the presidency in 1828, Eaton resigns his Senate seat to join Jackson's cabinet as Secretary of War.
Eaton and his wife Peggy become the focus of controversy during Jackson's first term; in the so-called Petticoat affair, Washington's society wives refuse to socialize with the Eatons.
The wives of the vice president, cabinet members, and members of Congress look down on Peggy because of the circumstances of her marriage to Eaton; they had wed shortly after the death of her first husband, without waiting for the usual mourning period, giving rise to rumors that she had been unfaithful to her first husband before his death.
Eaton resigns as Secretary of War as part of a strategy to resolve the controversy; he later receives appointments as Governor of Florida Territory and U.S. Minister to Spain.
Upon returning to the United States in 1840, Eaton refuses to endorse incumbent Martin Van Buren for reelection to the presidency, angering Jackson.
In retirement, Eaton resides Washington.
He dies there in 1856, and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.
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The treaty cedes about eleven million acres (forty-five thousand square kilometers) of the Choctaw Nation in what is now Mississippi in exchange for about fifteen million acres (sixty-one thousand square kilometers) in the Indian territory, now the state of Oklahoma.
The principal Choctaw negotiators are Chief Greenwood LeFlore, Musholatubbee, and Nittucachee; the U.S. negotiators are Colonel John Coffee and Secretary of War John Eaton.
The site of the signing of this treaty is in the southwest corner of Noxubee County; the site is known to the Choctaw as Bok Chukfi Ahilha (creek "bok" rabbit "chukfi" place to dance "a+hilha" or Dancing Rabbit Creek).
The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek is the last major land cession treaty signed by the Choctaw.
With ratification by the U.S. Congress in 1831, the treaty will allow those Choctaw who choose to remain in Mississippi to become the first major non-European ethnic group to gain recognition as U.S. citizens.
On August 25, 1830, the Choctaw were supposed to meet with Andrew Jackson in Franklin, Tennessee, but Greenwood Leflore had informed the Secretary of War, John H. Eaton, that the chiefs were fiercely opposed to attending.
Jackson appointed Eaton and General John Coffee as commissioners to represent him to meet the Choctaws.
The commissioners met with the chiefs and headmen on September 15, 1830, at Dancing Rabbit Creek.
In a carnival-like atmosphere, the U.S. officials explained the policy of removal through interpreters to an audience of six thousand men, women and children.
The Choctaws faced migration west of the Mississippi River or submitting to U.S. and state law as citizens.
The treaty will sign away the remaining traditional homeland to the United States; however, a provision in the treaty makes removal more acceptable.
The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek is one of the largest land transfers ever signed between the United States Government and Native Americans in a time of peace.
The Choctaw cede their remaining traditional homeland to the United States.
Article 14 allows for some Choctaw to remain in the state of Mississippi, if they want to become citizens:
Fort King is reopened.
Former secretary of war John Eaton had been appointed governor of the Territory of Florida in 1834, and in April of that year, the United States Senate had finally ratified the Treaty of Payne's Landing, which had given the Seminoles three years to move west of the Mississippi.
The government interprets the three years as starting in 1832 and expects the Seminoles to move in 1835.
Duncan Lamont Clinch, brevetted to the rank of Brigadier General in 1829 and now called to quell the Seminole uprising once again, had also warned Washington that the Seminoles do not intend to move and that more troops would be needed to force them to move.
Clinch's stand against the Seminoles during the First Seminole War had endeared him to slave owners in Georgia, who had been afraid that the fortified position knoen as the Negro Fort might attract runaway slaves.
Hearing that slaves and Indians were fortifying positions along West Florida rivers, Clinch had secured a forward position with his men, provisioned the site, then waited as a naval force moved up the Appalachacola River to find the slaves and Indians.
When the stronghold was discovered, the gunboats had opened fire and quickly hit the magazine.
The resulting explosion had destroyed the fort and killed most of the inhabitants.
In his letter, Jackson says, "Should you ... refuse to move, I have then directed the Commanding officer to remove you by force."
The chiefs ask for thirty days to respond.
Thompson and the chiefs begin arguing, and General Clinch has to intervene to prevent bloodshed.
Eventually, eight of the chiefs agree to move west but ask to delay the move until the end of the year, and Thompson and Clinch agree.
...Madrid.
In response, Maria Christina, as regent for her daughter Isabella II, restores the Constitution of 1812 and appoints a progressive ministry on August 10, 1836.
Florida Territorial governor John Eaton becomes ambassador to Spain in this year.