Editing John C. Calhoun (section)

===Petticoat affair===
{{main|Petticoat affair}}
Early in Jackson's administration, Calhoun's wife Floride Bonneau Calhoun organized Cabinet wives (hence the term "petticoats") against [[Peggy Eaton]], wife of Secretary of War [[John Eaton (politician)|John Eaton]], and refused to associate with her. They alleged that John and Peggy Eaton had engaged in an adulterous affair while she was still legally married to her first husband, and that her recent behavior was unladylike. The allegations of scandal created an intolerable situation for Jackson. The Petticoat affair ended friendly relations between Calhoun and Jackson.{{sfn|Marszalek|2000|p=84}}

Jackson sided with the Eatons. He and his late wife [[Rachel Jackson|Rachel Donelson]] had undergone similar political attacks stemming from their marriage in 1791. The two had married in 1791 not knowing that Rachel's first husband, Lewis Robards, had failed to finalize the expected divorce. Once the divorce was finalized, they married legally in 1794, but the episode caused a major controversy, and was used against him in the 1828 campaign. Jackson saw attacks on Eaton stemming ultimately from the political opposition of Calhoun, who had failed to silence his wife's criticisms. The Calhouns were widely regarded as the chief instigators.<ref name="Floride Bonneau Colhoun Calhoun" /><ref>{{cite news|url=http://thehermitage.com/learn/andrew-jackson/family/rachel/ |title=Rachel Jackson |newspaper=The Hermitage |access-date=August 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817072639/http://thehermitage.com/learn/andrew-jackson/family/rachel/ |archive-date=August 17, 2016 }}</ref> Jackson, who loved to personalize disputes,{{sfn|Remini|1981|pp=14–15}} also saw the Petticoat affair as a direct challenge to his authority, because it involved lower-ranking executive officials and their wives seeming to contest his ability to choose whomever he wanted for his cabinet.{{sfn|Bates|2015|p=315}} Secretary of State [[Martin Van Buren]], a widower, took Jackson's side and defended the Eatons.{{sfn|McKellar|1942|p=151}} Van Buren was a northerner and a supporter of the 1828 tariff (which Calhoun bitterly opposed). Calhoun and Van Buren were the main contenders for the vice-presidential nomination in the ensuing election, and the nominee would then presumably be the party's choice to succeed Jackson.{{sfn|Remini|1981|p=243}} That Van Buren sided with the Eatons, in addition to disagreements between Jackson and Calhoun on other issues, mainly the [[Nullification Crisis]], marked him as Calhoun's likely vice presidential successor.{{sfn|Howe|2007|pp=337–339}}

Some historians, including Jackson biographers Richard B. Latner and [[Robert V. Remini]], believe that the hostility towards the Eatons was rooted less in questions of proper behavior than in politics. Eaton had been in favor of the Tariff of Abominations. He was also politically close to Van Buren. Calhoun may have wanted to expel Eaton from the cabinet as a way of boosting his anti-tariff agenda and increasing his standing in the Democratic Party. Many cabinet members were Southern and could be expected to sympathize with such concerns, especially Treasury Secretary [[Samuel D. Ingham]], who was allied with Calhoun and believed that he, not Van Buren, should succeed Jackson as president.{{sfn|Remini|1981|p=243}}

In 1830, reports had emerged accurately stating that Calhoun, as Secretary of War, had favored censuring Jackson for his 1818 invasion of Florida. These infuriated Jackson.{{sfn|Cheathem|2008|p=29}} Eventually, Lewis decided to reveal the existence of Forsyth's letter, and on April 30, Crawford wrote a second letter, this time to Forsyth, repeating the charge Forsyth represented him as having previously made. Jackson received the letter on May 12, which confirmed his suspicions. He claimed that Calhoun had "betrayed" him.{{sfn|Remini|1981|pp=242–243}} Eaton took his revenge on Calhoun. For reasons unclear, Calhoun asked Eaton to approach Jackson about the possibility of Calhoun publishing his correspondence with Jackson at the time of the Seminole War. Eaton did nothing, leading Calhoun to believe that Jackson had approved the publication of the letters.{{sfn|Remini|1981|pp=306–307}} Calhoun published them in the ''United States Telegraph,'' a newspaper edited by a Calhoun protégé, [[Duff Green]].<ref name="John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President (1825–1832)"/> This gave the appearance of Calhoun trying to justify himself against a conspiracy to damage him and further enraged the President.{{sfn|Remini|1981|pp=306–307}}

Finally in the spring of 1831, at the suggestion of Van Buren, who, like Jackson, supported the Eatons, Jackson replaced all but one of his Cabinet members, thereby limiting Calhoun's influence. Van Buren began the process by resigning as Secretary of State, facilitating Jackson's removal of others. Van Buren thereby grew in favor with Jackson, while the rift between the President and Calhoun was widened.{{sfn|Marszalek|2000|p=121}} Later, in 1832, Calhoun, as vice president, cast a tie-breaking vote against Jackson's nomination of Van Buren as [[United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom|Minister to Great Britain]] in a failed attempt to end Van Buren's political career. Missouri Senator [[Thomas Hart Benton (politician)|Thomas Hart Benton]], a staunch supporter of Jackson, then stated that Calhoun had "elected a Vice President", as Van Buren was able to move past his failed nomination as Minister to Great Britain and instead gain the Democratic Party's vice-presidential nomination in the [[1832 United States presidential election|1832 election]], in which he and Jackson were victorious.<ref name="John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President (1825–1832)" />